L Pop! [Free] is a relatively straightforward puzzle game that, like most puzzle games, is built around one main mechanic. In this case, it's the idea that where you can place your pieces is restricted to within a Chess Knight's move of wherever you placed your last one. It's not a bad hook to build a matching puzzle game around, and I'm not sure I've seen a game that did things in exactly the same way this one does. But while the core mechanic is an interesting one, L Pop! never quite takes off the way it feels like it should.
The game plays out on a 6 x 6 board where you need to place colored pieces in order to make a group of three or more. The pieces come in three different colors, and while you can't control which color you'll get when, you can at least see the next couple of pieces that are coming down the pike. The first piece can be placed anywhere on the board, but subsequent pieces can only be placed in an L-shaped pattern from the last. The goal is simply to reach as high a score as you possibly can. You'll earn points with each match, and more points if you can make multiple matches in a row or matches with more than three pieces in them. Should you match five or more at once, you'll get a super bubble that works like a wild card.
More importantly, matching pieces clears them from the field, giving you more room to work with. If you end up in a spot on the board where there are no empty spaces to move to from your current position, it's a game over. Well, sort...