Season Match 3 - Curse of the Witch Crow

A good match-3 style game with plenty of variety and reasonably challenging played in timed mode.

From memory playing season match 1 and 2, 3 is definitely more polished and a better game over all.

The match 3s are interspersed with other "pick up the pieces" screens, and the story line links a couple hundred or more levels. There's also an arcade mode if you're bored with the story.

Game is fine. It's find three more than match 3, which I was interested in since I'm always trying more games that play similar to 4 Elements. I was confused why this had the Hidden Object tag when I buy it but some of the stages you're finding items 'hidden' on the stage. Pretty basic fairy tale story, nothing wrong with that. Some of the art is rather pretty. I appreciate the different "months" designs. I like the other mini games, there's a 'spot the difference' and 'unscramble' along with the find 3 and hidden object. Grab it on sale, spend a few hours with it.

Not your typical match-3 game, which is what I was looking for, but interesting none the less.
Like a lot of these games, it has solid fluff, the background story draws you in.
The game play, however, is simply finding and clicking on groups of three or more, without any swapping of positions which is usually a core game mechanic.
It can still be fun, and so far is pretty casual. There are a few upgrades and power-ups, and I am collecting coins, though I don't know what for yet. I am sure it will tell be soon.
The art is nice, the music pleasant, and the game levels are interspersed with really easy hidden object levels to freshen things up.
While nothing overly exciting, it is an easy thumbs up for anyone looking for a simple, casual game.
It seems to come with an arcade mode which I haven't unlocked, but that seems nice too.
ADDENDUM: One peeve. I was working on a hidden object puzzle, and couldn't find the last item. I used the hint, and it circled absolutely nothing. I clicked on the empty space, and my item was, what, invisible? Irritating.
ADDENDUM: The game portion was fun, and took quite awhile to complete, but the arcade potion, not so much. Very much a grind, and a slow monotonous one at that. Not going to finish it.

Great game play, graphics, SFX and music. Recommended for those who don't need to have plain ole Match 3. It's unique and addictive.

It's a click like crazy match 3 type of game with mini games in between. I enjoy the series. I can't say I play them for the story, because I just enjoy puzzles in general. It's cheap, plenty of hours of play, and well worth the money. The artwork is beautiful, music relaxing, and I like the new characters introduced in this game. I look forward to more in the series!

This wasn’t too bad. It’s a casual game consisting mainly of match-3 puzzles. I liked the background artwork. It’s different from other match-3 games like Bejeweled where you have to swap adjacent tiles to get three in a row. In this game, you don’t swap tiles and groups of three or more do not automatically collapse. You have to click on the groups yourself to activate them and make them collapse. Other puzzles included are hidden objects, spot the difference, and tile-swap jigsaws. So, this game might not be for you if you just want a Bejeweled clone.

This game was made about ten years ago and runs okay under Windows 10, but there is one glitch. When you get to the end, it does not display the ending dialogue. All the achievements do work correctly though, so you will get the achievements for beating the game even if you don’t see the ending dialogue. If you check the forums, there is a way to see the outro text, but it’s only a few lines and it doesn’t really explain much.

Note that this game is part of a series. I thought that the title just indicated that this was a match-3 game, but the witch returns in Season Match 4. I haven’t tried the other games in this series, but they’re probably not that much different.

Season Match 3 is a pretty good Match-3-like game with hidden object puzzles and a few other puzzles and mini-games spliced in-between each level. It's a good time killer for people who enjoy these games.

The way you progress in this game is by completing levels for each month and releasing the Princess/Prince of that month, and once you do that you unlock a special ability from that Princess/Prince.
The game has 2 modes: Story and Arcade.

Please be advised that this is not a Match-3 game as it is traditionally known.
In this game you do not move tiles to match 3(or more), you just click wherever you see that there are 3 or more like ones and they all disappear, so please be aware of that as it actually does make a pretty big difference for a lot of people and I would have to agree that because of that, this game isn't really a Match-3, and more just a puzzle game with a Match-3 style.

This is also a game that a child could definitely enjoy considering the art and music style and the story/writing style. Graphically the game looks very good.
Difficulty wise I'd say it's pretty easy due to it no actually being a true Match-3, and instead you just have to look for places that makes sense click.

I recommend it as a pretty good time-killing puzzle game, or as just a generally good game within its genre to people who enjoy playing the heck out of these games.

