Game:

Columns (1989)

Duration: 5:25

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It is 2022, and there is time for... Klax! Klax is a Tetris-esque puzzle game developed and published by Atari Games for the arcades in 1990. Much like Tetris the game was also ported to nearly every system it could be ported to, including the Game Boy Color, Sega Genesis, Master System, MS-DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System, the Commodore 64, and so on. Gameplay wise Klax is similar to Sega's own Columns, in that players must score points by removing the different colored blocks from the screen, and can do that by matching three in a row either diagonally, horizontally, or vertically, with different points being awarded for each. The players can store up to 5 blocks on the block dropper, but any others that come will fall off the screen. Players must catch blocks before they fall off the edge of the conveyor belt, as losing three blocks makes you lose a life. Clearing as many blocks as possible is important too, as any free space left adds to your total score. While playing for high score is important, the player is given a goal each round that they must beat to continue, such as matching 3 sets of yellow bricks, or getting three diagonal matches, etc. and so on. That's really about it. Klax is very simple, but very addictive, and is a fairly iconic and fun puzzle game from the 1990s. For the Genesis specifically, the sound takes a slight hit from the Genesis' sound chip, but the graphics are bright and colorful, and I'd wager this is best console version from the era, save for maybe the Turbo-Grafx 16 version.

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