Top 50 Video Games

So today I was reading the latest issue of PC Gamer, and in it they had an article about the top 50 PC games of all time. I enjoy reading such things, and I decided that the interweb was finally ready for a top 50 games list of my own. I will bring you one game per day, or few days, or week, or month depending on (among other things) my work schedule, my fiancee's work schedule, and the WoW server status. I will rank them, 50 to 1. This is based on how much I enjoyed the games and how much they influenced me. Sales figures and popularity don't count here, my opinion is fucking ironclad. So, without further adieu, here is #50:

#50: Columns
System: Sega Genesis
Publisher: Sega
Released: 1990
Players: 2


Puzzle gaming at its best.



In the late Eighties, Nintendo released Tetris for the NES, and later for the Gameboy. Tetris drew gamers and non-gamers alike with it's simple, addictive gameplay. Tetris had a large hand in the success of Nintendo's Gameboy. As with any successful game, Tetris inspired many spin-offs and breathed life into the puzzle game genre. Columns, admittedly, is one of those spin-offs. It took the Tetris formula, changed it a bit and wound up with the best puzzle game I've ever played.

In Coulmns, the object is to clear as many blocks from the screen as possible, racking up points in the process. The blocks consist of 3 squares - each of which may be a different color -and they descend from the top of your screen. During their descent, you may switch the order of the squares and move the block back and forth in an effort to land it in the best possible position. When you line up 3 squares of the same color (either vertically or horizontally), they disappear. There is no end to Columns, it is simply an endurance trial. I would often play myself into a zen-like state where I was no longer aware of my physical self or my surroundings. The sparkly blocks would fire down from the top of the screen like rockets, and I'd be there guiding them, floating about a foot off of the ground, a being in a state of pure energy. I like Columns a lot.


Head to head Columns is a blast.


The game's hypnotic music helps the process along. The graphics were nothing special, but games like these don't rely on their beauty. I've never been a big fan of puzzle games, and I've never really played one since (I think playing Bust-a-Move with Jimbob is the only one I've really played since.) Still every once in a while, a special game comes along that transcends genres and is simply a special, enjoyable game for any and all. For me, that game was Columns.

How does it hold up after all these years? - Very very well. Columns was fun in 1990, it's fun now, and it'll be fun 15 years from now. Gamespot shows a PS2 entry for a rerelease of Columns here, but lists no additional information about it. Anyways, if you have the chance to give Columns a try, do so. It doesn't reinvent the puzzle genre, but it does stand as a fine examnple of it.