KMGR of "Addiction"

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Addiction has a cute name, and is interspersed with a comic book story about some cliche alien invasion, but it is actually just a variation of Puyo Pop, which is itself a variation on Tetris. As such, this game is derivative, but can be challenging.

The concept behind addiction is that you drop 2 attached balls, maybe different, maybe same colors. You can rotate the balls so it's vertical, horizontal, in 90 degree increments. There are on the game field some "fixed" blocks of various colors. If you drop balls onto blocks to form a "quad" (4 pieces in a row or column, all same color, ball or block), they'll disappear, and anything held up by them will "collapse" to the bottom. If you can chain these together, or make even LONGER combos, even better. You can slide the pieces as you drop them before they "settle in", and there is a "next piece" indicator, a LOT like Tetris or Puyo Pop, isn't it?


The "addiction" part is this little "bar" on the right. As you play, the bar goes up. Getting those combos done, esp. with the blocks, shrinks back down the bar a little, but when the bar fills, you get random balls drop from the top, from a few to a whole row's worth, and that can mess you up.

You clear the level by removing all of the "fixed" blocks. As you can imagine, this can be complicated due to random balls rained down by the addiction bar. So, quick and decisive action is best. If you take a while to clear the board, you may not succeed. Depending on how clean the board is, you get a bonus for "clean board" (i.e. minimal remaining pieces). There's also a "master time" for each level. If you beat it, you're VERY good and get a "time bonus" as well.

The game has multiple difficulty levels and allow you to start at any of the playing levels.

The comic panels are about as cliche as they come, and very "campy", and doesn't really have ANYTHING to do with the game, as far as I can tell. The 'story mode' which gives you a plot via the comic panels has 40 levels, but once you do finish the story, you can keep going.

The game is almost impossible when you go beyond level 30, as the blocks are very much near the top that one wrong move and the game is over. It will take a bit of luck and sharp eye to spot the right place to drop those pieces to remove the stuff, AND to setup the pieces for the future.

All in all, "Addiction" is simple to learn, but the story mode doesn't really integrate, and while the puzzle is fine, it's also derivative as heck, and thus, not that interesting.

Overall rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: simple game play, a lot of levels, can be challenging
Cons: derivative, a story mode that doesn't fit with the gameplay
Verdict: if you really must play every Tetris variation under the sun, then I guess this ain't a bad one to try