The Fall of Because

Most people will tell you that your go-to puzzle games are Tetris , Magical Drop , or maybe Puyo Puyo . I have never really been able to get in to any of the "falling piece" games, with the exception of KLAX . KLAX, I like quite a bit, more than Tetris actually. I can accept that these games may be significant, especially in the case of Tetris. However, for my puzzle-gaming, I like a few different ones. Without falling pieces.




First off is the Qix series. I love the mix of action and puzzlery. Some may say Qix doesn't count as a proper puzzle game, but it is close enough for me. The risk/reward of slow speed = lower score, fast speed = higher score is great. And the Qix itself is hard to predict, which is always a nice challenge. Add in power-ups and limited time weapons in Volfied/Ultimate Qix , and I'm all over it. That said, I do like the austere look of the original. Still one of my favorite looking games ever.



A bit of a mystery for me, Daedalian Opus is difficult to find screenshots of. Nevertheless, in DO you start with a 'field' which must be filled with the supplied pieces. The pieces strongly resemble the blocks from Tetris, but they do not fall, and all are on screen at the beginning of each level. This is very close to an actual traditional puzzle, only timed. Also the pieces may be rotated, also as in Tetris, but they can also be 'flipped' so you can see the 'back' of the piece. Often, this is necessary for them all to fit in the field. Apparently, there is a homebrew MSX port if you are interested in that sort of thing. This game starts easy, but gets quite difficult.




Ahh, Denki Blocks. Brought to us by UK-based mostly-licensed mobile phone gaming dev company
Denki Ltd. . You may know them better as the devs of Go! Go! Beckham!: Adventure on Soccer Island. Now, I don't even pay attention to footy, and this game is mostly quite easy, but I must admit it is also a fun game, and the football-based power-ups are nice. Anyway, onto the real business: Denki Blocks is a GREAT game for GBA. It appears that it may have been released for GBColor in Europe, but I am not certain. The goal of the game is to get all of the blocks of the same color to stick together. The tricky bit is that different-colored blocks don't stick, but as soon as same-color blocks touch, they are stuck. This discription is poor, so why don't you just try out the in-browser demo. Really fun game, with colorful cutesy art, and gets to be quite challenging later. I wish Denki could make some more non-licensed, non-mobile phone games.



Finally, the king of all puzzle games as far as I am concerned. Brought to us by Mitchell Corp., whom you can also visit at their own homepage. Also, you can read an interesting interview with Mitchell president Roy Ozaki. Yes, they did all those Pang! games, as well as Cannon Dancer/Osman . Anyhow, on to Polarium , also known as Chokkan Hito Fude . In this game, (here I am speaking of puzzle mode, I don't care much for challenge mode in the DS version) the goal is to get All tiles to be the same color. There are black tiles and white tiles, and when they are drawn over and the 'activated', they will reverse colors. They are laid out on a grid, and the trick to it is that you must draw a single path that will flip all the blocks that you will need to in order to complete the puzzle. The path may not cross itself. You can also design puzzles your self, as well as enter codes for puzzles others have devised. I LOVE the simple, stark look of this game and the GBA sequel as well.



There is another Polarium game as well, Polarium Advance, for GBA. The controls are simplified in this game, but there are many more puzzles, as well as new 'special effect' blocks. Some will block your path, etc. Another amazing game, that now can ofteen be found NEW for less than US$10. You really should get it.

If you are not convinced on all this Polarium stuff, or you are a Polarium ace and want more, I recently discovered Blackflip. A Flash-based free game that is a direct Polarium clone. You can create your own puzzles in this game as well. Give it a shot! Oh, I very nearly forgot, but here are many fan made puzzles for Polarium. And over here, is the full set of Polarium wallpapers.



---------------NOTE: this entry has nothing to do with Killing Joke's "Fall of Because" , or the band Fall of Because. I promise.

Driller Killer

OK, Dig Dug is great. One of my fave of the early 1980's-era arcade games. So to prove my devotion, I have made a Lego likeness of Dig Dug himself, or Taizo Hori , as he is known these days. The lesson to be learned is: stop playing crap FMV-fests and lameass Halo3 hypecrap. Go get yer highscore on Dig Dug.

"You're a pal and a confidante..."

So, my friend Mike loaned me some photos of the band we used to be in together, Confidante . If you'd liek to hear what we sounded like, click the name above, and you can check a few tunes at the band myspace (set up by Jason, one of the vocalists). Anyhow, on to the pics!







1st, (L-to-R) Jason, Sean
2nd, Jason, Rick
3rd, Erin, Jason
4th, Mike, Erin
5th, your host, Aaron.

Mike, Jason and I are also now doing a different group, called Cold Stars . CHECKIT.

MMMM v.4

OK, last one for now: Arii Vf-1j Valkyrie kit (this kit is an atrocity. SO bad. I loved it anyway), SD Valkyrie pull-back motor toy (I had this one, Skull Leader! Also had a clone/knock-off [not sure] AV-8b Harrier. Cute toys of neat jets.)

MMMM v.3

From top: Zoids Glidoler (kind of dumpy), Zoids Legz (much better!), Orguss Orgroid (this kit is not so hot, but may have been the beginning of my undying love for weird-shaped mecha, and it transforms!), Xabugle (this kit was pretty small, but I loved that it made a neat humanoid robot, that then could change in to a 'truck' and trailer. Slick!)

MMMM V.2

Next batch: Raideeen Chogokin (mine was busted to crap when I got it at a garage sale), Panzer Wold Galient model (this is not the same kit I had, mine was a HORRIBLE knock off, cast in peach-colored plastic, so soft and sloppy. BAD.), Next, Gordion. This toy is so cool, I wish I still had it. I also wonder if the TV show is anywhere as cool as the toy.

Mechtastic Metal Machine Memories

So, now for a 'personal' entry on Mechatastrophe. I have loved robots and the like for as long as I can remember. I still do today of course, but I thought I'd display some of the toys and such that first sparked my interest as a kid. Now I should note that the toys/models in the pics going along with this entry are *NOT* mine. They are simply images I grabbed form around the net, to illustrate this entry. Sadly, I no longer have any of the items I will mention. Anyhow, onward! From top to bottom, we have: some tacky Ultraman cheapies, Getta Dragon Chogokin, and the Great Mazingr Jumbo Machinder. We got almost all of the toys and kits either at garage sales (toys) or at Long's or Thrifty in Half Moon Bay (model kits). As far as I can recall, almost all the model kits were poor knock-offs.