''Drop Mania'' is a falling-block

puzzle A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are differe ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

, developed by Ninai Games (as Detonium Interactive) and published by Suomen Kotijäätelö Oy

in 1999 ''In 1999'' is a 1912 one-act comedic short play by William C. deMille, originally produced by Jesse L. Lasky, that was popular upon its release. Its gags are based on a future where gender roles are reversed. Production The piece debuted at t ...

for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It was sold in Finnish ice cream vans.

Gameplay

In a similar fashion to ''

Tetris ''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...

'', coloured blocks drop from the top of the screen and collect at the bottom. The aim is to arrange groups of colours and then make contact with an explosion block. This destroys all the same-colour blocks in one group, larger groups earning more points. More points are also earned for combos (where multiple groups explode at the same time) and chains (where blocks falling as the result of an explosion cause further explosions.) This same gameplay would be implemented in the 2001 game, '' Rampage Puzzle Attack''.

Legacy

The sequel, ''Super Drop Mania'' was also developed by Ninai, and published by Fathammer in 2005. It is designed for portable devices, being released for

Symbian OS Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

and

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

. It met with good critical reaction, reviewers highlighting the floating game-play area, rounded graphics and entertaining gameplay. One review criticising the lack of a "one more go" feeling found in other ''Tetris'' variants, whilst another felt that it was even more addictive.''Super Drop Mania'' review
at Mobile Tech Review

References

External links

*http://www.ninai.com
Archived
2007-06-26-at the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

– official site 1999 video games Falling block puzzle games Finland-exclusive video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Finland Video games scored by Jonne Valtonen Windows games Windows-only games Ninai Games games {{puzzle-videogame-stub