I am working on an article about the most disrespected and despised game genre there is. That’s right, matching tile games.
For that, I am looking at tracing the innovations and developments of the last 20 or so years. The following tree is an attempt at illustrating the lineages of gameplay innovations from roughly Tetris to Chuzzle. For each game you can see the year of publication plus the innovations of that game listed with a “+” to the side.
Arrows mean “family resemblance and probably inspiration” – I will not attempt to verify that a specific game designer was inspired by a specific other game.
Question: Am I missing a game that contributed to the history of matching tile games? Do you find the connections playsible?
Very interesting. I’d never actually thought of Panel de Pon / Tetris Attack / Pokemon Puzzle Challenge as being in the same lineage as Bejeweled… I’ve long believed it’s one of the deepest puzzle games ever created, while Bejeweled et al are often written off as shallow, time-wasting fad games. Your connections make a lot of sense though. It’s interesting how a few small design changes (and no doubt a lot of careful tuning on the part of the designers) can make the difference (quality judgments aside) between the former sort of game and the latter.
It’s Mr. Pants – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Mr_Pants
Blockout (Tetris in 3D) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockout
Hexic – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexic#Hexic_HD
Zoocube – http://www.nintendo.com/gamemini?gameid=m-Game-0000-1054
Dr. Robotniks Mean Bean Machine – (Puyo Puyo clone?) http://www.gamestats.com/objects/006/006439/index.html
I know there are a whole lot more, but these are the first that came to mind….
Wrecking Crew ’98
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrecking_Crew_%2798
Pac-Attack aka Cosmo Gang The Puzzle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Attack
Magnetica aka Zuma aka Luxor aka Puzzloop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetica
Puzzle Kombat
http://deception.davesmk.com/puzzle/
You may want to point out that Magic Jewellery = Columns; at least one site linking to you ( http://www.gamesetwatch.com/ ) failed to make the connection (as did I until a quick trip to wikipedia straightened me out!)
Also, I’d always thought of Meteos’s main inspiration as being Panel De Pon turned on its side… the ‘blast off’ mechanic changes the combo system a lot, but surely it ‘borrowed’ a lot more from Tetris Attack than it did from Columns (the ‘switching’ mechanic, as opposed to Columns’s tetris-style ‘control over the falling block’ mechanic.)
You might also want to credit which game invented the gravity-based ‘combo’ bonuses system. (Probably Columns?)
Also:
Yoshi(‘s Egg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshi_%28game%29
which falls somewhere between Columns and Tetris Attack, control-wise. Not the deepest game in the world but it’s a good reflexes-based and planning/risk-based puzzler.
Good work.
Ever since reading ‘A theory of fun.’ I have been wanting to see more game evolution diagrams. I’m too lazy to make them myself. Good job. Do you know of any other diagrams. maybe someone should start a wiki.
Cool stuff…
I would like to Add in Klax somewhere (post first match matches?) as many games incorporate that now, though perhaps not with the same focus on secondary matches.
Great image though!
Jewel Quest did matches over boxes first btw.
One branch should contain KLAX and Columns, both games that involve getting three or more tiles of the same color in a row. KLAX is a bit more idiosyncratic than Columns with its tile catching mechanic and goals.
Another missing branch are Tetris variants, which include both games that attempt to “improve” on Tetris, and the more recent category of games that take the original Tetris play and add elements that jazz it up without changing it. (Like the N64 New Tetris, which adds 4×4 blocks for extra points, and the Japan-only Tetris Grand Master games, which simply get really fast really quick.)
Yet another missing game is Cleopatra Fortune, a rather cool permutation on the genre in which the player most “entomb” jewel pieces on all sides with stone pieces, giving it a bit of a Rampart vibe. While it’s mostly a Japan thing, they did release a budget PS1 version in the U.S.
Yet another another missing game is Nintendo’s “Tetris 2,” which was released back in the days the Tetris Company wasn’t around a rigorous interpretation of Tetris, and really has more to do with Dr. Mario. The various subgames (Push, Touch and Catch in particular) in the recent Tetris DS also might deserve their own branches on the chart.
Another thing your chart might want to distinguish between are endurance games (where you have one board and are to survive on it as long as possible), those with goals (do X to finish the wave and get a new board and goal, Atari’s arcade Tetris is like this) and those with special board configurations on each level (like Puzznic, which hardly seems this kind of game at all). And then there are the “battle games,” where the objective is to defeat an opponent. (Puyo Puyo is where this took off. Puzzle Fighter had it too, and the most recent permutation is Tetris DS’ Push mode, which actually puts both players on opposite ends of the same board.)
Isn’t Magic Jewelry just a bad Columns clone?
Also, what about Same Game?
SameGame == Chain Shot
Off the computer, isn’t Connect Four a limit case of the matching tile game, and perhaps an ur-game? A Game Boy Advance version of it was done in 2005, and surely that wasn’t the first computer version of the game.
the thing with plotting is that you’re actually swapping tiles. that is, when you clear tiles by matching them the tile behind them is your next move. (and if there’s nowhere to match that tile, you miss.) which would make plotting’s most logical descendent be zoop.