Before I played it I read a few reviews, and many people noted upon not being able to complete the hidden object puzzles or having a very difficult time doing it due to resolution issues. For me that wasn't a problem, I'm running it full-screen on a 1920x1080 monitor with no issues, the game looks crisp and everything is visible for me.

Edit:
After completing the entire game and getting 100% achievements I have to say it got a little bit boring towards the end due to no new things(like abilities, special things, etc) happening or being given to the player.

Curator page

Season Match 3: Curse of the Witch Crow (Match-3)

Options include separate sliders for Music and SFX (no voiceovers), Custom Cursor, Show Tips and Full-screen. Easy or Timed Mode (CANNOT be changed once you start playing!)

NOTE: I recommend playing on EASY (non-timed) mode unless you want the challenge of doing things within the time limit. If you don't make it in time, you will lose all of the points you've accumulated on the level and have to start over. There's no achievement for doing things timed in this third game, and you'll make more points overall, so there is no benefit to choosing the harder mode.

The Season Match series are not your standard swap-to-match-3 games. Instead you will click on groups of three or more gems to make your matches.

Simple mechanics, and in theory random clicking will get you matches, but there needs to be strategy involved in order to pass the levels.

There is a Rules section on the intro page that explains everything, but I'll simplify them here:

Story Mode:

Level goals are at the bottom of the screen to the left of the timer with Crow's face on it. (You'll still be timed no matter which mode you choose - you just won't have to replay the level if you're playing on Easy.) Break blocks, collect gems and coins, and collect an artifact on match-3 scenes.

Every other level will be a "hidden object" scene - Find 10 of x-item. These are super-easy, and you'll be able to complete most of them in less than 30 seconds. There is no penalty (or achievement-loss) for using a hint, but it takes a bit to recharge.

There are 12 chapters - one for each month - and at the beginning of each you'll do a spot-the-differences sequence (five each time), and at the end of each chapter you'll assemble a card by clicking two pieces to swap their positions until the puzzle is complete. You can SKIP these, but you'll miss out on the points, and you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT skip the final puzzle-assembly or you will miss the end of the story!

Arcade:

Accessible right from the start, there are seven levels to complete for each of 12 characters - January through November, plus the Snow Queen (don't know why December's is not there.) These need to be completed as quickly as possible, as you'll need to score a "sun" on each of the seven levels to unlock that character's castle.

Spells:

Each character has a spell that can help you achieve your level goals, from converting gems to explosions to slicing game pieces right off the board. Charge the spells to collecting the "gems" the represent the ability.

Coins and Bonuses:

Coins are collected by making matches near them, and can be used to extend the time limit of a level, increase your score, and/or charge a magical artifact so that you can use it more quickly.

There are six types of random bonuses that will appear during gameplay, and like the coins, you use them by making matches near them.

Thoughts:

It's been a year since I played the first two games in the series, but it seems like I enjoyed this one more than the other installments. The storyline is thready at best, but deep beneath it all there was a question that kept me interested.

There are some gorgeous backgrounds, the sounds were done well, and the gameplay is solid. I really liked the unique design of each Month, and enjoyed seeing all of their castles. There are 31 achivements, and it has trading cards, as well.

These games routinely go on sale for 90% off (at Steam), and $0.49 each is an amazing price for these. Recommended!

This third title of the Season Match series by URSE Games and Buka Entertainment features the characters from its earlier title Season Match 2 with the characters from Season Match renamed and there is a new prince or princess for the remaining months in a year, and the Witch Crow herself. The gameplay remains the same where clearing each level requires completing a match 3 or hidden object level in a similar way as its earlier titles. There are also new spot the differences and jigsaw puzzle minigames in this game.

As the third title of the series, it is also the largest with up to 265 levels in both story and arcade mode. The game retains the charm of the series with its casual gameplay, attractive artwork, background music and reasonable achievements. The game continues to have a short amount of monologue from a different character and an artifact in each level in story mode. In arcade mode, after completing 7 levels from each character, the character's domain will appear on the arcade stage selection screen as an improvement over the arcade mode in its earlier titles. Whether as a fan who is looking to collect all the titles of the series, or for anyone looking for a good casual match 3 game that is entertaining and offers very good value for money as a game that offers over 10 hours of gameplay, this game is highly recommended when it is at a very attractive price when discounted to less than a dollar.

Season Match 3 - Curse of the Witch Crow is the weakest game in this series. The first 2 in this series were a lot more fun, this one just seems blah. It does have nice music and the click click click of the mouse works quite well. Recommended if you liked the first 2 and match 3 games.

