I'm not going to lie - with all the cute, fluffy titles currently available I thought I'd become some sort of jaded husk of a human being. Then Monster Soup by Keiffer Bros came along and much like the Grinch my heart grew three sizes that day.

Developers have tried many ways to change-up, complicate or even obfuscate the basic three-match gameplay, but in Monster Soup you only need to draw a connection between similarly colored creatures to 'save' them. The catch is that any monster that lies between your current and next connection will break the chain, making high-scores a delicate balance of grouping monsters efficiently to either extend the chain slightly further or to set up a much larger chain in lieu of the smaller one you just made.

Should you miss any of the cute creatures as they float to the top they'll eventually freeze in place, creating an ever-expanding wall of ice to limit how much time you have available to make matches. The amount of monsters and randomized complexity of their mix increases along with each level, but players do have weapons to combat the coming winter by matching groups of 5 or more to activate special power-ups (with matches of 9 or more activating powerful versions of these effects).

Much like the Keiffer Bros. earlier titles, Monster Soup is crafted perfectly, with dynamic backgrounds that shift based on the current actions you're performing and simple, clean cartoonish designs that make it easy to identify potential matches. The cheery twinkling background music wraps things up with a neat little bow, making the game a tidy little bundle of joy.

It's a shame more modes of play aren't explored, but players can keep themselves busy by casually playing a round here or there, slowly climbing the Game Center leaderboards while unlocking new achievements. A great pick up for fans of arcade puzzle titles.