BoXiKoN Instructions
BoXiKoN was designed to be a simple as possible to play. Some of
the most successful video games have had the most simple rules, from the
earliest game of Pong to the more recent game of Tetris
and the modern day success of Bejeweled.
Game Basics
The basic idea is to move the shapes out of the shape dispensers and into the
game grid. Each shape can be rotated before being placed in the grid. Once
a shape is placed in the game grid it can not be moved. Position shapes
to form solid vertical or horizontal line. When a solid line is formed, the
blocks forming the line will be removed.
The shape dispensers will slowly fill up; you must move the shapes out into the
game grid to make room for new shapes. If a new shape is set for release and there
are no spare dispensers, a Blocker will appear in the game grid. In the picture on the
right you can see a Blocker. The Blockers obstruct the formation of solid lines
so they must be avoided at all costs! One important tip; If all the dispensers are
full and you are unable to move any of them out into the game grid, you can pick up
a shape freeing a dispenser ready for a final shape!
In the later stages the game grid will start to build up with blocks and it will
become difficult to make solid lines with the more complex shapes. At this point
the Bombs will start to appear. The Bombs appear as part of a regular shapes and
are placed into the game grid in the same way as the usual colored blocks. The
Bomb is triggered off when caught up in a solid line, or when two Bombs are placed
next to each other. The Bombs explode clearing a large section of the game grid.
The Bombs can also be used to clear away unwanted Blockers.
Points System
If you place a shape that is made from three blocks you will get 3
points, if the shape is made from five blocks you get 5 points and
so on. The picture on the right shows a solid vertical line being created. This
line will then be cleared from the game grid. A line is made up of nine blocks,
and a single line will give 1 point for each block cleared. So one line
will give 9 points. Horizontal lines are cleared in the same way.
The picture on the left shows three solid vertical lines being created in one move.
All three lines will be cleared from the game grid. Three lines cleared together
will give 3 points for each block cleared. So three lines will give 81 points.
This shows how important it can be to aim for clearing multiple lines. You can also
clear vertical and horizontal lines in one move. The maximum you could do is four
horizontal and four vertical lines in one move. This would give 8 points for each
block cleared giving a total of 448 points!
Advanced Bonus Points
Further bonus points can be made by creating solid lines of colour. The picture on
the right shows four solid lines being formed. Three of these lines are solid blue
colour; two vertical blue lines and one horizontal blue line. The fourth line contains
some red blocks. Normally you would get 4 points for removing the four
solid lines but the three blue lines give double points to in this move you would
get 7 points giving a total of 224 points! The solid line
bonus points are limited to a maximum of 9 points per block so the
very maximum you could do is eight solid lines of a single colour in one move giving
504 points!
The best opportunity for bonus points is the colour box bonus. This happens when
you make a block of 4x4 blocks of the same colour. You can see in the picture on the
left, a block of 4x4 yellow blocks is formed. This is 20 points for
each block giving a fixed total of 320 points! This bonus is also available
for 5x5 (500 points), 6x6 (720 points) and so on. These
bonuses are very difficult but certain strategic play will allow you to get the 4x4
bonus relatively easy. However, this bonus is more of a distraction for less
experienced players!
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