Total Game Boy


Klustar

Publisher: Infogrames
Machine: Game Boy Color

 
Published in Total Game Boy Issue 03

What do you get if you cross Tetris with Asteroids? Don't worry, we don't know either!

Klustar

Tetris was simple and quite honestly the game that everybody associates with the Game Boy. Young or old, Tetris is there. This young contender with ideas above its station is trying to muscle in on the action though but will it have enough originality and pizzazz to do so? We think not! Klustar takes Tetris' indefinable originality and turns it upside-down, inside out and any other way you'd care to mention. Instead of the blocks falling whilst you rotate them to fit snugly together, the blocks now fly in from all sides! Unable to turn the blocks themselves, you must turn the massive structure in the middle of the screen to accommodate them. Fail to keep up with the barrage of blocks and your main 'cluster' in the middle gets too big, the tiny little devils just keep piling up and before you know it, it's game over!

There are several difficulty levels ready to twist the brain as well as differing sized blocks and grids to play on, but none of this compensates for the feeling that we've been here before with Tetris. Unfortunately, Klustar is the Bootleg Beetles to Tetris' real thing. Every aspect of Tetris has been raped and pillaged, stuffed into this package and has had a price tag walloped on it. From the speeds at which the blocks appear to the blatantly familiar Russian-sounding tunes, it's all a second rate version of the classic.

Kopykat Klustar!

Klustar's colour compatibility is also minimal, but it is to be expected with a game of such basic graphics. Each shaped block is a different colour and that is as far as it goes so playing on a standard Game Boy will prove no problem at distinguishing the shapes from each other. Adding colour was a pointless idea but despite this we're glad to see that some effort has gone in to capture a slice of the Game Boy market. Mmm, cunning!

Despite misgivings, Klustar is still enjoyable thanks to its relationship with Tetris and had the circumstances behind these games been reversed Tetris would have received our verbal hammering. As it happens though, Klustar was the last on the bandwagon and so must pay the price. We know how addictive getting strangely-shaped blocks to fit together is, but we also know a copycat when we see one. Klustar is that copycat and no matter how hooked you may get from playing it just reach for a copy of the original instead.