¢Glaggs It! game review¢----------------------¢¢Article by Raphael Espino¢¢I think I shall start this review right from the beginning. When I received my copy of this game, I rushed to rip open the package, and pulled out the contents. Inside there was a transparent plastic envelope sealed with a bit of tape. Inside this there was an A4 sheet of paper with the instructions and the credits, and a floppy disk. The instructions are nicely laid out with proper typesetting and everything (no cheap stuff here!), and if you don't like reading instructions (like me), then you will be glad to hear that they aren't very long. Don't worry though, you are not missing out on anything, it is just that the game is so simple that you don't realy need very many instructions. The disk is your average black floppy, but it does have a rather snazzy looking sticker on it.¢¢But enough about the packaging, down to the game. You may have guessed from its title that Glaggs It is in fact a clone of Klaxx, a game that appeared on the 'bigger' machines a while back and was rather popular. Never having played, or indeed seen the original I can't really say how close the game is. What I can say however is that Glaggs It is a very good game in its own right. The main idea of the game is that there are coloured blocks falling down 5 different columns. These have to be caught and then placed in one of the 5 receptacles at the bottom of the screen. The whole idea of the game is to get either horizontal and vertical lines (called Glaggses) or diagonal lines of blocks of the same colour. When this is done, the corresponding blocks will disappear, and you will be awarded a few points for your efforts. Sounds easy, doesn't it? But there are further complications. For a start each of the receptacles will only hold up to 5 blocks at a time, and after that no more can be placed in them. Your pallete, with which you catch the blocks, can only hold a limited number of them as well. And to make things worse there can be up to 8 differently coloured blocks, but you only have 5 receptacles so it does get tricky, especially on the higher levels. If you drop 5 blocks then you lose a life, you only have 3 of those, and as far as I can tell there is no way of gaining any more. That's about it as far as game play goes: a very simple concept, but extremely addictive.¢¢So how does the game actualy play?¢The first five levels are intended as begginer's levels and therefore are dead easy. You could probably finish the first level blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back (well almost), but they do get harder as you go along. You can start the game on levels 0, 5, 10 or 15 so once you get the hang of the lower levels, you can easily get onto more challenging stuff. The further you get, the faster the blocks fall, the more colours there are to handle, and the more lines you have to make.¢¢The graphics and sonics are not exactly flabbergasting, but then again in a game of this type you wouldn't really want anything too fancy since it would distract your attention from the game. There are only two screens in the whole game: the main screen where all the action takes place, and the high scores table. The main screen is done in various shades of gray, it is nice, but I feel it could have been improved upon. There is however a lot of colour floating around with 8 different coloured blocks falling down the screen. The high scores screen is not worth throwing a party over, but it does save your scores to disk, making it easy to keep track of your own high scores. This also means that once you do get some, you can show them off to your mates!¢¢The only major criticism I can find is that the game does not appear to have a pause mode, so if the telephone starts ringing madly while you're in the middle of level 99 then you're stuck. It would also have been nice if a proper title screen had been included on the game, but then again a title screen is not exactly essential to the game.¢¢Overall I would say that Glaggs It is a decent game. If you have played one of the many Tetris clones around and enjoyed it then chances are that you will like Glaggs It. If not then you still might like Glaggs It anyway. The game is certainly worth the asking price. So what are you waiting for, why not order a copy today? I'm sure that Dean would appreciate the support.¢¢*** The packaging for the PPP games is kept simple to keep costs down. Glaggs It! costs 5pounds inc.P&P. You can get it cheaper by buying it in the PPP pack of all 3 games for 12.50. Ed. ***¢¢For those who don't know, Glaggs It! can be bought in the UK from:¢DEAN GARRAGHTY, 62 THOMSON AVE, BALBY, DONCASTER, DN4 0NU.¢¢The game will soon be made available in the US.¢
