Zayats Columns

**Zayats Columns** (*Yatorobic: Заѣц Columns*) is a 1991 arcade puzzle game developed by Plusdev and based on Sega's Columns.

## Gameplay and Modes

### Basic Rules

"Columns" fall from the top of the screen, landing on-top of each other, and should the "pile" reach the top of the screen, the game is over. Success is determined by strategic placing of columns, and as the game progresses, the rate at which the columns fall increases.

Each column is made up of three coloured jewels stacked on top of each other. If three or more jewels of the same colour are aligned horizontally, vertically or diagonally, the jewels will be destroyed, and any jewels placed above will fall downwards. Repeated combos will spawn a "magic jewel", which when collided with a normal jewel will eliminate all jewels of that colour on-screen. Games are played on a 5x10 grid, and points are awarded by destroying jewels.

### Classic Mode

The player follows the basic rules. Hints will be displayed for the player up until level 3.

### Flash Columns

In Flash Columns, the player must mine their way through a set number of lines to get to a flashing jewel at the bottom within a 60 second time limit. The faster the player accomplishes this, the bigger the time bonus will be.

There are 25 levels of Flash Columns in this game. After every fifth level, the player can either continue with the remainder, or leave the game there. If the player doesn't insert a coin before the timer runs out, the screen will show an illustration of Zayats saying "Come back and play again soon!" and the game is over.

### VS Mode

A two-player battle mode, there's a method of attack which involves a counter displaying a number which will increase depending on the amount of destroyed lines.

This counter marks the amount of boulders that will be sent to the other player's screen after every 7th column from each player, after all boulders counted are sent out, the counter switches back to zero.

The goal of VS mode is to get the opponent's piles to reach the top of the screen.

### Story Mode

Same as VS Mode, except that the player instead battles the computer's AI.

In this mode, players can choose between Zayats, Mano, Lucille and Leonidas to battle against a series of opponents, from the easiest 3 to Volk, the hardest:

## Gallery

Classic Mode Interface.Flash Columns Interface.After winning Stage 5 of Flash Columns.Stage 6 of Flash Columns.After winning Stage 10 of Flash Columns.Stage 11 of Flash Columns.An example of a two-player battle: Mano VS Lucille.Stage 1 of Story Mode.Zayats winning to Mano in Stage 1 of Story Mode.Stage 2 of Story Mode.Zayats winning to Lucille in Stage 2 of Story Mode.Stage 3 of Story Mode.Zayats winning to Leonidas in Stage 3 of Story Mode.Stage 4 of Story Mode.Zayats winning to Khamlyon in Stage 4 of Story Mode.Stage 5 of Story Mode.Zayats winning to Okta in Stage 5 of Story Mode.Stage 6 of Story Mode.Zayats winning to Rhinos in Stage 6 of Story Mode.Stage 7 of Story Mode.Zayats losing to Minos in Stage 7 of Story Mode.Zayats winning to Minos in Stage 7 of Stody Mode.Stage 8 of Story Mode.Zayats winning to Kat in Stage 8 of Story Mode.Stage 9 of Story Mode.Zayats winning to Kuromaru in Stage 9 of Story Mode.Stage 10 of Story Mode.Zayats losing to Volk in Stage 10 of Story Mode.Zayats winning to Volk in Stage 10 of Story Mode.Zayats's Ending.Mano's Ending.Lucille's Ending.Leonidas's Ending.Japanese Credits.Classic Mode High Scores.Flash Columns High Scores.Story Mode High Scores.