Rush for Gold
Welcome to Gold Rush, a solid and conventional match-3 puzzler that feels almost like a trip down memory lane. The classic gameplay and retro-looking graphics really work well to conjure up feelings of nostalgia and take what could be a rather mundane experience and make it worthwhile.
Jack, like every other person under the bright, burning sun is looking to strike it rich. Your task is to help him reach that goal by helping him mine for precious gold. However, a mine is a dirty, cluttered place. You'll have to dig through quite a lot of debris to really find anything worthwhile. Fortunately for you, that debris is in the form of brightly colored blocks that can be matched and made to disappear!
Block Party
The blocks appear in three beautiful shades: green, orange, and blue. Of course, I'm being sarcastic here, because the blocks don't look all that impressive. However, that's where the game's charm lies. The flat, somewhat dull colors of the blocks really feels - excuse the term - "old school." It definitely strikes me as a throwback to the days of yore and one that I can truly appreciate.
Technically there are four different block colors, given that there are also gold blocks. However, while the other blocks are merely obstacles in your path to riches, the gold pieces are indeed the riches. Matching these golden pieces will help ensure certain victory of your current level.
The way you remove blocks is simple. Simply click a group of three or more touching blocks of the same color. You'll see a bar on the left side of the screen that will quickly fill up with new pieces. As soon as it's full, that new row will appear at the bottom of the screen. If the stack of pieces reaches the top, you lose, so you have to act quickly!
A Little Help
Of course you have powerups at your disposal to help reach your goal.
- Pickaxe: This guy will remove all pieces of one color.
- Dynamite: The dynamite will explode and destroy all the pieces in it's surrounding radius. It will also blow up gold, so be careful!
- Shovel: A shovel will eliminate an entire row of blocks at one time. Extremely useful.
- Bucket: Using a bucket will change all the surrounding blocks to the same color, which makes for a quick and easy score.
- Hammer: A hammer will smash all the blocks underneath. It's similar to the shovel, expect that it will help eliminate a column rather than a row.
There are still more powerups to be found, but I want to leave some for you to discover yourself!
Strike it Rich
While Gold Rush may not be as valuable as actual gold, it's still a pretty decent game nonetheless. It's far from anything revolutionary, but it serves up some good, classic fun that will be sure to please diehard puzzle enthusiasts. For gameplay that's slightly reminiscent of Tetris, give this one a spin.
