Drop and Blow

Drop and Blow is a tile, or rather ball, matching game that can be played either as a puzzle, as a single player vs the computer, or against another human opponent. It is entirely keyboard controlled and the action keys can be redefined.

In all modes the basic game play is the same. Coloured balls appear at the top of the screen and the fall downwards into the play area. When four or more balls of the same colour are connected horizontally, vertically, or irregularly, then they explode and the player scores points. As the games increase in difficulty the game drops bad balls, i.e. Balls that do not match any colour, into the game area. Such balls do disappear if adjacent balls are removed.

While the game is in progress the size of the player's play area gradually diminishes as the base moves up the screen. The player can reverse this, and thereby generate more playing time, by creating 'chains'. A chain is a series of linked explosions/groups of four or more same coloured balls, they are created by strategically stacking balls of the same colour. Then, when one of the lower layers of balls is removed the coloured balls above it move down one layer and link up with matching balls already positioned on that level, thus one explosion triggers a second and possibly a third, fourth and so-on. As has been said above, chains cause the base of the play area to retreat but they also trigger a bonus multiplier to the points scored when the balls are cleared.

The game modes available are:* Free: The player just plays the basic game until they can play no more

• Puzzle: Fifty levels in which the object is to clear all the pieces from the play area. If a player abandons this game they are given a code so that they can restart at the same level.
• Championship: The player plays against the computer for a trophy
• vs. Computer: Similar to Championship but a shorter game
• vs. Human: Player vs Player