Loopz

Loopz is a puzzle game brought to the Game Boy in 1991 by publisher Mindscape, based on the original computer game by Audiogenic. The player is given a steady stream of appearing lines and arcs of various shapes, which must be placed on the playing field so as to form closed loops - hence the game's name. Each completed loop disappears, freeing space for further pieces, while the playing field gradually fills up and the pace of incoming pieces increases. Success requires a combination of spatial reasoning and planning several moves ahead, since a badly placed piece can block further progress. The player must therefore constantly anticipate the shape and orientation of upcoming pieces and adapt the loops already laid out on the field, so as not to needlessly cut off the path to completing them.

On the Game Boy the game is rendered with restrained but functional graphics, where the individual piece shapes remain easily distinguishable even on the small monochrome display. The controls are limited to moving and rotating the current piece, so the game is quickly understood, though mastering it at higher difficulty levels takes practice. The sound accompaniment is simple and serves mainly to confirm successfully completed loops, reinforcing a sense of progress during play.

Loopz was among the smaller, respected puzzle titles of the early nineties that tried to offer an alternative to the already widespread falling-block games. On the Game Boy it found a following among players looking for a less conventional logic challenge. Today Loopz is more of a matter for collectors and puzzle-genre connoisseurs who appreciate its distinctive, loop-based principle, so different from most of its contemporaries. It is precisely this uniqueness that makes Loopz an interesting choice today for anyone who wants to try out just how many different directions the falling-and-arranging-pieces genre could take at the start of the nineties.