The Daily Click

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Author:	Kirby Smith
Added:	07/03/2005
Overall:
Average:	9/10

Diamond 4 is another installment in the unique puzzler series by CassataGames. The basic gameplay is highly simplistic, consisting of controlling the left/right movement and velocity of a ball that is constantly bouncing up/down. However, thanks to some exceptional level design, the game becomes much more than that. Quick thinking and even quicker reflexes are required, and the complexity of some of the levels leads to a game that will both frustrate you and draw you in at the same time. Now that that's out of the way, let's move on to the nitty-gritty.

The presentation of the game is highly professional, complete with snappy looking splash screens, and three save slots (which you WILL use). The menus could have been designed a little better (with the high resolution, having every option display at once would have been a better choice). 56K-ers won't like the file-size, but Brandon has already commented that he intends to provide a smaller version for them.

Gameplay, as mentioned in the introduction, is very addictive, and will test both your mind and your reflexes. The engine is solid, for the most part, although I felt like the movement was a little stiff for my liking. The boost feature could have been taken farther than it was, as sometimes it gets a little mundane bouncing off the bottem of the screen several times to get a row of diamonds on the top (a turbo speed option would help to alleviate this problem).

The graphics are simplistic, but they are well designed and serve their purpose. Some background variety, and maybe some additional animation would have helped to make the game pop more than it does. If one thing truly stands out as being less than stellar, it's the particle effect engine, which seems quirky and based simply on shooting several objects using basic 32-direction movement. On the whole though, there is nothing to detract from the gameplay, which is all that really matters in a puzzler.

Music is one of the places where this game truly shines. I'm not sure if it was created for this game, or if Brandon just found some mp3's that he liked, but either way it works. The sound effects could use a little more variety, and seem dull compared to the rest of the audio package, but you'll probably just tune out the monotonous bounce noises and listen to the background.

I feel like I'm repeating myself, but this game is hard. 20 levels doens't sound like a lot, but they all take a while to beat. . .when you do manage to get through them. It's going to take a while to get through all the stages, and there's probably enough game here to hold you over until Diamond 5.

Overall, the game is well worth the download (except for you 56K guys... wait for the Lite version). One of the better puzzlers I've played, Klik or otherwise.