Soldam (Game)

Soldam

GAME » on September 1992

Arcade (Platform)Game Boy (Platform)Nintendo Switch (Platform)PlayStation 4 (Platform)

A falling-block puzzle game and a spin-off of the fantasy platformer Rod Land, combining the Tetris's line clearing with the color-changing game mechanic of the board game Reversi.

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Overview

Soldam is a fantasy-themed falling-block tile-matching puzzle game developed and released by Jaleco for arcades on September 1992. It later received a Japanese-exclusive handheld conversion for the Game Boy (Platform) on August 6, 1993. Combining the line-clearing action-puzzle game of Tetris (Game) with the color-changing mechanic of the board game Reversi (Concept), Soldam has players rotating and dropping 2×2 pieces of blocks into a 10×13 board, which can cause all blocks between them and other blocks of the same color to change their color to match, in order to form full rows of the same color. It is seen as a puzzle game spin-off of Jaleco's earlier platformer Rod Land (Game), with several characters (including protagonists Rit and Tam) returning. The game later received a remake for the Nintendo Switch (Platform) in 2017 (with a PlayStation 4 (Platform) release in 2019), known as Soldam: Drop, Connect, Erase (or Soldam: Kaika Sengen). The original game later received a digital release for the PlayStation 4 (Platform) and Nintendo Switch (Platform), both as part of HAMSTER's Arcade Archives (Franchise) series, worldwide on September 16, 2021.

Gameplay

In Soldam, players rotate and drop 2×2 blocks of different two colors (which can increase to four in more difficult Soldam Mode levels) onto a 10×13 board in order to form full rows of the same color. Similar to the board game Reversi (Concept), landing pieces causes all four blocks to check outwards horizontally, vertically, and diagonally if they sandwich pieces of other colors with pieces of the same color, and then change those colors to match. Skillful color changes can cause a large amount of line clears at once for bonus points. Once a line is cleared, the "Clear Soldam" row below the bottom of the playfield becomes occupied with a line of the color used. This row can be used to sandwich pieces on the bottom row and is cleared once done so. The game has three modes: Soldam, Sekiero, and VS.

Soldam (ソルダム) is the game's standard endless mode, in which players score as much as they can before topping out. As players progress through higher speed levels, the game not only gets faster, but the game adds new block colors (one at Level 10+ and another at Level 30+). The blocks used are soldam fruits.
Sekiero (セキーロ) is the game's story mode, where players attempt to clear all 60 levels of Maboot's Tower while dealing with special blocks and other obstacles (including boss monsters that hinder the player in certain ways). The mode's name refers to "Sekiero" obstacle blocks, which cannot be changed and can only be cleared in a line clear with all other normal blocks in the row (with 2×2 blocks requiring both rows being cleared). To make things less difficult, the game includes "Dekabura" blocks (2×2 blocks of the same color that split when landed, also changing Sekiero blocks when landing next to them) and "EXTRA" letter blocks (which are collected when changed or cleared and, when fully collected, clear the board for bonus points). The blocks used are turnips.
VS is the game's two-player competitive multiplayer mode, where each player has a 6×13 board and try to outlast their opponent. Each player has their own color affinity (red for P1 and blue for P2), with the left, right, and bottom edges of the boards matching that color (allowing them to be used for sandwiching). Clearing multiple lines at once sends garbage blocks rising from the bottom of the opponent's board. The blocks used are candies.

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