198. Palamedes (Natsume, Famicom, 1990)

Palamedes is a home conversion of a Taito arcade game also released in 1990. Named after either a Greek mythological figure or a knight of the round table, Palamedes is a dice-themed puzzle/action game. It takes the trappings of a standard arcade puzzle game (vertical play field, blocks slowly encroaching downwards before they crush you) but removes most of the strategy, instead focusing on reflexes and action.

You see, all of the blocks that are descending are the six faces of a standard die, color-coded so they are easy to recognize. You control a small character at the bottom of the screen who can throw blocks upwards. Hitting a block with the same number on it will cause both to disappear, otherwise your thrown block just disappears, so you can't cause your own demise by throwing a bunch of junk block onto the playfield. No, because you also have the ability to cycle through the 6 die faces yourself, so the challenge becomes simply keeping up with the constant flow of new pieces. That said, it was easy enough to just keep cycling to the next number, clearing any applicable blocks, then moving to the next.

There is a small amount of strategy involved in Palamedes: the game tracks the last 6 dice you cleared, and if they form some kind of pair or straight, you can use those cleared dice to instantly destroy the lowest row, though if the lowest row only has a single block in it, this feels like a waste. Additionally, if the 6 dice that you clear have certain patterns to them, you can clear multiple lines at once. If you manage to complete a stage without using this clearing power, you get a huge point bonus, and I appreciate that there are effectively 2 ways to play the game. The music and presentation are both mid-high tier for a Famicom game, which helps make the whole experience more palatable.

4/5, a simple dice-based puzzle/action game with no nonsense