Columns Crown

The story behind the game is silly and very thin, but really it's a puzzle game where you are trying to clear the board, so the story isn't an issue - all you have to know is that if you do well you get a prize which is a gem which goes onto princess something-or-other's crown and that is the (rather contrived) point of the game.

The concept is really very simple, it is tetris-like, only you have to form rows of 3 identical gems, which then disappear. In the basic mode this is what you do, and that's it. It starts slowly, and for the first 60-90 seconds the gems drop slowly and you are given hints about where might be a good place to put them. Then it speeds up over the next 2-3 minutes, and unless you are very quick this is where it does become difficult and very fast. I agree with previous reviewers that unless the light is extremely good the colours (especially red and orange, and yellow and orange, I find) can be difficult to distinguish. But actually I don't see this as much of a problem either. The reason is that the different coloured gems also have different shapes, so there is extra help to match them. Like any GBA game though, you really need good light to see what you are doing and have a hope of getting things right.

The second form of the game is where you are playing against the computer (vs cpu), racing it to make lines that contain magic gems that either attack you opponent or help you with the game. This has far more "shelf-life" than plain columns, and the more of the gems from the crown that you win by doing this well, the more choice you have of magic gems that you can use against your opponent. I don't really know why this is so much better than basic columns, since it essentially seems to be exactly the same principle, it just is - maybe because you get to ambush an "enemy" and do slightly unpleasant things to them in the game (the best is where you build up your columns till you have almost lost, but you have it set up so that your magic gems will swap your game board with your opponent's when you complete a line of 3 - then swap it and watch them fail).

I would assume - although I haven't tried it - that the game played through the link cable against an opponent is along very similar lines, and should definitely be worth a go.

The final variation on a theme is "flash columns" - where there are already gems on screen and some of them are flashing. You win by clearing the flashing ones. Sounds simple, but there are loads of levels and they just get harder and harder. Every 5th one is a quick level where you hafve 10 seconds to clear it. The first group of gems will clear it, but you have to make sure that you have them in the right order, or you cannot retrieve it and have to try again.

I really enjoy playing this, and it really is amazing that something so simple can be quite so addictive, but I wouldn't recommend it for young children, it is too fast and requires patience to get it right - you can't expect to get these right first time - especially flash columns, where sometimes during the first couple of goes at a level make you think it is totally impossible. Also be warned - you may lose hours of your life just trying to do another couple of levels so that you get another gem.