Oh, lots of good suggestions.
RavenWorks, I think you are right that Yoshi’s Egg should be somewhere besides Yoshi’s cookie, for being first to introduce the manipulation of fallen tiles. Perhaps Yoshi’s Egg should replace Yoshi’s cookie in the middle, and Yoshi’s cookie more like a branch that leads to Chuzzle?
Russell and John H.,I found it a bit hard to fit in Klax, and the same goes for the Tetris variants. I have to think a bit about including all of those (I want a tree of a reasonable size).
Russell, I think Jewel Quest and Big Kahuna Reef came out more or less simultaneously, both with matches over boxes?
John H, I didn’t know Cleopatra Fortune – wouldn’t it make sense to make that a descendant of Baku Baku?
Fluffy, as far as I could see, Magic Jewelry came out before Columns, but correct me if I’m wrong.
Dessgeega, I had left out Zoop, but I will see if I can fit it in.
Nick, as for non-digital games, I had thought about are: Mahjong, dominoes, Go, Connect-four, Set, Patience (the one with the pegs), Pachinko for Puzzle Bobble. Anything else?
Another good game for this chart which I personally thought a lot of fun is Pac Attack. Fits somewhere in the Puyo Puyo era.
Also, Ballistic was a lot of fun in the arcades and on the PS1.
The Da Vinci Code casual game has matching with a path – matches move your player along a path when it is discovered and linked to your player icon.
The screen also pans (unique?) and is always full except where there is negative space.
http://www.sonypictures.com/games/thedavincicode/
Similar to Big Kahuna and Jewel Quest, to be sure.
Zuma is missing from your list. Puzzle pieces steadily fill up the playing area like Tetris, but the pieces are matched up by color like Bejeweled. Also, removing certain pieces causes bonuses such as a decrease in puzzle piece speed and super-aim. It was released recently but is more like a 1-dimensional version of the earlier Tetris or Dr. Mario.
The diagram is a really cool idea, by the way.
Magical Drop?
Bubble Bobble?
Clickerama, I will look at Da Vinci code.
Hicks, Pac Attack is a bit too derivative to include?
Christy Nicol, I was trying to limit the diagram to only include games with rectangular playing fields, so no Zuma. Zuma is a clone of a game called Puzzloop anyway. Ballistic would also fall outside the diagram then.
Ham, Puzzle Bobble and Bubble Bobble are the same.
Fet, Magical Drop I thought a bit non-special.
*
All of the suggestions do point to the question about what goes into the diagram and what is left out. I am trying to focus on matching games played on a field split into rectangles, but I can see why it makes sense to add Puzzloop/Zuma since they are “the same type” of game, yet I suspect there is another piece of history to unravel then… I will post a new version of the diagram towards the end of next week.
I understand why you say that “Pac Attack” is deritive Jesper. IMO it used as many unique gameplay systems as some of the other games mentioned. Maybe more as the penaty blocks could become awesome channels.
Setting up channels and setting Pacman loose in them created horizontal and multi-line horizontal play which I have not seen duplicated in American release titles (I played some Japanese imports that have similarities).
I wish there was some video around to show off what I mean, but alas, the Gamespot well is dry. Maybe someone out there played it. But hey, just a suggestion. In the course of my tenure I have played so many of these games and unreleased imports as well and thought I would throw it out.
Ballistic is a branch off of Zuma I am told, but i thought it more unique. Check it out:
http://www.gamespot.com/ps/puzzle/ballistic/screenindex.html
Cheers.
It strikes me that this taxonomizing of game-families does not inherently express its greater purpose in examining games and in game studies. To be sure, it is a useful index, but it also seems frivolous to reduce the relationship between, say, Tetris and Go or Chinese Dominoes to a sequence of branches on a chart.
The significance of this relationship is complex and cannot be reduced to a simple evolutionary logic charted over time. It concerns the conceptualization of space, in this case through the use of tiles or grid systems and the performances of players in and on that space. Thus, one might ask what is the relationship of this ‘family’ of matching-tile games and the use of tiles in other genres such as RPGs and tile-based strategy games, or previous, archaic uses of tiles such as in Go, Dominoes and Chess. Obviously one might take the stance of a technological-determinist and say that tiles are, in computer games, a manifestation of the use of array-objects in programming. However this is not sufficient because it abstracts out the player, the nature of their engagement (pleasure, desire) and the possible subjectivity of their experience in this conceptual space.
Let us not indulge in formalism bereft of theory.
Your diagram has text too small to read. Could you make a larger version of the diagram? It looks very interesting.
Did you click on it to see the larger version?
There are some iterations of Puzzle Bobble that deserve mention:
Worms Blast had an innovative multiplayer component, power-ups, and allowed the player to move the shooter left and right.
