Klax

There are stacks and stacks of trouble to be had in Klax, the latest addition to the NES family. Here's how it goes. You must stack by color five different rows of tiles. The tough part is that the tiles are rolling end over end directly towards you and you must catch them before they fall off the edge. Sound simple enough? No way! Just when you think you're on top of things, the tiles begin to gain momentum, flipping at you faster and faster. Good news, if you begin to suffer from mental meltdown just switch over to the second feature of this game, Blob Ball. This slightly more relaxing Pong-style game requires you to prevent a spaceship from breaking out of your galaxy by smacking it back into the atmosphere with a paddle.

Tengen Brings Its Hit Arcade Game Home to the TG-16. in Klax You Simply Catch Colored Tiles That Come Down a Conveyer Belt and Arrange Them in Same-Colored Stacks of Three Or More That Can Be Oriented Horizontally, Vertically Or Diagonally. As in the Arcade Version, You Have the Warps and Special Bonus Points That Help Make This Game a Classic No Matter What System It's Played On.

O.K. trivia buffs, file this one away for future reference. Question: What was the first video game to hit the arcades, home computer systems, the Nintendo, the Genesis, the TurboGrafx-16, and the Lynx? The answer, of course, is Kiax.

Do Ya Wanna' Klax?

Yes, Klax, a mind-bending puzzle challenge that calls for quick reflexes as well as quick thinking. Here's the deal-you're at the end of a long ramp down which a cavalcade of differently colored tiles tumbles. Your job is to catch the tiles on your paddle and then dump them into a series of slots in order to score points.

Sounds deceptively simple, doesn't it! But wait! In order to score points you can't just randomly drop tiles into slots. You've got to line them up by cola so that they form vertical, horizontal, or diagonal sets of three, four, or five to score a Klax. A what? Hey, that's what a row of the same color is called-a Klax.

Tricky Tiles

Klax is divided into multiple levels of increasing difficulty. To pass each level you have to complete an assignment ranging from making five diagonal Klaxes to successfully catching 40 tiles.

Just to make this ail incredibly difficult there are a few unexpected surprises, all of which can end your game in the twinkling of an eye. You only have so much room in the slots for your tiles. If you drop too many tiles without making Klaxes, you'll find yourself in deep trouble. A Drop Meter monitors how many tiles you drop and if you go over the limit, your game is over. You can also only hold up to five tiles on your paddle. If you miss a tile or your paddle is full, the tile falls (with a truly pathetic scream), and you can only drop so many tiles before your game ends.

Just to vary the action Klax allows you to change the difficulty levels, turn the Drop Meter on and off, and decide how many tiles you want to try to catch. Overall the A.Q. (Addictive Quotient) on Klax is very high. There's more to this title than meets the eye and, as mentioned earlier, it's available for almost every game system. We thought the Turbo-Grafx-16 version had better graphics than the Genesis or Nintendo editions, but the game's the same for each system. Get out there and try it. You'll be Klaxing before you know it.

Klax, adapted from the recent Atari Games coin-op and one of the first games to be released on all the popular game systems, is a puzzle game somewhat on the lines of Tetris but with the added dimension found in Columns. It uses a conveyor belt which pushed tiles towards you. The tiles fall onto a tray and you can move the tray sideways to drop the tiles in stacks for points horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

"The best version of Klax the home market will ever see" says Electronic Gaming Monthly! A perfect translation of the arcade puzzler invites you to stack the colored blocks or throw them back! Try creating rows for Klaxs and bonus points! Superb digitized sound effects and music and extremely addicting game play!

KLAX; the latest, hottest arcade puzzle game, is now available for play on your NES, Genesis, TurboGrafx and home computer!

KLAX makes you move fast - and think faster!

Catch colored tiles coming down a conveyor belt. Score big points by arranging them in stacks and rows. You'll go nuts trying to catch them all - while figuring out where best to stack them before you run out of room!

But no matter how tough KLAX gets, the hardest part is pulling yourself away from this fun, fast, and totally mind-boggling game! Order your copy today!

Klax is a remarkable conversion of the Atari Games coin-op of the same name. A hybrid action and mental puzzle game, Max looks deceptively simple, but can be quite a challenge. You control a paddle that can move back and forth at the edge of a five-track conveyor belt, down which tumble square tiles of varying colors. Your task is to catch each tile as it reaches the end of the conveyor, and then deposit it into the "pit" below. The trouble is, the pit only holds 25 tiles, so the trick is to make a "Klax" so that the tiles will disappear. Making a Klax involves lining up three or more tiles of the same color so that they form a straight line: horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Therefore, the game is a lot more complicated than just catching tiles and dropping them. If you don't form a Klax, the pit will fill up and the game will end.

