BreakThru!

The Good
BreakThru! is another of the many games produced and released by Alexei Patijnov (though not really designed by him) after the success of Tetris. Though others, like Welltris, weren't that accessible or addicting and many people were copying and improving his ideas (California Dream's Blockout ), Breakthru remains as one of his most genius and fun games released.

Gameplay consists of the now familiar mechanics of clicking in different groups coloured blocks that are removed after clicking on them. What makes this game better is the many quirks added: there are falling blocks every little span of time (this changes most clone's mechanic of a Game Over screen when only one block of each color is in the screen, as blocks keep on falling), there are some special blocks like bombs, there are spiders and tin cans that can only be removed by bombs, rockets, there is some control of where and how the blocks will fall... Just simple enough to be addictive and complicated enough to be fun for a long time.

The Bad
The Windows music is quite horrible. There is a main tune that sounds like the popular Russian songs featured in Tetris, but there are also some horrible midi funk songs that it is better to switch off.

The game does not have enough variations and rewards to have so many levels. Only the change of background graphics and music seem to be enough for the designers to keep the player intrigued

The Bottom Line
A fun puzzle game as quick and accessible as Tetris with fun variations in its gameplay that kept me hooked to the computer for many afternoons, and my second most favourite "Patijnov endorsed" game. Maybe it's not well known enough because of the avalanche of puzzle-like games like then, but I think it's one of the better ones and I still play it from now to then. Very recommended.