PUZZLE KING: Dance & Puzzle
Developer: eolith Year: 1998 Genre: Puzzle
■ South Korean developer Eolith is best remembered for its collaborations with more established developers, and games like this make it clear why. Puzzle King: Dance & Puzzle doesn’t make anything of its dance theme, leaving everything to hang on the puzzling. Unfortunately, the puzzle action suffers from mechanical overload.
The first button can be used to link two blocks of the same type, causing them to disappear and the blocks above them to fall, potentially allowing for a chain. However, there
are rules as to which routes are acceptable for linking. New blocks fall onto the playfield sporadically, which can be controlled after you press the second button. Then there are a variety of power-up blocks including line-clearing items, paint buckets and more.
There’s a lot going on, but it’s never compelling as the elements all feel like they’re fighting one another – why direct blocks rather than eliminating them? Why create combos? Why bother playing this instead of finding a better puzzler.
