Puzzle game fans are benefitting quite a bit from the resurgence of older hardware.  There are newer ideas in the puzzle genre that were unheard of back in the 80’s.  One such new addition to the genre is The Return of Traxtor for the Amstrad CPC.  Anyone familiar with the whole “Bust a Move” and Zoop style of gameplay will understand Return to Traxtor.

Everything you need to interact with is brightly colored and easy to understand in a pinch.  The only colors that might be tough to discern in the heat of the moment may be the two shades of blue used.  The basis of Return of Traxtor is much like Zoop where you are pulling pieces from the playfield then placing them somewhere else in the playfield.  Instead of matching five though, here are you are only required to match a minimum of three similarly colored blocks.

The connection to Bust a Move comes in with the way the pieces below where you make a match react.  Blocks drop off the playfield when those directly above are removed.  This causes multiple pieces to be removed in a single move- clearing the playfield that much quicker.  You have to stay on top of things because much like Tetris Attack, the playfield will automatically advance after a predetermined amount of time so don’t sit and think too long.  It could leave you in an unwinnable situation.

The twist to Return of Traxtor is that you can collect up to three pieces.  Just remember, when you go to place the pieces back in the playfield they will go from last picked up to first (reverse of what you picked them up in).  This can cause you some headaches when in situations that are hair raising, nerve wracking, trouble spots.  That is the sign of a good puzzle game.

To grab your copy of Return of Traxtor head to the Usebox.net website.

Carl Williams

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