Reviewer: Dos-Games-Online
This game is yet another rendition of Columns, the object is to get 3 of the same type of block in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line and not to let the place get filled up with blocks. Compared to other Columns games, this uses simple graphics and layout. Overall, a decent Columns game that sticks to the old formula that made the original Colmuns popular.
If you like Columns, this game is worth a try.
(Note: If you have a fast computer, you may need MoSlo or other CPU slowdown utility to play this game at a reasonable speed.)
Reviewer: kdt05b
Beyond Columns” is another stereotypical "blocks are falling and I can't
let them reach the top!" game. Blocks are cleared by getting 3 like
segments of the 1x3 columns in a row. There are only 6 variations for each
of these segments consisting of red, blue, purple, green, yellow, and gray
blocks. These default graphics may be changed, as a unit, to “gaming
graphics” such as a Pac Man Ghost or Floppy Disk/Save Icon, standard 6-sided
die, each side of which sports a different color, some retro/plaid designs,
numbers 1-6, or the first 6 letters of the alphabet.
The groups of three may be placed horizontally (-), vertically (|), or
diagonally (/ or ). As you progress through the game, the columns fall at
a faster and faster rate until level progression becomes impossible.
There are 5 initial start speeds which are portrayed as the difficulties:
“Very Easy,” “Easy,” “Medium,” “Harder,” and “Even Harder.” Each of these
difficulties initiates the game with differing speeds depending on your
selection (Very Easy being slowest and Even Harder being fastest) as well as
providing a different colored background.
Each control has, by default, 3 different keys mapped to it, and while these
cannot be changed, they are spread out over the keyboard allowing for
comfort and to take away the awkwardness of trying to play a game with only
one hand.
The graphics for this game are very old, and even when this game was new
(1989), I doubt it was cutting edge as far as looks are concerned. The only
real annoyance was that the columns do not appear progressively at the top
of the screen, one block at a time. All 3 blocks per column appears at once
making the overall playing field deceptively small.
If you are a career gamer, “Beyond Columns” is probably not the game for
you. This is the game you played when you were very young and had nothing
to do. For those of you who have time that they need to kill, take 15 or 20
minutes and play this game until you get tired of it. This is one of those
games that everybody has played, and probably enjoyed, a variation of at
some point in their lives and while revisiting “Beyond Columns” is not going
to open the box of gaming addiction, it is something nice to explore for the
simple sake of nostalgia. For a free game, this is worth at least a couple
moments of your time.
Download Beyond Columns (beyondcolumns.zip)
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