Screenshots from VG Museum

Year released: 1989

Number of Players: 1-2

Graphics: Nicely colored jewels are the game pieces, and thus what you'll see mostly. Everything else seems to be inspired by Greek/classical styles.

Play control: Vertical stacks of three jewels fall from the top of the screen, one stack at a time (when one stack is solidly placed, the next stack starts falling). Press a button to shift the jewels' order vertically. Side to side on the d-pad moves the stack side to side, while down makes it go faster downward.

Sound: Seems to be a mix of medieval and Mediterranean music. Sound effects are standard, though with a slight feel of magic.

Challenge: Clear the most jewels possible by arranging three jewels of the same color in a line either vertically, horizontally or--unlike most puzzle games of this variety--diagonally, and avoid getting two stacks of jewels over the top of the screen. For every increment of jewels destroyed (not sure what the number is), the speed at which they fall will increase. The arcade mode seems to be faster about levelling up than the original mode. Also, the arcade mode is the only mode where one will receive a wild card jewel stack every once in a while. This wild card stack will clear all jewels of the color of the jewel it is placed above. There is also a flash mode in which you must clear the pile of jewels given to get to the bottom and clear the flashing jewel. Challenge is increased by the fact that you can only rearrange jewels in a single file vertical line, but decreased by the fact that diagonal lines can be formed to clear crystals. In all modes a second person can join in on the right side of the screen, and in flash mode the two players can compete.

Gameplay: On the whole, similar to any other color-matching pieces-falling-from-the-sky puzzler. It can get addicting. The diagonal matchups and the wildcard stacks, however, add a level of ease to the game--but clearing jewels easier means clearing more jewels, which means one gets up into higher levels sooner and make the game harder that much quicker.

Bottom line: A decent game to have in your collection. However, it's not much different from any other color matching puzzler you may know.

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