Matchmaker – Joining Hearts is a hidden object game from Sugar Games that sees you playing as Helen Jones, a matriarch with a truly romantic soul.  Having successfully paired off her six children, Helen is moving to a resort town to enjoy a quieter life with a seaside view.  However, it’s not long before Helen meets neighbour Tina Griffin and her natural desire to matchmake comes to the forefront again.

Each matchmaking ‘project’ that Helen undertakes includes several stages, including finding out about the single person by searching for objects in their home and doing the same for prospective candidates before comparing traits to see who is most suitable.  You then have to complete another puzzle to check they really are suitable by finding identical objects in the two people’s homes, before preparing a gift (by finding all its components) and setting up the location for their first date.  This latter puzzle takes the form of a sort of reverse hidden object puzzle, where you are given a number of objects and have to find the correct location for them.

The game allows you to play a timed or untimed version; however, I found the time limits given on ‘timed’ to be extremely generous and never came close to running out.  Unlike many hidden object puzzles the game is scored.  You receive increased marks for completing puzzles quickly or finding chains of objects in quick succession; however, you can lose marks by clicking incorrect objects or using hints.

In total there are ten couples to match make and with each lonely heart having up to three potential sweethearts, there are a lot of hidden object puzzles in the game, totalling a fairly large amount of gameplay.  Generally the level of difficulty is reasonable: locations are bright and eyecatching, so objects aren’t impossible to find but obscured views or small sizes can make some objects trickier to locate than others.  Hints are available in abundance but are on a cooldown period and, as stated earlier, you will be penalised for using them when it comes to the score.

In general this is a really nice title with a very sweet twist, which sees you using your hidden object puzzle skills to unite lonely people.  There’s a good range of objects to find and locations to visit, keeping it varied throughout, even though the ‘matchmaking projects’ themselves can be very similar.  Matchmaker – Joining Hearts offers a good length of play and given that it can be bought for just £6.72 from Sugar Games it does represent very good value for money and compares very well to other similar titles on the market.  Perfect for those with a bit of romance in the soul and – if that’s not you – consider yourself warned: this has cupid stamped all over it!

**Review by Donna Haw**