Loopz for game boy

I recieved Loopz recently. Not a common game, but pretty cheap when you find it, because few people play it.

It was released on other consoles too, such as NES and Amiga. In was released on the Game Boy in 1991, in both Europe, the US and Japan.

Loopz is a "hardcore puzzle" game that might suit engineers and people who spend hours trying to solve Rubik's Cube on their own (without success).

The point of the game is to build "loops", pipes that are connected to themselves. At every turn you get a randomly generated pipe shape and have to place it somewhere. A timer starts counting. You can fail three times, then you are game over.

Well, there are some strategically interesting things about the game. For example, I wasn't too successful with building my "mini loops" in the picture above. If you build like that, you will always be lacking in those small pieces. I would like to mention that I did get better at placing the pieces after playing for a while. Also, I probably shouldn't call them pipes, but the game has the same idea as Pipe Dream.

It seems that as you play a while, the pipe shapes get more difficult, such as the difficult to place Z shape. There is a strategy suggestion at http://www.gamefaqs.com/gameboy/585791-loopz/faqs/36001 .

The game has modes A , B and C. Mode A is unlimited play to get a high score. In play B you get a bonus after doing a loop worth 1500 points, but I haven't been able to do that and see what happened. Mode C is more of a memory mode where pipes are removed and you put them back.

The game actually got some decent reviews on all the consoles it was released on. Such as this one for the Amiga:

Creating perfect loops seems a promising concept, but its implementation is flawed. The random piece selection can be frustrating as it doesn't allow you to plan ahead (a Tetris-style 'next piece' indicator would have been helpful). And when you've got a nearly full screen, you often get several large pieces in succession, losing you several lives in one go. Apart from these niggles though, Loopz is quite fun – especially in the competitive two-player mode which involves stealing and sabotage! The different game types provide variety; the skill levels challenge, though there are no real graphical rewards. Let's hope Audiogenic do an improved sequel.

Considering these flaws, and that the high score resets when you turn the game off, it is the bare minimum of a game in my opinion. It makes almost as little sense as drawing something randomly on a piece of paper and giving yourself a score on it.


I rate this game 2/5. I don't know, but I think that by now most people can easily find lots and lots of puzzle games that have more to offer. As an iPhone app or on the internet somewhere. I never could see the point of the arcade style games that just kept on going until you got a game over. Games such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong that had no end and weren't intented to be beatable. Fun for a little while maybe, but pointless ??