Fortress

"This game sure is underrated..."

Fortress is Tetris, but with a twist: when you drop your pieces, and they make blocks of 2x3 or 3x2 or higher, they'll solidify into pieces of wall. The idea of the game is to make a fortress out of blocks by doing this. You have a computer (or human) opponent. To win a round, you must score a set number of points before your opponent does.

Along with the normal Tetris pieces, you'll also get weapons and barracks pieces. The weapons will fire at your opponents castle, causing pieces to break. Barracks will release Twerps that will fix broken parts of your own castle. There is also the bomb piece, which will let you fire a Twerp holding a bomb at your opponent's castle (you get to aim it, unlike normal weapons). If you drop four pieces in a row, and they solidify, you get bonuses that will help you along, such as bomb bonus, rate of fire bonus, etc. You can also make a wizard's tower, which will let you summon huge creatures to smite your opponent. Oh, yes... smite him gooooood...

The graphics are average, I've seen better on GBA. There are four different worlds to play in, so you won't always be looking at the same thing...

The music is okay, but sometimes, it gets a little annoying. The sound effects are good, though. There's nothing like the sound of a Twerp screaming for mercy after being hit dead on with a cannon ball.

The replay value is excellent... but that's mainly because there's no way to actually beat the game. There's just the single battle, blitz mode (like normal mode, but you get weapons more frequently), and tournament mode (you play through all four of the levels). Once you've beaten tournament mode once, it's always fun to go through it again. It also has a two-player mode, which is lots of fun.

If you actually see this game in a store, get it. It's pretty cheap, and it's great for semi-long car rides (the tournament mode will take you about 40 minutes).

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/05/04