Quartz

Reviewed on 15th December 2004 by: Alex

Précis:

Quartz is a simple game, but sometimes the simple games are the best. Personally, I could not put it down (for awhile). I've even got proof: Here's a link to the score from my first game. Addictive gameplay combined with an attractive price make this an irresistable deal.

As always, you should always try the demo version first; but in this case there are real advantages to buying the game, especially if you become immersed in it. You get to post your score online!

Review:

Surprisingly, there isn't really much to say about Quartz; it's attractiveness lies in it's elegance. Gameplay is a mix of tetris and puzzle bobble: single blocks may be placed accurately from the top, and four same-coloured blocks in a row will dissapear, creating space. The object of the same is to stay alive (and achieve a high score.)

However, there are three features which make the game very interesting. First, note the red bar on the bottom right. This increases as blocks are added; and when it reaches the top, a number of grey blocks equivalent to the number listed in the box on the bottom right are added. These special grey blocks disappear only when coloured blocks beside them disappear. Next, there are nuclear blocks. These are green things; and they work as in the series of screenshots below.

Yes: It explodes. There is one final special block, which you can go discover yourself. Sound and graphics are merely decent; while the sound effects are good, there is only one music track, and unfortunately this one does become irritating, although it must be said that sound controls are excellent and there is even a mute function, which alleviates the irritation. Graphics look slightly faded, but this does give added prominence to things like the third special block and nuclear block explosions. The gameplay which results from all of this is undoubtably addictive in a certain fashion. A nice touch is how the time is listed at the bottom of the screen. This is *very* useful, because time flies.

One niggle about the game is the method in which high score names are entered; the game enables a soft keyboard, which is horrible for Symbian: I assume that in the pocketpc version the keyboard is touch-screen enabled, which makes it acceptable. This seems to be standard across current Elements Interactive games, including the other game we've reviewed, Li-Nuggz. All in all, this is another very good game, which is fearsomely addictive, and the ability to submit high-scores is merely icing on the cake.

(and - drats: I realise I no longer have the highest score worldwide on this game. oh well.)

Score: 90%

Buy & Try in our software shop (USD 3.95)

Buy at Handango (USD 3.95)

Other games by this developer: Li-nuggz

Screenshots: