The crisis continues
While looking around for cool, new Mac freeware, I came across a game under development called Amoebax. I downloaded it, just to see how it was coming along. As soon as I started playing it, I was reminded of . . . what?
It took awhile, but I finally figured it out. This one is a lot like a shareware favourite from years ago called Candy Crisis — a cute twist on Tetris where dropping candies glom together if they are the same colour, and explode if they gather in a group of four.
Candy Crisis was originally named Skittles and seemed to enjoy a lot of popularity until the makers of the candy likely stepped in and demanded that the developer stop appropriating their name. As Candy Crisis, the game gradually faded from view.
It turns out, though, that it lives on as an open source project. You can download and use it freely — with the only catch being that you must insert a supplied registration code. Amazingly, it still works, even on Intel Macs. In some cases, the graphics are a bit rough around the edges, but otherwise it looks and plays as great as ever.
Amoebax, on the other hand, is only at version 0.2, so it has a long way to before any fair comparisons can be made. The developer seems to be trying some innovations. For example, there is a tournament mode. The graphics, while cute, could do with some improvement, and the game play is way to easy at this point. With any luck, though, Amoebax will take this game concept to the next level.
It should be noted that both games have their origin with a Japanese game called Puyo Puyo that dates back to 1991. It in turn was apparently inspired by elements of Tetris. So there you go — everything old is new again.
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 in Playtime
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