Casual games steal midcore's clothes as Candy Blast Mania adds PVP Puzzle Tournaments

Storm8 is turning its casual match-3 game, Candy Blast Mania, into a more competitive experience thanks to the introduction of Puzzle Tournaments.

These tournaments will allow five players to take on the same puzzle at the same time, replaying it as many times as they like in a 30-minute window to see who can score the most points.

Winning these tournaments earns players Tournament Points, which are tracked on leaderboards and can lead to players winning huge in-game prizes, such as unlimited energy.

Whatever works

It's a unique move for the match-3 genre, although the trend of adding more midcore or core gaming mechanics to casual titles is on the rise

The recently released Britney Spears: American Dream, for example, has added a guild-like element called Record Labels which allows players to team up and help each other out in-game.

It's an effective method to use too – after the introduction of guilds in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, the game shot up the grossing charts.