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Mahjong is an ancient game that remains as challenging and engaging as ever, and publishers have been striving to make the perfect game for years. Activision’s Shanghaii series is well-known and loved, and the Genesis port of Dragon’s Eye is about as close as one can come to Mahjong bliss on the console.
Sega attempted to combat the success of Nintendo’s Tetris with Columns, which is a solid game in its own right. Released on the Genesis in 1990, it also received a Master System port, and that version is actually one of the better puzzle games on the console.
Sometimes, you find a game that seemed to completely escape you, and when you finally play it, it’s great. Sunsoft’s Shi Kin Joh is a perfect example of this. A cool Japanese maze game, it was actually compatible with the short-lived Mega Modem in Japan. Things like this make me that much angrier when I think of all the cool stuff we missed out on.
Puzzle games come in all shapes and sizes. Some are more complex than others, but often the simplest puzzlers can be the most fun. One of the lesser known members of the genre on the Genesis is Shove It! The Warehouse Game, which basically boils down to a dude in a warehouse pushing boxes for cash. It’s not very deep on story, and it can even be downright repetitive sometimes, but the game actually grows on you after a while.
The story of Tetris is long and convoluted enough to fill an entire book, and those wanting to know the full story about the tangled legal mess that the game’s home rights turned into are encouraged to check out David Sheff’s Game Over: Press Start to Continue. It has all the details about the litigation and underhanded plays that occurred as multiple entities and people tried to cash in on the Russian phenomenon. One company that was caught in the crossfire was Sega, which tried to release a version of Tetris for the Mega Drive, only to find itself slapped down by the legal issue. Few copies were actually released, and a slew of pirate versions have since cropped up, fetching ridiculous prices on eBay.