Colormatch

Puzzles where colour is the thing you're matching - firing a bubble at bubbles of the same shade, grouping coloured objects, or sorting items by colour until each group is clean. The rule is instantly obvious, which is the appeal.

Bubble Shooter Panda Blast is the most familiar shape if you've played any bubble shooter before. Sort Resort is the better pick if you'd rather organise things than aim at them.

It puts the bubble shooter mechanic on a three-dimensional surface instead of a flat board. That means clusters can wrap out of sight, so planning a shot involves rotating your view rather than simply reading the ceiling above you.

They overlap heavily but aren't identical. Match-3 requires a line of three, while colour matching includes bubble shooters that clear any group of the same shade and sorting games with no line-making at all.

Generally no. Most are turn-based in practice - you take as long as you like to line up a shot or plan a sort, and nothing moves while you're thinking about it.