Fortress

"Great New Puzzler from Majesco"

The world of Fortress is a never ending battle for survival, and in this case, with survival comes a lot of fun! Majesco's new puzzle game combines factions from Tetris and Rampart, and does a darn good job of it too. Through the game, you build huge structures out of falling tetris blocks, striving to reach a certain score before your opponent does. All you have to do is combine blocks to form parts of your structure. Except it's not that easy. While doing so, you'll be bombarded, blasted, and fried by your opponent, who happens to want to win this little race. Both of you will have little men called twerps who will repair damaged blocks. They reside in things that fall from the sky called twerp towers. Also, all sorts of weapons will fall to aid your (and your opponent's) quest. And let's not forget monsters that run around wreaking havoc! Fortress is fought in four different eras; prehistoric, medieval, pirate, and space. Sure, it looks different, but the gameplay is the same each time. Though the game is two player, you'll need to games and systems, not to mention a cable, to play against each other.

Graphics- 8/10

The graphics are pretty decent in the game, though it looks as though it's aimed at a younger crowd with the appearance of the twerps. The only thing that bothered me was that sometimes I had trouble telling whether or not there was room for a block somewhere.

Gameplay- 7/10

I really liked the play of the game; it was fun, but it got tiring after a while. Except for bomb blocks that would come down all to little, you had no direct control over the game.

Music- 6/10

Okay, the music was of average quality, but the sound effects started to really bug me. The ''whoopee'' of the twerps was really stupid, and the screaming of those big nosed freaks that were blown to bits made people look at me when I was in public with the sound on. Also, the sound effects in general were poor.

Overall Score- 7/10

Fortress was somewhat of a letdown to me. They could have done so much more with the game. For those of you older gamers who avoid kiddish games like this, stick to Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. But take my advice, rent this before you think about buying it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/01, Updated 08/31/01