Fallout

Fallout! seems to be a popular title for a video game. Notice the exclamation point on the back of this one, and you will be able to accurately discern this title from its counterparts, most notably the popular post apocalyptic role playing game of the same name (minus the exclamation point). This is actually a freeware release from the very early nineties and is a puzzle game that features qualities similar to Tetris and also the popular Pogo game, Sweet Tooth or Bejeweled.

The player begins with some tiles of various shapes and colors in the field of play, with more falling from the upper portion of the field as play continues, similar to Tetris. The point of the game is to identify groups of similar tiles, click on them, and make them disappear. The “group” of tiles has to be two or more and they must rest in vertical or horizontal patterns, since Fallout! does not recognize diagonal patterns of any sort. Once a group of tiles is identified and clicked on, they disappear, causing the rest of the tiles above them to shift downwards to fill in the vacant space. Game play continues in this manner until the tiles have built their way all the way to the top of the screen and touch the top. This is also very similar to Tetris. The other way to end the game prematurely is the unlikely event that there are no matches on the board. In this case, the game will announce that there are no more available moves and the game will be over.
There are many nuances to the game that will create challenges for the user. There is a time limit that becomes more demanding with every level. The user has to remove X number of tiles in each round before time expires. Of course, the quota of tiles will also increase as the game progresses, making it even more hard. As the quotas become larger, the time limits become shorter, there is another issue…the blocks begin to fall faster. Eventually, the user will be faced with a right lovely mess and will just be frantically clicking on tiles in hopes of making a fast match and getting himself out of the level. To make matters even worse, as play progresses, there will be more colors added to the mix, as well as different shapes of tiles, making it more difficult to create matches.
Overall, this is an addictive little game that will always keep the user in a state of frustrated panic. It is a great download for gamers of any age.