Klax

Title           Klax
Game Type	Puzzle
Publisher 	Tengen
Programmers	Atari
Players		1
Compatibility	A500
HD Installable  No
Submission	Chris Burns

Review
	I've never been much of a one for puzzle games but Klax is one
that I did play for a long time and really enjoyed; of course, I didn't
finish it - I mean, there's 100 levels!  Who do you think I am? The
GamesMaster? :-)

	The concept, as with most puzzle games, is easy enough. You're
positioned at one end of a conveyor belt with coloured tiles flipping
towards you five abreast!  You must use a paddle (which can move left or
right only) positioned at your end to catch the tiles and drop them into a
hopper below. The paddle can hold 5 tiles and you can also 'flip' tiles
back up the conveyor belt, so you have a certain amount of flexibility in
which order you drop the tiles into the hopper. You're also allowed a
certain amount of dropped tiles in a round, if you're not quite fast
enough with that paddle!

Now, the hopper will gradually fill up so the whole point of the game is
to drop the tiles into "Klax's" which are certain arrangements of
the same-coloured tiles. You can drop tiles of the same colour in
verticals of three tiles, diagonals of 3 to 5 tiles or horizontals of 3 to
5 tiles, for differing scores. There are 'wildcard' tiles, which match
any other colour and these can really help out! Once you've made a Klax,
those tiles disappear from the hopper making way for more tiles. The round
is over when you've completed the amount of Klax's specified. Sometimes
the game will tell you before a round that you must create, say, 3 Klax's
(of any sort), other times it will say you must create a certain amount of
diagonal (for example) Klax's.

Of course, in great Tetris tradition, the game speeds up as you get
further into it and it has many moments of "I only need a green tile to
complete the round and all I'm getting are loads of blue and red ones!!
The hopper is filling up! Aieeeee!!", which is essential for that 'seat of
your pants' puzzle gaming experience!

A quick word on the graphics and sound, which are decidedly low-key on the
Amiga implementation; the graphics are clear and colourful without being
award winning, and the backgrounds to the conveyor belt change, giving a
bit of variety. The sound is possibly a bit annoying, consisting mostly
of 'tap tap tap' sounds as the tiles approach you, although you do get a
sampled 'Yeeeah!' if you get a 5-in-a-row Klax and a sampled round of
applause when you complete a round.

Klax falls into the simple but addictive genre of puzzle games and it
really is one of the better puzzle games available for the Amiga. It's
also made a comeback as a GameBoy Color game apparently, so there's no
excuse for not checking it out!

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