An extract from the Pop Them, Drop Them SameGame review by WiiWare World:
"SameGame is a bit of an unusual one. It was first created way back in 1985, but was never really all that popular. Nevertheless, it went on to spawn a large number of clones and remakes over the years, with Hudson's effort being the latest.
The basic concept of SameGame is quite simple. You are presented with a large grid filled with blocks of varying colours. Your job is to eliminate every single one of these blocks by matching them up with other blocks of the same colour. The catch is that you can't actually move any blocks yourself, the only way to move them is by selecting an already existing group of similarly coloured blocks and making them disappear, dropping all blocks above down a number of spaces. The larger a group is when you make it vanish, the more points you get.
As you can imagine clearing the whole screen is quite a task, it's very easy to be left with just one block of a certain colour, meaning there's no way to make it disappear, because the minimum amount of blocks you need to destroy a group is two. When you're left with no more possible moves, you instantly lose. If you clear everything the game doesn't end, the screen will be completely refilled. This, of course, goes on until you fail to clear a screen."
MyWii writes: "Pop 'Em Drop 'Em Same Game is a simple block elimination game based on a well-known formula. Clearing blocks of the same colour gives you points, and you beat the puzzle when the grid is clear. In this version there are no new stages to progress onto – the grid is simply renewed with another set of blocks. Difficulty is adjusted through settings, which also allow you to customise the look and feel of the game. The graphics are very basic with familiar 2D visuals reminiscent of the Atari era."
While there's definitely some skill involved in figuring out where the blocks will shuffle to and how to score more points, it lacks the urgency and excitement of faster puzzle games. People who find Tetris too stressful might appreciate having as long as they like to stare at the board, but the tiny graphics could wind up giving them a headache.
All in all, Pop 'Em Drop 'Em SameGame offers a fairly robust and attractive array of options for a WiiWare puzzler. Its price is also right -- at just 500 Wii Points, this is a package that puzzle players should definitely consider as a compliment to the Tetris Party and Dr. Mario Online Rx already in place on their Wii's channel array. It probably won't get as much play as those two, and doesn't offer quite as much nostalgic value even with the similar age of its earliest editions. But for five bucks, you can't really go wrong with it -- it's certainly a game that's too good to just be brushed past and forgotten, like some of those other WiiWare puzzlers from this past year.
Presentation - 8.0
Graphics - 8.0
Sound - 7.0
Gameplay - 7.5
Lasting Appeal - 7.0
Overall -