Without neutral option I lean to not recommended. As a M3. If you're in for idle clickers, you may consider it.

The game would have plenty of potential but it in not used at all -- every hidden object scene is for 10 objects, every matching level plays exactly the same and gets boring fast to chase the common 100% pickaxes, sometimes additionally excess amount of certain gem. The arg and music is okay but you won't get much play value. I decided to drag it throughusing the time points when I want my brains shut down, then forget it.

Season of the Witch 3 is a much better improvement over part 2. It still has those mini games that made part 2 not fun to play (didn't even finish it cause of that). However, unlike Season Match 2, these mini games are quite fun and enjoyable to play through and does not slow game play. An enjoyable experience. Good graphics, music is decent, gameplay is fun. I recommend it.

I love Match-3 games, and I like the kind with minigames (especially hidden objects). This one looked like one of my usual guilty pleasures: glossy album-cover art, modular frame story (collect items to free the personification of each month of the year because A Witch Did It).

Sadly, I overlooked the fact that the core mechanic isn't Match-3, not as we know it.

You don't shuffle or move tiles ("gems"); you just click on where you see 3 or more of them together and all the connected ones disappear. I can't articulate why that's so much less satisfying, but it is. I imagine that other goofy Match-3 people like myself will feel the same and want to be aware of this.

Also, the hidden object minigame is just not possible in windowed mode; there's stuff that gets cropped off on the borders. (It was awfully difficult on fullscreen, too; there's no way to adjust the resolution in-game and by that point I didn't want to bother messing with my display settings).

Way surpassed my expectations! Great graphics, loads of levels, fun minigames and someone actually bothered to make a story to tie it all together, which is cringe worthy but I like that about it. Achievements are clear, despite possibly being slightly grindy. My favorite aspect is definetly the variation in "special abilities" unlocked per character. It's well worth the price, I can't think of a single drawback.

There is at least one game breaking bug.

When it loads, before it even gets to the main menu the screen goes white and won't go any further, have to ALT+F4 to quit.

I'm not the only one to have had this problem (it's in the discussion section of the Steam page) and there has been no answer from the developers.

Avoid like the plague is all I can say, money down the drain because not even a reinstall fixes it, there must be some files elsewhere on the machine that have corrupted...no idea where though!

Rubbish.

Fun matching game with different special abilities as you progress through the game. There are lots of hidden object games in this one and I felt like the game took much longer than it needed to last. It overstayed its fun time. Other than that it was a good game, well made, and definitely entertaining. Easy achievements for those who enjoy chasing those.

Awesome puzzle game. Not only are there I-spy's, but there are match likenesses like Candy Crush. Great story and progression. It's consistant and the artwork is very good.

The third game in the Season Match series offers more of the same match-3 style play from the first two games. This time there is a bit more content, it took me a little longer to beat this one than it did the first two games combined. There's a story mode, where you have to free Month-themed characters from the evil clutches of the Witch Crow by matching gems until certain treasures are unlocked. In between the match-3 rounds, there are little mini-games which require finding objects, sorting out puzzle pieces, or comparing two pictures to spot the differences. I found the mini-games in Season Match 3 to be more consistent, and more in-line with the overall game itself than the ones in Season Match 2.

Unfortunately the issue with some of the small, oddly-shaped boards where gems are prevented from falling depending on the blocks that remain is still an issue, and the crystal shards that lock up more blocks makes the problem quite a bit worse on some maps, preventing any gems from falling to refill at all. Some powerups can get around this, but not all powerups are available on each board so sometimes the only solution was to restart. And restart again.

Still, Season Match 3 - Curse of the Witch Crow is a nice match-3 game that's good for killing some time or relieving some stress. Or just adding some achievements, if that's your thing, since the series has great steam integration with trading cards, achievements, and nice items.

Gorgeous, simple, FUN. There isn't a single unenjoyable puzzle in it, and it lasts so much longer than you'd expect, but without actively turning your time into a sinkhole!

Same as Season Match 2: solid casual time-killer with levels broken up by hidden object maps. Warning: if you don't have a widescreen monitor, unless there's something I'm missing in the (minimal) options screen, you're going to have a hard-to-impossible time clearing some of those, items can be "offscreen". The window is 4:3 and the game seems designed for 16:9... but won't display as such no matter what I do.

Please be aware of that before buying. That's not really a black mark on the game? But it is a problem.