Game Classification

Collapse! is another entry in the color-matching, block-removing series by GameHouse. This entry has nine gameplay variations, and a new avatar system. The basic mechanics remain unchanged: the player has to click on groups of three or more blocks of the same color to remove piles of them from the field and finish the level. If the blocks accumulate and reach the top of the screen, the game is over.

In the main adventure mode, the player has to complete a series of levels to move the custom avatar on a map and reach the final area boss. Each level has one of the available gameplay variations, with branching points on the path giving a choice between game types. Coins are received after completing each level, to be spent on special items on the shop like avatar accessories, power-ups and to unlock new games for the Quick Play mode. Extra coins can be earned by playing the arcade slots and pachinko machines, and extra items can be won on the spinning wheel.

The power-ups are stored in an area besides the gamefield, from where they can be selected and used directly on the blocks to destroy them. The super bomb explodes a large area pulverizing all surrounding blocks, the row-column bomb removes a cross of tiles, the color bomb eliminates all the pieces that share its hue, the rainbow bomb deletes all the squares that share the color of the selected block, the hourglass temporarily stops the continuous addition of new rows to the field, the scrambler shuffles the blocks, the warp bomb sends a series of tiles to another board, the row bomb makes a whole line vanish from the game, the gravity bomb moves all blocks from one end to the other, and the color swap bomb moves all pieces of one color to another board.

The variations encountered on the Adventure Mode can be accessed later and played directly on the Quick Play Mode. In the Classic game, lines of blocks are continuously added to the bottom of the screen, and the objective is to remove all the tiles to clear the board. In Relapse, the rows are added to the top and the bottom of the field. In Strategy, new blocks are only added after other tiles have been removed from the board. Continuous is an endless variation, where an infinite amount of pieces is added to the field until the player can't keep up and the game is over. In Puzzle, the goal is to carefully remove all the tiles of a drawing made with the blocks, without any new pieces entering the board. The remaining four variations, Double Classic, Double Relapse, Double Strategy and Double Continuous, repeat the previous mechanics but add an extra grid to be managed by the player. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : Macintosh - PC (Windows)

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/collapse_/