My mum always said that everyone should have at least three square meals a day. This used to confuse me a lot 'cos brussels sprouts, potatoes and a lump of sirloin never looked very square to me. Ever since then though I've had a passion for squares, large or small and PUzznic looks set to provide me with more than I ever imagined.
Puzznic is a pure puzzle game which first cam out at a time when Ocean, already famous for their arcade hits, decided to give arcade puzzles and non-shoot 'em ups a chance. It involves moving squares around within a predetermined on screen shape and aligning ones with identical symbols to make them disappear, giving you some yummy score points.
Each successive level has more difficult puzzles to solve with different shapes and odd numbers of individual symbols to deal with. Until you get used to it this can become very frustrating as you wrack your brains trying to find a way to match them all up, but the end feeling, once you've actually completed a few levels, is most triumphant!
The graphics are clear and colourful, and it's easy, most of the time at least, to distinguish the symbols on individual squares. There's not much sound to speak of but the overall feel of the game is just as a puzzle game should be... beautiful but brain busting.
Label: Hit Squad
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Steve Keen
Puzznic is one of those ruddy addictive puzzle games that one ends up spending hours and hours playing when you should in fact be working, eating, sleeping etc. Well recommended for puzzle fans.