It goes without saying that you should always try to create special pieces in Juice Jam. That’s one hallmark of Match 3 gaming that is very much present here – create special pieces, clear the board faster. Matching four pieces gets you a Blaster, which matches all pieces in its row or column. Matching a square formation will create a Rocket, which then creates a Blaster of its own at random. A match of five pieces results in a Rainbow piece, which matches all pieces of the same type, regardless of their location. Then there’s the Super Magnet, which is created with a match of six. Drag it into another piece and it will draw in pieces of that type, once again, regardless of location; this shifts the other pieces and can potentially create a world of matches you may not have been expecting.
Some Match 3 games come with time limits, and we admit that that can be a real pain in the behind. But Juice Jam, fortunately, doesn’t put you under any sort of time pressure, which means you can take your time to make sure you’re making the best moves possible. If you want to complete a level with three stars, you’ve got to make the best, and not the fastest moves.
You also want to try completing levels with as many leftover moves as possible. For each unused move, you get a free Blaster, and that can really help improve your score and take it to the three-star level.
These include the empty cake tins you may see in select levels. You should work towards getting them out of the way as soon as possible, and the only way to do this is to make matches next to them. The longer those tins stay on the board, the less fruit to work with.
Now, there are some levels where your customers will request that you create honey. This can be done by creating honey panels – simply match three or more bees, then serve the honey by making a standard match on top of the panels. This can be a bit tricky, so don’t match those bees if no one is asking you to create honey.