Bring The Rift

Bring The Rift is an expanded and overall improved version of Columns. [u]Positive[/u] [list] [*]There are many modes to explore, such as the campaign, 2 player versus and extra modes with their own leaderboards. [*]Characters are not just for looks; they individually have unique abilities that change how you play the game. [*]There are more ways to clear blocks instead of just lines of 3+. 2x2 squares work universally and each character has their own "personal shapes" involving specific colors. [*]Dev is chill and open to feedback. [/list] [u]Mixed[/u] [list] [*]The story itself is [i]okay.[/i] You see it through multiple perspectives and can choose how to react to certain dialog. It could definitely benefit from being more than just dialog boxes on a solid color background. It calls itself a "visual novel" while having zero CGs or proper backgrounds during the entire story. [*]Most characters are relatively balanced, but a few are over/underpowered such as Inthey (Mr. Wildcard Blocks) and Robin (2 meter bars instead of 3, bad abilities, hard to use.) [*]There are 6 unlockable characters. This is interesting and gives the player goals to achieve, [spoiler]but most of them ar…

Pretty neat little game in the "Falling Blocks" genre. Unlike Tetris, you are always dropping a 3x1 vertical piece; instead of rotating, you cycle the vertical ordering of the 3 segments of your falling block. 3+ matching colors in a row (horizontally, vertically, diagonally, or a combination) eliminates, as do 2x2 of one color. There's a bit more to it, but that's the basics. There are a bunch of different characters that have different powers, as well as "favorite shapes" as a character-specific way to eliminate squares. For less than $4, this is an extremely easy recommendation, especially since there's a demo.

A perfectly nice little game in the vein of the old Sega Columns games. You move a trio of three boxes, always vertical, to the left or to the right, and you can cycle which ones are on top and which ones are on the bottom. Make three in a row or more to clear. Perfectly fine as genre goes, but there's nothing particularly new here. Columns came out, what, thirty years ago? I think that this is a fine entry, but could use either more novelty or showing that novelty sooner in gameplay. Features a two player mode - maybe that's where the excitement comes. I only played one player.

Tetris battle. It's fun. I recommend it.