Fortunately, your paddle can hold up to five tiles, so you don't have to drop each tile before catching the next one. The tricky part is, when you choose to drop a tile, the top tile of the stack is the one that goes first, and that might not be the color you want to drop. One way around this is to push up on the joypad and "toss" the top tile back onto the conveyor, giving yourself a few extra seconds to deposit the tile(s) you want. Of course, chances are you're tossing tiles back onto the conveyor along with other tiles already coming your way, making the task of catching them doubly difficult. Drop too many tiles or fill up the pit, and the game is over.

Klax is very addictive and quite a challenge - particularly if you can manage to set off the secret warp and fling yourself to a much higher level, where the action is almost too fast to be comprehended.

The game I reviewed was a prototype and did not yet feature a snazzy title screen or finale. Yet, unfinished or not, it's one hell of a game. The graphics are nearly identical to the arcade version, and the sound effects are dead-ringers for those on the coin-op. The highlights are the female voice that tells you what kind of wave it is and goes "ooh!" and "yeah!" when you make a big Klax, the scream of a tile as it falls off the conveyor without being caught and the sound of an audience that applauds your successes and chants "Awww" when you blow it. Good stuff.

Tiles are forever!

At least it'll feel that way! When you play Klax, you must catch different textured tiles and place them in rows, columns, or diagonals of three or more matching sets. Of course, at first it will seem easy, until tiles start flooding the screen and you begin to run out of room. Try to set up multiple laxes, setting off chain reactions, and creating the ultimate Klax, the "Big X". In certain levels, you can use the Big X to warp to higher levels! After the 100th level prepare yourself for a happy ending! You already know that you have fast fingers. See how fast your brain is.

The popular arcade puzzler is now on the Genesis. You must stack different colored tiles that come down a conveyor belt. Stack them in many different ways to earn big points!

Straight from the arcade and into your home comes Klax from Tengen. Faithfully re-programmed from the coin-op, Tengen's NES version will be the first of the consumer Klax invasion that will continue with Turbo, Genesis and Lynx.

Klax is an interesting reflex/strategy game that challenges you to grab tiles and throw them into piles to make lines of three. Specific lines add bonus points!

Klax, adapted from the recent Atari Games coin-op hit, is a puzzle game somewhat resembling a cross between Tetris and Columns. Employing a conveyor belt which slowly moves tiles of different colors towards you where they fall off the belt onto a tray. Move the tiles around to get the colors to match up in horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines.

That sputnik of videogames, Tetris, seems to have launched a frantic race among the world's programmers to invent a quick-action puzzle game that goes above and beyond the Russian original. The orbit is now growing crowded with sequels, imitators, and clones - not to mention all the different versions of the genuine Tetris for various computers and videogame systems.

Do we really need one more? Tengen apparently thinks so. Tengen's Klax not only draws upon Tetris for inspiration, but also takes the same basic screen, tilts it backward about 45 degrees, and drops colored blocks toward you at an ever-accelerating rate. Sound familiar?

Actually, Klax was probably born out of frustration, not imitation. Tengen released a Nintendo version of Tetris before Nintendo did, but was forced to withdraw it when Nintendo went to court over U.S. rights to the Soviet game. So in a way, Klax is Tengen's second try - a second-generation Tetris that shares a similar theme, but is different enough to be a new game in its own right.

Like Tetris, Klax is a simple game that can be learned just by watching someone play for a few minutes. Colored blocks start dropping down from the top of the screen, and you have to arrange them at the bottom for points.

In Klax, however, the blocks are all the same shape (rectangular) and are different colors. You get points by arranging blocks of the same color into rows or patterns - horizontally, vertically, diagonally, or in X's.

Also, the blocks don't just slide down the screen as in Tetris. They clatter down an incline, and you have to catch them at the bottom with a horizontally moving paddle. You can catch as many as five blocks on the paddle, then drop them one at a time to form your patterns at the bottom of the screen.

From round to round, Klax offers more variety than Tetris. But the gradually increasing difficulty is not as finely tuned, and Klax also lacks some of Tetris's charm (perhaps because the freshness of these kind of games is wearing off).

Nevertheless, Klax is one of those challenging and engrossing games that makes hours pass by like minutes. It definitely deserves a look.