If you have ever played the Columns puzzle games on the old Sega systems, like the Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, or even with the recent edition on the Game Boy Advance, you are in for a treat with this game. In a fitting recreation of the classic game, where you must align 3 of the same coloured blocks, and attempt to get the highest score possible, without filling up the screen, easier said that done it is. That is one of the goals in this game, but nevertheless if you’re looking at replaying Columns, or just want an old school puzzle game, look no further. It’s a faithful tribute to the game series, you can customize your options, and you can play up to 9 different difficulty levels, it may not have a ton of options, but it excels in the ones it does have.

No real story in this game, its just simply getting the highest score, so that you may brag about it when the time comes. You have your a choice of two different game play modes. The first is normal Columns, in which you try to not fill up the screen with the blocks for as long as you can. You do this by aligning 3 of the same coloured blocks, which can then lead to other combos, depending on how you align the blocks. The second mode is called flash mode. In this mode, you have to clear a flashing block, and that’s all there is to do. What makes it different is you can set how many rows of blocks you will have to clear before you can reach the flashing block (which is always at the bottom), so this may provide some more challenge to the seasoned veteren. I should also say that the controls for this game are a bit odd.  You use the 2 and 3 buttons on the far right keypad to shift the alignment of the blocks before they fall all the way down, so make sure to remember that.

If you have played the original Columns games, then you will be right at home with this game. It is very faithful to the original games of the past, and not only do you have your trademark Column colours, also included are different blocks, from dice to fruit, so you can change the look of the game if you want. That brings me to the options you can customize.  Besides the different blocks, you can tweak the difficulty level from 1-9 and from easy to hard, where the harder modes add more different coloured blocks to the mix.  In the flash mode, you can tweak how many levels of blocks you will have to clear before being able to clear the flashing block.

There is up to 9 different difficulty levels in the game, and what this means is that the higher you move it up, the faster the blocks will begin to fall as you proceed.  If you are not familiar with this, or have experienced this before, keep it low before you start to go with the really crazy action.

Despite all this, it would have been nice had there been maybe some other games modes included in the game. Granted, it is mostly aimed at just recreating Columns, so I can understand that. As well as that, it would have been great had there been a multiplayer mode, even just on the same computer.  That would have really added a lot of replay value to the game, as you challenge a friend to compete.

Nevertheless, this was a fun game and I enjoyed playing it, so if you’re a fan of the Columns series or looking for a puzzle game to play, look no further than this game.