Along with more than 50 others, this is featured in the Sega Genesis Mega Drive Classics, which is currently no longer for sale. I hope to help bring enough attention to how great it is so that they will put it back in stores. Like the others in this collection, it features rewind and save states, which do not take away the challenge and you are 100% free to decide how much, if at all, you wish to rely on them.
Do you own a cell phone? Congratulations you've played something that had the DNA of this in it. Obviously that is an exaggeration. However match three is undeniably one of the single most popular genres. And it's no wonder. It's a great way to get into the medium, because you can get the hang of it almost immediately regardless of your age, no matter what you like there are some that fit that to a T, and a lot of them start out very easy.
I've seen ones where it's a Medieval fantasy setting and you are going up against dragons using magic. Others it's a zombie survival horror. And I'm sure there are ones that are completely chill and either set in the real world or not anywhere at all. Those just aren't ones that I've stumbled across in the several dozen smartphone games that I have spent time on.
This one is not exactly the same, yet you can definitely see the start of it. I'll start by going into how this is similar to Tetris, since it's obviously a clone of that. Both of these require you to make connections between pieces that move downwards and you can direct until they reach 1 or the bottom, if you are able to, you can keep going and earn points, if you are not it won't take long before you lose. In that, you have to get the ones to make an unbroken line horizontally, in part by rotating them, and they come in various shapes and sizes.
In this there is only 1, they always come in threes, with 3, 2 or only one color, that can be changed only in the order, that last one disappear on its own if you just put it down somewhere random and can of course take others with it, and yes the way to succeed in this is to make three of the same color, which also have different types of gems, perhaps to enable the color blind to excel at this as well, form a line either straight or diagonally.
This means that success comes more frequently. It might also appear at first to mean that it takes less skill, although that I would definitely question. You will really have a very difficult time here if you are not able to plan ahead. You might end up with a lot of completely disconnected ones, rather than forming something that you can free up once you connect them. Because the thing is that as soon as you get three in a row, it will remove all the ones that are directly connected to it. You can thus get from what seems like very near a failed state to a largely cleared area.
In addition to the regular mode, this also has a rule set called Flash, where to win you have to connect to one specific piece. You can play either of these in co-op, where after each turn, the other player gets theirs. This can be a real test of communication, coordination and friendship. As all like this should. There is also multiplayer, which allows a sort of split screen where you can see how well the other one is doing.
Considering that this is completely safe for all ages, I can imagine a lot of teenagers probably used it as a bargaining chip to convince their parents to get them the console for it. Arguing that everyone in the entire family could enjoy this particular one. Though it is almost definitely a nightmare with backseat gamers.
It's extremely easy to control. You can rotate in only one manner, so that's just one key to memorize, and then there is your ability to move left or right with the directional buttons, and if you press or even hold Down, you can speed up how fast it reaches its destination. And the reaching of a defeat does not actually cost you anything that you couldn't basically get back to pretty quickly other than of course your score.
After the first three levels, speed will increase, again after another set, and I think the last time it does is after the 3rd. And if you do want full speed ahead from the very start, that is an option in the menu. It will continue to keep track, and of course today, there are online international leader boards for high scores, which is the only way you can tell how well you're doing. Hypothetically you could play this for all of eternity if you had the wrists and patience. Like all a lot of other arcade and such games from back then, there is no win state.
The graphics are good. There is an attempt to make it look fancy and opulent. Probably to support the idea of what you're manipulating being these expensive displays of riches, and it works. The sound side is great. Both making it feel satisfying when you accomplish the matches and also underlining the tension, the fact that a few moves going wrong could mean you have to start all over.
I quite appreciate that they don't try to come up with some plot or justification. Like this legit is just something they thought would be fun and they were right. I've seen stuff that didn't have much more complicated game play go out of its way to make itself seem like more than it was in this way and it usually ends up comical. Recommended. 8/10.
