About Color Blast
Color Blast is a block-clearing puzzle on a board 12 columns wide and 10 rows tall, filled with five colours. Clicking a group of touching blocks of one colour removes it, the blocks above fall down, and empty columns close up. Big groups are worth far more than small ones, so the game rewards planning.
How to play
- A group is two or more blocks of the same colour connected horizontally or vertically. Diagonal contact does not count, and single blocks cannot be removed.
- When a group is removed, blocks above fall to fill the gap, and any column that becomes completely empty is closed up by shifting the columns to its right leftwards.
- A group of n blocks scores (n - 2) squared points. A pair scores nothing, a group of 5 scores 9, and a group of 12 scores 100.
- Clearing every block from the board earns a 1000-point bonus.
- The game ends when no groups of two or more remain. Your final score is recorded then.
Controls
- Mouse: hover over a block to highlight its group and see its size and point value in the score bar, then click to remove it.
- Touch: tap a block to remove its group straight away.
- Play again appears when the game ends and deals a new random board.
Tips and strategy
- Because points grow with the square of the group size, one group of 20 (324 points) is worth more than ten groups of 6 (16 points each). Merge small groups into big ones before popping them.
- Clear other colours out of the way to join two patches of the same colour, then pop the combined group.
- Pick one colour to save for a big finish and avoid breaking its groups early.
- Work mostly from the bottom and the right. Removing blocks low down changes the most of the board, so it is the best way to bring same-coloured blocks together.
- Popping pairs scores nothing, but it can be worth it if it sets up a large merge or helps clear the board for the 1000-point bonus.
- Leave as few isolated single blocks as you can. Each one that remains at the end means no clear bonus.
Background
This style of game is generally known as SameGame. It began as Chain Shot!, created by Kuniaki Moribe in 1985 for Japanese home computers, and was later spread under the name SameGame on many platforms. The (n - 2) squared scoring used here is the scoring rule most commonly found in SameGame versions.
Questions
- Why did I get no points for a group?
- Groups of exactly two blocks score (2 - 2) squared, which is zero. You need at least three blocks to score.
- Can I restart in the middle of a game?
- There is no restart button during play. The board is replaced when the game ends and you choose Play again.