Pocket;City
Pocket;City is… one of the most unhinged match-3/merger games I’ve ever tried (complimentary). I mean, just look at that semicolon in the title. Look at the game description from the slightly less unofficial Playdate website. Look at the concept: an almost SimCity-esque urban planning game that realizes that cars are the true enemies of all city planning, where you have match-3 mechanics instead of a money system or in-game economy. Did you know that in the original SimCity, they had to make the rules of the game world different than in real life because in real life, cities are just mostly parking lots? Doesn’t look that cool in a video game.
So in Pocket;City, you place random pieces of city infrastructure in a grid – things like tents, parks, houses, grassland, etc. Place three matching tiles next to each other and they level up to a different tile, and three of those level up to a different tile, and so on, and each is worth more points as you make more matches. There’s a wacky point system with different varieties of points like “hope,” and certain matches give you more of one type or another.
There are about 15 levels, and each has its own unique goal, whether it’s scoring a specific number of a certain type of point, or getting three hotels, or filling the map but without any bikes showing. Every once a while, a car will randomly show up on your map, both blocking a match you were trying to make and stealing a spot on your limited map. Making matches makes the cars go away… sometimes? I think? Levels end when there are no spots left in which to put things, and whether you achieved the level’s pre-stated goal or not determines if you get to keep moving forward or have to try that level again.
There are online leaderboards to encourage trying again and doing better this time, but the game is plenty hard on its own. Once you get to the later levels, you’ll be lucky to achieve even a passing score. It’s really interesting that things aren’t spelled out, either, and it encourages some experimentation and trial-and-error. For example, there’s a level that you need to end without any bikes taking up a single spot on the map. How do you get bikes to disappear? They randomly show up in blank spaces like cars. Do they need a park to ride in, or is the building of parks what is resulting in the proliferation of bicycles? That’s for you to figure out, and it’s part of the fun. Still, a little hint wouldn’t hurt sometimes. I’m a busy adult with a job now (finally!), and my brain is smooth from years of video games and learning how to do the new job.
If you like match-3 games, or city-building games, or merger games like NecroMerger or even Suika Game, you might find something to love here. It feels a bit like Pahtkest! made me feel, like finding a game that’s barely in English on an old computer at a junk shop in Eastern Europe. There’s an earnestness to it, though, that I can’t help but love. But what’s with that semicolon???
(Released February 10, 2026, on Catalog. Copy provided by developer.)