Here's a quick intro for those not in the know... There's a game called Tetris that features blocks of varying shapes falling vertically down your computer screen intent on nothing more than causing a blockage, thus concluding the action and ending your fun. Fun? But how can one derive fun from such a seemingly futile exercise in basic computer graphics? By preventing the blocks from building up - that's how.
Yes, simply rearrange these little devils into horizontal lines using just a handful of keys, causing them to disappear and consequently elongate your game. Sounds easy, doesn't it? - not to mention boring, pointless and dul. By jiminy though, it's addictive, and possibly the world's most widely played game.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, as with any successful concept, there are those who aspire to the same greatness - Columns, Towers - call them what you will, they're all younger, less meaty brothers of the classic Tetris.
Zyconix is a member of the family too - kind of an incest-spawned, two-headed child with a hair-lip and a limp, if you will, because it does have a few original quirks.
The basic idea is the same - simply do not allow the screen to fill up. Instead of different shaped blocks though, you are bombarded with coloured rectabgles that need placing in colour order, either horizontally or diagonally, to keep your screen clear.
Half a dozen or so different projectiles may fly at your blocks from time to time, and range from bombs and utility blocks to a rebounding ball that constitutes a mini-Blockout game.
As well as the standard mode there are three variations, each one accompanied by its own tune - jazz, rave, funk or soul, whereby you choose whether to race against time, go for bonuses, and other such shenanigans. There is even a two-player mode, played side by side.
Overall Zyconix is a very competent variation on a theme, but Accolade may find that many people are unwilling to pay full price for a game that appears in many forms in budget and PD libraries.
Having said that, unless you already own a so-called Tetris-clone, you could do worse than check it out - it's fun, addictive and one of the best of its kind on the market.