Standard block busting fun
When someone comes up with a great idea for a game, you can be sure that a wave of imitations won't be far behind. In this case, the inspiration is the puzzler Tetris but what's most impressive about Egaint is not to do with the game itself, but rather to do with the sheer speed with which it appeared on the market, being one of the first shareware clones of the block busting classic. Like other copies of greater games, Egaint doesn't exactly add a lot to the formula but does manage to mix things just enough to make it worth a brief examination, if only for the sake of completism. Just in case you're unaware of the concept, games like this, Super Retris Pro and Welltris, require the player to manipulate a series of falling blocks so that they form solid lines. Once you have done so, they disappear, allowing you to rack up the points and continue in this strangely hypnotic fashion for as long as you. Egaint does throw in some unusual block designs, not often seen in other clones, just to mix things up, as well as a tournament mode where you're presented with a fixed set of tiles. There is no multi-player mode unfortunately, making this one for singletons only but that's not necessarily a bad thing as the core gameplay on display here remains true to its origins and is still just as compelling as ever. Visually, the game is as simple as these things usually are, with little in the way of graphical flair but again, this isn't a huge problem for the same reason as before. If you're looking for another Tetris clone, this is a decent bet but don't expect to be blown away.
