Pick 'N Pile. (computer game) (Evaluation)
by Clayton Walnum

If you like Tetris-style puzzles, you'll go bonkers over Pick 'N Pile, a game of columns and tumbling shapes that leaves your mouse smoking. In this UBI Soft offering, you rearrange colored balls on the screen to create matching columns, which upon being formed, vanish from the screen. The object is to destroy all the balls on the screen before the timer runs out.

Although all the balls in a column must be identical before they'll vanish, a column can contain bonus objects, which give you more time or boost your score when they disintegrate along with a column. For example, hourglasses add ticks to your countdown timer, bonus-point cubes add to your score, and bonus-multiplier cubes multiply the column's points by a value of 1-6.

Other extra items include bombs that destroy nearby objects, flowerpots that smash anything upon which they fall, fires that multiply rapidly and block columns, and death heads, which accelerate the timer if they touch the bottom of the screen.

Piling balls and objects isn't as easy as shuffling them around. The higher you pile a column without support from the sides, the more likely it is to tumble. Wall cubes can be placed in supporting positions, but time is valuable, so avoid moves that don't remove balls.

All in all, Pick 'N Pile is a colorful and addictive game that'll delight any puzzle-game enthusiast.