#falling block

Klax was originally meant to be the follow-up to Atari’s popular arcade conversion of Tetris, but ended up becoming more of its own thing due to the legal dispute.  Like Tetris and Columns, Klax has tiles coming from the top of the screen (though it’s a bit visually distinct from the others in that they’re actually tumbling down a conveyor belt).  The difference is how you control them, and it is actually a pretty major difference.  You don’t have any control over the tiles until they land on the paddle you control at the bottom of the screen.

You use this to catch them and arrange them in the 5 by 5 well below.  The paddle can hold up to five tiles at once and places them starting from the top of the stack.  It is also possible to bounce pieces back up the conveyor belt and catch them again if you need to shift your pieces around, but attempting to juggle them this way can cause further complications if you’re not careful.  Any pieces that aren’t caught by the paddle are considered drops.  Running out of drops or completely filling up the well results in a game over.

The paddle is used to create vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines of at least three, known as a Klax.  Verticals are worth the least amount of points and diagonals are worth the most.  Certain moves such as getting lines of four or five or getting multiple lines (such two diagonals at once) with one piece counts for more Klaxes than normal.  Also like in Columns, it is possible to achieve combos, though because of the smaller well of pieces they can’t be quite as long.  Of course, the longer you play the faster and more numerous the pieces get.  They also start appearing in more colors.  There are also flashing wildcard pieces that can easily be used to get multiple Klaxes in one move.

The major gameplay distinction Klax has over Tetris is the way it is structured overall.  The gameplay is divided into 100 waves (making this a rare puzzle game that doesn’t actually go on forever).  Each wave is cleared by fulfilling a set goal, such as getting a certain number of Klaxes or getting a certain number of points.  After clearing a wave, you are awarded bonus points for the amount of pieces remaining on the conveyor belt and the paddle and for the amount of empty space you left in the well.  Before the first wave and every five waves after, you’re given the option to skip five or ten waves.  Doing so gives you a point bonus and more drops.  Also, during a couple of the early waves, you are given the opportunity to skip 45 entire waves by creating a large X (five piece long diagonal lines going in both directions).  Doing so is easier said than done, of course.

Visually, this has got to be the most 90s puzzle game of all time.  Many versions of the game even open with the quote at the top of the article.  The title screen of the Lynx version has the hand that is typically the K in the logo signing the rest of the letters to make the colorful, multi-hued logo appear before assuming its place as the K.  The background of the title screen consists of a pattern of shapes typical of 90s visuals.  As mentioned above, instead of just dropping down a well like many other games of this type, Klax has the pieces tumbling end over end down a conveyor belt toward your paddle.  The backgrounds, which change after every wave, are sometimes abstract and psychedelic.  My favorite of the early ones is the one that has a large hand wrapping around the bottom of the conveyor belt as if it were the neck of a guitar.  It’s also definitely worth noting that this is one of the games that requires you to rotate your Lynx so that it is in a portrait aspect ratio, which makes sense considering how the screen is laid out.

Unfortunately, in most of the versions I’ve seen including the Lynx version, there is no music during the gameplay.  The sole song seems to be the bassy track that plays during the title screen.  It’s a different song than the one that plays on the NES one for example, and not as good in my opinion.  But it does somewhat make up for the lack of music with a wider array of sound effects than one might expect from a game of this type.  Each different color of piece also makes a different sound as it makes its way down the belt.  The brown pieces even make kind of a splat sound, which I’m not sure was intended as a joke or not.  There’s also voice clips that play announcing what type of wave the upcoming one is and reacting when you pull off long Klaxes or combos.  For such a small system, these voice samples actually sound very impressive.

Overall, this definitely one of the most unique and enjoyable puzzle games I’ve played so far.  It does get pretty hectic very quickly though, since in addition to the pieces coming down you also have to pay attention not only to the pieces already in the well but also the way the pieces on your paddle are arranged.  It’s just a little bit more to keep track of that makes the game that much more difficult.  But hey, I’m not great at these games as it is, so maybe it’s just me.  Anyway, for the next entry, we’ll be moving to the game that sent us through this puzzle game gauntlet in the first place: Dr. Mario.