Krazy Kreatures
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1990 American Video Entertainment
NES
Bizarre puzzle game from the same programmers who made Klax, supposedly. It's a shame that most people judge a game straight away on graphics and would dismiss it out of hand, because that's what I did the first time I saw this ugly game. All of which is too bad actually, because they'd be missing some fast and addictive gameplay.
The game is very, very, very simple. Move different types of assorted tiles into groups of three or four to eliminate them before the timer runs out. The more you get rid of, the more points you get. As I said it's very simple, so much so that you tend to think it's pretty stupid in the beginning. But it's precisely because it's so incredibly simple that you get so easily hooked on it.
Each screen is a simple maze. You can move your cursor anywhere over occupied ground, however you must go around the "walls" of the maze. As the round starts various types of tiles (happy faces, teeth, flowers, snakes, snails, pigs, cows, horses, etc.) fly in from the sides of the screen. You can start sorting right away, you don't have to wait for the tiles to stop. You get 1 minute to clear the screen. Sometimes actually the tiles will line up in large groups by themselves, whereupon all you need to is quickly tap them with the B button. Other times they'll be a whole row with one small gap you can easily fill. It seems pretty easy (and brainless) until you get about 10 screens into the game, where the time starts getting lower, the mazes take longer to navigate, and titles continue to generate till nearly the end. Tension really starts to build as you hear the clock ticking down and you've only got a few tiles left to clear on screen.
If the game suffers from anything, it's the fact that it's just a little too simple. There is no deviation from the basic formula above. Occasionally a "?" icon appears that will destroy all the tiles around it, that's about it. There are definitely room for more powerups here.
It's not the next Tetris, in fact I doubt it would hold most people's interest for more than a few minutes. Worth a purchase if you can find a copy (as it's pretty rare.) Give it a chance and it may hook you.
Graphics: Ass. Lame. Crap. Not much to write home about. In fact, if you do write home about them your family will disown you. What is there is clear though - you can easily (most of the time) tell what each tile is supposed to be, and more importantly it's easy to distinguish between them.
Sound: Simple bings and bells, get the job done but not much else.
Gameplay: Sort of like a fast paced, non-moving, reaction-style version of Columns. Extremely primitive, yet highly addictive.