Suit Up is an excellent little match-three game for mobile [Game of the Week]

Suit Up has been one of my go-to mobile games for a while. It’s also been on my list to write about for a long time, but I’ve unfortunately been a little busy. However, now that I’ve got some time, let’s talk about Suit Up!

Developer Mikkel Christiansen describes Suit Up as “solitaire meets match-3,” which is fairly apt. Players get a five-by-three grid of cards (the board) plus a few cards in hand that they can play onto the board. The goal is, of course, to match three, but it’s seldom that simple.

Suit Up puts ‘jobs’ in the top-left corner of the game, which are specific matches players need to make. For example, players might get a job to match three of the same suit of cards, or a job to get a sequence of cards (1, 2, 3). Jobs must be completed in a set number of turns, or players take damage. At the beginning, players get one heart, which means if they fail one job, they lose. However, as you play, you can collect points to spend on upgrades, such as extra lives.

Other upgrades allow players to hold more cards in hand, get more time to complete jobs or even get the ability to clear all jobs on a three-of-a-kind match. Players can also spend the points on additional game modes, such as ‘One Deck’ that limits the game to 52 cards, ‘Fast Mode’ with a timer or ‘Hard Mode’ that adds extra restrictions to make the game more challenging.

Additionally, players can spend points on extra themes for the game that shake up the colours. Personally, I prefer the dark theme for late-night sessions, but all of the themes look great.

However, more than just being a fun little time-waster, Christiansen crafted a game that feels great to play. Most of my time with Suit Up was spent on the iOS version, which makes excellent use of the iPhone’s haptic engine. When you score a match, the game gives you a little nudge with the haptics (and the matched cards explode in a shower of colourful particles). But when you start chaining together matches, it feels really satisfying to get these little buzzes on your phone.

The game also came to Android this summer, but, unfortunately, it isn’t quite as polished. I noticed several bugs and it doesn’t appear to use haptics like on iOS (there is a menu option to turn on haptics, but it didn’t work on the Android devices I tested the game on). Still, the core gameplay is the same, which is enough for me.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the game is free but has ads. I find them more than manageable, however, getting the occasional ad every few games. If you don’t like ads, you can pay an in-app fee (about $4 on iOS and around $5 on Android) to remove them.

You can learn more about Suit Up here or download the game for free on the App Store or Play Store.