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[Tulac]

Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and Download (if available)

[WolverineDK]

eeeeeeeeeerhm is this game not more like Segas Old and great game Columns ? And then some ?

history about the Columns game

so perhaps, it is a columns clone, instead of a Testris clone ?

[kmonster]

Definitely a columns clone.

[Eagle of Fire]

I have to agree with both persons above me. And yet again, I have to disagree with the rating. 5 out of 5? C'mon, I just played the game and rated it 2.

[Sebatianos]

Columns? They were made 5 years after Tetris, so they are in themselves a Tetris clone. So you're saying this game is a clone of a Tetris clone, but is not a Tetris clone in itself? I believe it is a Tetris clone, even though there were other games that tried to imitate Tetris and Columns was one of them.

And EoF about the rating... the game has the instant adictivness. I understand how some people won't like it, there's no game everybody would like, but among games similar to it, it is top notch, thus it deserves a top mark.

[_r.u.s.s.]

i also think it deserves such a mark. what is your reason for the 2 you gave it?

[Eagle of Fire]

It's a copy of a copy of a copy... Like you said yourself Sebastianos, Collums itself wasn't that original and you are talking about a copy of such a game which mean it's so unoriginal... This fact alone should bring the rating back at least to 4, ratings of 5 being reserved to real gems out there... Or at least I'd wish.

If this wasn't alone, there is also no point in adding points to the rating for the graphics, for even though they are high quality they are simply unpracticable. The board itself should have been bigger (and thus the gems smaller), you should be able to see the pieces better when they fall (right now you have no idea what is the second and third block of a pile unless you were fast enough to look at the "next piece" image... Which at high level is nigh impossible) and I was also finding more than strange that you just can't flip the piles horizontally. About a dozains of time when I tryied the game, I was frowning from this because it would have been perfect in the current setup to place the horizontal pile to clear several lines at once... But it's impossible. Plus, there is a blatant lack of very obvious options... Like for exemple a top score list??? In itself, the gameplay is by far pretty bland, no need for perfect 5 here.

When adding everything together, I thought that it was worth a 3. Since, however, I played a lot of similar games which were way better than this one, and probably earlier to this game too (I played a few on consoles and a few others shareware), I decided that 3 was even maybe a little too high and that's why I've settled for a 2.

[kmonster]

I wouldn't call call columns a tetris clone, the gameplay is different.

[WolverineDK]

Originally Posted by kmonster

I wouldn't call call columns a tetris clone, the gameplay is different.

No, I wouldn't call Columns a tetris clone either. I believe that Columns is more related to Puyo Puyo , or vice versa . because Columns is made before Puyo Puyo, and Columns does have similarities to Tetris. But it is not a Tetris clone. But perhaps in some small way it is derived from Tetris, but it isn't a tetris clone.

But let us make a "family tree" over some puzzle games. Then Tetris is the ancestor to one genre of games. Where Columns, and Puyo Puyo are amongst them( and few more like the puzzle bubble/bust a move. And the clones of them. And then we have the freak accident but cool Dr. Mario which also has derived from Tetris). But a clone is what Xixit is, and you can even see it. In the different shapes the "blocks" can be where one of the block shapes is unmistakeably a Puyo Puyo like block. And the gameplay is Columns.

So I conclude Xixit is a Columns clone which does pays a tribute to Puyo Puyo too, through one of the shapes in the blocks. But Columns is probably inspired by Tetris, but it isn't a tetris clone. But this is really an exiting discussion :-)

[The Fifth Horseman]

Nice. Small, simple... and yet very enjoyable (and can get really hard at higher levels).