Collapse! Crunch

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**Collapse! Crunch** is a puzzle game developed by GameHouse and released in 2004. It was available for download until the client shut down in 2013.

## Overview

Once again, your mission is to remove a cluster of same colored blocks, at least three in one click, but the more the better. As soon as these blocks have vanished, the blocks above of them will fall down and fill the gap.

And while you remove blocks in the level, the game pumps new rows from the bottom in, so you must remove them faster as new rows appear and the blocks stack up. Once all rows have been pumped out, you win. If one block reaches the top, you lose.

The game offers four different game modes: **ZigZag**, **Big**, **Crunch**, and **Perplexor**.

**Big** is the classic Collapse mode. It works like explained above. New rows appear without doing anything, so waiting too long can be fatal. The speed of new rows increases from the beginning of the level to the end, but also the general speed from level to level. There are two possibilities for new rows: full 28 block rows or 14 block rows with a gap between each block. The gap will change the structure of the blocks in the game (while one vertical row stacks up, the other don't). There are Power-Ups in this game mode, which will help you, but can also hinder.

This game mode is identical to *Traditional* from the predecessor, but is more then double the width, that's why it's called *Big*. The Big board can hold up to 532 blocks.

**ZigZag** is a strategy variant, so new rows only appear when you clear a cluster. ZigZag is referring to the playfield, while the blocks in the other three game modes are ordered in a rectangle, this is ZigZag. Meaning that odd numbered vertical rows are like normal rows, while the even numbered vertical rows are shifted a half block up. For this game mode, you have infinite time for your movement.

**Perplexor** is similar to the *Puzzle Mode* from the predecessor. You have to remove all blocks, if one remains, you lose. You also have as much time as you need. The greatest problem in this game mode is, that you can't use all of the blocks at the beginning. The playfield is divided into two different areas. The bottom area looks like in **Big** and works like in **ZigZag**. The upper part is partly hidden, but can't be used at all. Once you clear something in the bottom part, blocks from the upper part will drop down.

**Crunch** is the most unique of the four. The playfield has blocks centered at the four edges. In the middle is a big mine. If the blocks hit the mine, it's Game Over. Instead of putting new lines into the game, the new block feed will put each block one by one counter-clockwise, moving the inner blocks in one of the two possible directions (block feed from upper right corner will move inner blocks more left or down). Once you remove a block cluster, the blocks "beneath" of it will collapse in the direction of the nearest wall. While **Big** is speeding slowly up, this mode here speeds really fast up, putting multiple blocks in a single second in the game.

The Power-Ups, which are available in **all** game modes, except **Perplexor**, are both good and bad: *Platform Block* (doesn't move, just blocks), *Indestructible Block* (moves like a regular block, but can't be removed with normal actions), *Color Bomb* (will destroy all same colored blocks in its radius), *Super Bomb* (will destroy all blocks in its radius, including Platform/Indestructible), *Shifting Block* (will move all blocks, including Power-Ups, in it's radius to a new location; it's like randomizing, but without losing the amount of specific blocks).