Columns Crown

"Shiney"

I bought Columns Crown back in early 2004 and it is still good fun to this very day. Okay I may be a few years behind the actual release date of the game but I got it for a real bargain. (Only £2.50!)

I was not too fond of the storyline in the game, quite…eh… bad in my opinion however, I realised when I was playing the game that it was mainly aimed at kids for about 3 to 10 year old so that explained why the storyline was not that good. Well the story goes like this; Princess ‘Dazzle' must complete the ancestral crown if she wants to be Queen but oh no, she cannot find them. So she decides to get her friends ‘Jade' & ‘Ruby' to help her retrieve the gems. Well technically Princess Dazzle does basically nothing to help, all she does is search the castle and tells you where you can find Gems and that's it. She is just lazy to help them search I guess.

The controls are really quite simple in the game; use the D-pad to move from left to right and press the A button to change the jewels in the order you want them in although the jewels come down in a trio and you can not make them go horizontally while they come down.

The game play can be challenging at some points but nothing extremely unbelievably difficult. There is quite a selection of modes to choose from. Survivor mode is basic; all you have to do is select your character and difficulty level and start playing until you are beaten. Vs-CPU mode is quite fun, it is basically just the same as Survivor mode with the exceptions, you can get special abilities and you have to verse thieves who are after the gems and guess what, the first character you verse has a relevance to a gem also,' Sparkle the Ninja'. There is also Flash mode which is basically a time trial mode in which you have to obtain a certain score within in the time limit given. There is also my favourite mode of all time, Multi-player mode! You can even play it with one cartridge.

Not much to say about graphics, they are really good for pictures that move from time to time and the art work is really good but not really anything spectacular. In the game the background repeats it's self over and over in survival mode. First you see a castle then a few trees, then a bridge and then back to the castle. I just thought they could have been a little bit more creative.

I really like the music in the game, especially the music that plays at the start at the main menu. It is a really catchy, casual beat that adds to the innocence of the game but that is just my opinion. No music gets annoying in the game, the same goes for the sound effects I thought. So, thumbs up for the music and sound effects.

Like most other puzzle games this one will keep you hooked for a good while. You probably will want you to go back and play it from time to time but it does not have the certain edge to it that will make glued to your Gameboy Advance.

This game is better than its elders in my opinion. The storyline is a bit sloppy although, if you put that aside everything else is pretty cool. I would definitely recommend this if you like puzzle games or if you like a good multi-player game. Multi-player mode was definitely the highlight for me.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/13/05