Stack Up

Crash

Overall 80%

EXCELLENT CITY Punters unite! Welcome to Excellent City - the place where all the greatest Speccy games of the last few months live (in most desirable residences). No longer do you have to puzzle over what to buy. Just jump aboard the express chuffa and pay Excellent City a visit. AND, THE BEST OF THE BUDGET STACK UP Zeppelin Games £2.99 Take Tetris and Connect 4 and you've got a vague idea what Stack Up's like. Simply guide the falling groups of blocks so they form horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines of three or more of the same colour. To add variety you can change the style of graphics to suit yourself from four different types. Simple, high-playable and wildly addictive. Go buy.

Sinclair User

Graphics 79%

Sound 70%

Playability 78%

Lastability 75%

Overall 76%

Alan Dykes 76%

Label: Zeppelin Memory: 48K/128K Price: £2.99 Tape, N/A Disk Reviewer: Alan Dykes Riddle me this... What is easy to comprehend but difficult to figure out? What is completely boring but yet excitingly addictive? The answer is of course a strategy game and Stack Up, the pick of Zeppelin's latest mixed bag of budget releases is a reasonably absorbing example. It's a funny thing about puzzle/strategy games, the descriptions given in the manual or on the box sound unbelievably brilliant, whereas the overall idea of the game sounds repetitive and naff, the reality usually ends up somewhere in between. If you really do want to get to the root of a game the general rule is to remove buzz words (words used to make things sound more exciting) from the manufacturer's description. Stack Up is described as the "Ultimate Arcade Teaser.... In superbly addictive quantities". Spot the buzz words. This "Arcade Teaser" (that's more like it eh?) is reminiscent of other colour block building games such as Klax and follows the general rule of simplicity. The aim is to position a variety of randomly mixed coloured cubes, which are being dropped in horizontal groups of three, into diagonal, vertical or horizontal lines of the same colour blocks. Each level has blocks descending at ever increasing speeds, with playing screens after level two having an initial random scattering of blocks before play even begins. Many other obstacles also appear on later levels. Scores can be multiplied by setting up chain reactions and there are bonuses for having lots of lovely empty space at the end of each level. Stack Up is not easy!

Your Sinclair

Life Expectancy 88%

Instant Appeal 84%

Graphics 72%

Addictiveness 89%

Overall 86%

James Leach 86%

Zeppelin £3.99 cass Reviewer: James Leach Tsk. Those Russians, eh? No sooner do they become all friendly and glasnosty, than they drop Tetris on us. And Tetris, as we all know, is the biggest cause of late nights, headaches and damaged joysticks ever. Worse still, it now seems as if the world, his wife, his two daughters and their pet Labrador 'Ludo' are all writing games with that 'addictive puzzle arcade-type element'. And oh what a coincidence! Here comes one now! It's called Stack Up, and it works a weeny bit like this. Coloured squares fall from the top of the screen, three in a line. You can't twist the round, like Tetris, but you can alter the order of the colours. They build up at the bottom, and the idea is to try and match up the colours falling with those below, to produce lines of three or more (which can be diagonal, horizontal or vertical). If you do this, the lines disappear; if you don't, the screen will fill up and you'll be staring complete failure right in the face. So, nothing too different from the Big T so far, just a few nifty little twists. BLOCKHEAD! The game is divided into levels, so even if you're not doing well you can often just hang in there until you get to the next level (where you can start afresh). The later levels have lots of fiendish features, like blank blocks which can't be removed, forcing you to make your coloured lines around them. As you get further up the levels, you start to get random coloured blocks appearing (usually where you least want them). Oh, and in case you're thinking that it all sounds rather easy-peasy, the game itself gets faster and faster as well. (Of course.) Right. That's enough technical, difficult-to-explain stuff. If you really want to know how it all works, go out and buy it. All you need to know is that Stack Up is amazingly good fun to play. Were not talking earth-shaking originality here by any means. Zeppelin have obviously taken a long hard look at Tetris, and quite unashamedly decided to produce a game in exactly the same mould. But where it comes up trumps is in the way they've retained the same addictive quality, but managed to put a facelift on it with the new features. The difficulty level for example is set just about right (pretty important for games like this), and the graphics, while extremely straightforward, are really bright and crisp, and blaze off the screen in nice primary colours. It really is the biz. Hmm. And there isn't a lot else to say about it. Except that if you're even the slightest bit interested in having a go at a puzzle game, then smash that stupid blue piggy-bank you got on your eighth birthday (and that you're rather ashamed of), collect all the half-pennies which you've been putting in ti (even though they're no longer legally accepted) and rush down to your local software emporium to get a copy of Stack Up immediately. If the man hasn't got one, insist that he telephones the distributor to get one sent as soon as possible. (But don't forget to say please.)

Keep an eye out for those blank diagonal blocks - they're just there to cause you maximum hassle.

Not doing too well here, actually. Er, let's hope we're near the end of a level!

Those shapes on the coloured blocks are pretty, aren't they? (They're probably for people with black and white tellies, we'll wager!)

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Crash

Overall 80%

EXCELLENT CITY Hello there, punters. Buying games is a tricky business, isn't it? As soon as one game reaches the shops there's something else on the way that looks even better. Decisions, decisions. But now, help is at hand - simply jump on the CRASH groovy train and take a ride to Excellent City where all the best games of the last few months reside. AND, THE BEST OF THE BUDGET STACK UP Zeppelin Games £2.99 Take Tetris and Connect 4 and you've got a vague idea what Stack Up's like. Simply guide the falling groups of falling blocks so they form horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines of three or more of the same colour. To add variety you can change the style of the graphics to suit yourself. Simple, highly playable and wildly addictive. Go buy.

Crash

Overall 80%

Nick Roberts 80%

Zeppelin Games £2.99 Take Tetris and Connect 4, add a few road signs and a couple of planets, shake well and what have you got? Stack Up! This is one addictive game. Ever since I started playing I haven't been able to put the joystick down - it's that good! The aim of the game is to guide the falling groups of blocks so that they form horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines of three or more of the same colour. Once a stack has been made the blocks disintegrate giving points and moving the blocks above down. You're not restricted to the order the blocks fall in, pressing swap allows the colours to change position so they can be placed just where you want them. Making stacks of four or more is helped by the display at the bottom of the screen. This shows the blocks that are coming up next so you can take them into account when positioning the current one. Each frame has a number of stacks to be completed before you can go on to the next. A normal line of three counts as one stack but lines of four count as two, five as three and so on. Higher levels hold more perils to make the game tougher frames are started with blocks already placed in them, blocks appear randomly, only diagonals count as a stack and the left and right controls become reversed, causing total mayhem! To add a little variety in the graphics you can choose what each block is represented by from a list including road signs, planets and even Greek symbols! Stack Up is a simple and highly playable. Get a copy now and go blocking mad (and I'm taking this copy home with me)!

'You blew it!', indeed. Oh, just one more go...

It looks like that falling green sign would help matters but where ever it's put it won't clear any blocks (no three in a row, y'see).