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Clickomania & Clickomania
II, Palm OS & Pocket PC
Reviewed
by: Howard
Carson, July 2004, send
e-mail
Published
by: Beiks,
go to the Clickomania or Clickomania
II web site
Requires: Palm
OS 3.5 or higher
MSRP: $10.00
Two games,
almost the same names, one simple, one more complex, both
markedly different. You've got to match things up in each
game, but no (in case you were wondering) they're not Bejeweled
clones or anything like that, although it's possible that
Bejeweled's design and basic game play concept may have
inspired the Clickomania designers (or maybe it was the
other way around?). In any case, both games are well worth
a look. We decided to examine a bit more than straightforward
game play in this review too, opting to analyze the strategy
and presentation concepts as well. We used Clickomania
and Clickomania II on a Sony Clie TH55, a Palm Zire 71
and an older Sony Clie PEG-N760C. We've been suspiciously
addicted to both games for several weeks. Hmmm.
Clickomania
In the spirit of Jawbreaker, Clickomania presents you with a game screen filled
with multicolored blocks. Tapping anywhere within a space occupied by two
or more adjacent same-colored blocks explodes them and collapses the blocks
above into the empty space. The goal of the game sounds simple: blow up
all the bl0cks leaving none behind. In practice, you may be absorbed for
hours on end, scanning the entire board, strategizing the method to use
in order to collapse isolated two and threes to combine ever larger blocks
of one color in order to gradually work your way to the bottom without
leaving any singles. Or maybe you'll find that some game boards are more
completely solvable if you start from the bottom and work your way up;
some from the middle outward. The game boards are not generated completely
randomly - there's some method at work here - so a full scan of the entire
game board and a bit of planning is in order before starting each game
session. It is really more difficult than you can imagine and requires
clear thinking, strategy and a bit of patience.
Clickomania
has a certain similarity to Solitaire games in that in
becomes clear, after a few dozen rounds, that not all boards
are solvable down to zero blocks remaining. The wisdom
of the player and the challenge of the game becomes partly
a contest with yourself to see how early in any round you
are able to determine if there's no way to win (or at least
improve the current best score in your stats). Games end
when there are no more adjacent same-colored blocks to
tap.
Clickomania II
In the spirit of Bejeweled, Clickomania II provides a highly
worthy twist in game design and play which removes it
entirely into a similar but separate category. Unlike
Bejeweled, instead of matching shapes in rows of three
or four, Clickomania II requires you to match characters.
But also unlike Bejeweled, instead of tapping the game
screen to shift adjacent characters you tap a character
in a single separate character selection column positioned
at the right side of the game screen, then tap a location
in the game screen into which the selected character
is placed to form a three of four character column or
row (which then blows up, allowing the characters above
to collapse and fill the empty spaces, occasionally forming
new three and four character columns or rows which in
turn automatically collapse). The challenge inherent
in the game play is constantly changing and the need
to constantly scan the board and the character selection
column is vital to long game sessions and resulting high
scores. For the record, my high score is 63,485. Games
end when there are no more character matches left.
Cons: Clickomania II is graphically intense and the lower
portion of the main game screen seems to suffer from some
minor redraw problems, although game play is not really
impeded. We found that the Instructions screens, Hall of
Fame screen and registration entry dialog were very hard
to read because of the use of pale red text displayed on
pale grey and pale blue-grey backgrounds. Once again, although
this doesn't affect game play, it sure does detract somewhat
from the overall satisfaction
Pros: It is a continuing source of amazement that game
designers continue to come up with the simplest kinds of
games which provide this much challenge and interest. Addictive
game play which requires strategy and focus. Some aspect
of chance in Clickomania mainly because not every board
is solvable down to zero blocks. Tip: if you keep having
games which leave dozens of blocks, slow down your game
play because most boards, albeit freely generated by the
game code, are more completely solvable than is apparent
at first glance. In Clickomania II, the possibility for
extremely high scores is tied directly to patience and
match-up strategy. Tip: don't just select the first character
you notice for a match, try to scan the entire game board
as often as possible before each match-up selection. A
serious, non-violent, addictive pair of games for adults
or kids. The different character themes freely available
for Clickomania II provide broad appeal and provide a refreshing
change. Excellent, challenging time wasters. Well worth
the small registration cost. Highly recommended.
Letters to the Editor are welcome and occasionally abused in public. Send e-mail to: whine@kickstartnews.com
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