Zodiac became a much more free-form game, without actual tiles. Maybe that disqualifies it?
Scrubbles added “ball mode” and bosses.
Puzzloop (Ballistic) belongs in this region of the board too.
Also consider adding Polarium (Nintendo DS), Klax (Arcade), Astro Pop (PC, but is it different enough from Klax?), and maybe a mention of Puzzle Pirates (A collection of many derivatives, but with the cooperative multiplayer twist). Four Houses is worth a mention too, but I’m pretty sure it’s not an original game, so finding its parent would be good.
A version of this document with screenshots might be fantastic.
Mad Caps and Hexic should be in there, too. (sorry for the triple-post! lovin’ the chart.)
I know Zuma was mentioned, but I’m not sure if it fits the criteria. It’s a game where the blocks move along a track in a spiral toward a hole. All (or at least most) of the others listed have the blocks falling from the top and filling a space below.
Nevertheless, I love Zuma (still!) and there has recently been a clone (or is it the original?) released for the Nintendo DS called Magnetica.
Interesting… There is an entire type of game called “tile matching” games, and yet not a single one of them is on this diagram!
I am referring to the Mahjongg tile matching games such as Shanghai, which are called “tile matching”. Or are you claiming that “matching tile” is a completely different type of game (which based on the games you show, it is).
I would suggest using a much less confusing name, since “tile matching” is already taken.
I am talking about “matching tile games” in the “digital game” sense.
I just released a new matching game called “Shell Whirl” where you match the item rotation not the item artwork. As far as I know this is a totally new game matching mechanic. (http://www.shellwhirl.com/)
Clicking on the image just makes it even less readable – it doesn’t present a larger version, just a crudely resized version. I am using Internet Explorer 6.
Hi
You are the author of the program named “Lyapunovia” ?
Ah yes, that was a long time ago!
Money Idol Exchanger (JP) (Money Puzzle Exchanger in the US) for the NeoGeo reminds me alot of an upside down puyo puyo, except you could also pick up any surface blocks and reorganize them, all blocks were given their own value, 1,5,10,50,100, and 500. And when you combined enough of a smaller type of block, it would transform into one block of the value above it. You might be interested in checking it out if you haven’t already seen it.
Here’s a link to an online review. http://darkscarfy.tripod.com/moneyidol/moneyidol.shtml
I would say Bejeweled is a direct descendant (aka) of Columns (circa 1990s) – which arrived around the same time Dr. Mario.
Nelson: According to my research, Magic Jewelry came out just before Columns (they are quite similar). An earlier version of the tree had “Magic Jewelry”/Columns to the left of Dr. Mario.
I’ve been looking for an older shockwave game similar to noah’s ark, match pairs to clear the board. It was multi level,with differnt icons and colors. I used to enjoy this game, from about maybe 96′?
Does anyone else remember this game?
Don’t know that one, sorry.
There’s also “Fortune Tiles” which isn’t free (unless you’re a member of certain boards). The game isn’t bad but using the “untimed” game you are only given a fraction of the levels possible. If you want to play all the levels, you can only get to those “missing” levels using Options..Replay Level.. then choosing one which doesn’t have any points (or not your name), but your can only play these in Timed mode and some are near on impossible.
A better comment is which “matching tiles” games are the deepest.
Puyo Puyo is the deepest puzzle game since it uses chains and simultaneous clears. Experts chain forwards, backwards, middle, and there are many many chain forms. There are counter-chains that use garbage that are really hard to learn to use. Expert players often build two chains and let one of them rip as harassment, although I’ve seen expert players build reversible chains, splitting long chains into smaller chains, and combining two chains into one bigger chain. The whole game can seem like studying or following a chain template sometimes though.
Panel de Pon (Tetris Attack) has fewer chain forms than Puyo, but the you don’t have chain templates. Since it allows active chaining, people usually only chain from the front. The DS version went slow enough and touch controls meant that experts juggled two chains at all times. The garbage system does not work in VS mode, and
score system hates same clears.
Money Puzzle/Idol Exchanger based on Magical Drop seems limited because you can only grab pieces at the bottom but there are two types of chains 5 and 2 and pieces turning into other pieces also makes it deeper than Magical Drop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoEETN0lnGQ
Starsweep (youtube search for Axl) – Not commonly talked about, but seems deep. There are few chain forms, however using garbage to form chains is important and rather than relying solely on active chaining there is more emphasis on setting up your chain unlike Panel de Pon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anw11vUEWXQ
Tetris seems sort of simplistic, not as deep as Puyo or even Panel de Pon. Modern versions of Tetris seem less deep as their randomizer isn’t random, but Tetris the Grand Master seems to have some added debt because you have to build your stack like a pyramid since the pieces start on the bottom.
Puzzle Fighter and Wario Woods have diamond pieces that are bad for serious puzzlers, however, at least Wario Woods seems to have some depth. Bejeweled and Dr Mario are completely lacking in depth IMO.