1st June 1992
With all the intelligence of a mouldy pea, Ian Osborne stretches his grey matter just trying to remember his name. What a perplexing puzzler like Puzznic'll do to his brain, then, is a mystery. It may well explode - fingers crossed!
Puzznic
The Hit Squad are back, and back with a vengeance with this great conversion of Taito's cracking coin-op! Puzznic is destined to become an all-time classic in the Tetris/Klax mould, and no serious puzzle-player should be without it.
As with most puzzlers, your task is stupifyingly simple. Push the pictured tiles around the playing area, matching like with like and making them disappear - when two similar designs are placed adjacent to each other, they're destroyed. Smash 'em all and it's on to the next level. Tiles can be pushed right or left, but not up or down - should they be pushed into mid-air, gravity takes effect and they fall.
Easy, eh? Don't you believe it! On the early levels the tiles are offered in obvious pairs making them easy to vanquish, but as you progress tiles are offered in odd numbers, forcing you to bring three together simultaneously. Later still, immobile blocks intrude on your playing area, and moving bricks can (must?) be used as lifts. Worst of all, some tiles are inaccessible without forming a bridge with others - thnk on your toes and pair them off in the right order, or it's back to the beginning.
Carry On Playing
In the lastability stakes, Puzznic is, erm, lastable - with 144 screens covering 36 stages you won't be completing it in a hurry! To confuse things further, those 36 stages are laid out into seven levels, each offering a choice of two to move on to once completed.
Puzznic is an absolutely splendiferous game! More addictive than 0898 chat ines to a sad, lonely halfwit, larger than said sad case's phone bills, and more playable than a Dead Kennedys' album, this is one game no self-respecting tile-trasher should be without. Buy it and it'll ruin your life - the dog will crap on your carpet 'cos you forgot to take it walkies, you'll lose three stone in weight 'cos you can't stop playing long enough to eat and your next electricity bill will be bigger than Gazza's pay packet. Suicide will inevitably follow, but think of all the fun you will have getting there!
Corky
Puzzle games usually tee me right off. Exactly 3.7 nanoseconds after play commences, I'm usually hurling abuse at the game, the C64, my fellow Zzap! reviewers and anything that moves within a ten-yard radius. But I remember Puzznic very fondly as a game that I could actually get my head around: yes, even a thicko like me can understand the concept of joining corresponding icons together.
This is all fine and jim dandy when you have just two blocks to fit together: the fun starts when three, four and even five have to be whammed together simultaneously. Yes folks, if you want to reserve your place in the local funny farm (bibble, bibble, polka-dot flamingo), go out and purchase a copy of Puzznic today. Help, Captain Night Nurse! Mind out for that halibut, the aliens are peeling my duvet!
Verdict
Presentation 89%
With a game this simple, it's harder to get it wrong!
Graphics 90%
Stonkin' - this is ideally suited to the C64
Sound 79%
Fair effects but the tune is a little irritating
Hookability 92%
Grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go
Lastability 94%
Will go on longer than Coronation Street
Overall 90%
Screenshots
