Klax

Back in the late Eighties, Atari Games lost the Tetris license to Nintendo. Rather than admit defeat, the company instead set out to out-Tetris Tetris with a brand-new tile puzzle game for the arcade titled Klax -- a design that obviously borrows an element or two from the popular Russian puzzler while adding its own unique flair into the genre, especially the nice isometric/3D perspective.

You're presented with a stationary table spanning out in the distance. Up close, you take control of a paddle that can move to one of five positions. Colored tiles flip from the far end of the table and creep towards you. The idea is to maneuver your paddle, collecting these tiles, then flipping them into the bin below in one of the five positions. Connect three of the same colored tiles up, down, or diagonally (called a "Klax"), and they'll disappear, settling the rest of the tiles deeper into the bin. Each level has a specific criteria to meet so you can advance to the next level -- some require you to form a set amount of Klaxes, others require you to capture a defined amount of tiles on your paddle. And in others, you'll have to score a certain amount of points.

It's a lot of fun, and extremely addictive-- a must-have for all action/puzzle lovers. Rob's original review from when the game was at CW#3: Decent conversion of Atari's excellent arcade game from 1989. Of course, a Euro frog (what's that?!) like me 8] tells you stories about the absence of the cool music, speech and sound effects found in the Amiga and Atari Lynx conversions but... ahem, it's a puzzle game, addicting, fun and the only computer game my sister liked a bit - the Atari Lynx version that is.

Review By HOTUD