Quarth, originally released for the Arcade in 1989 by Konami, is a fast-paced hybrid of a shoot ’em up and a falling-block puzzle game. As descending, irregularly shaped block clusters advance toward the bottom of the screen, you control a ship that shoots individual blocks upwards. The objective is to fire blocks into the gaps of the descending shapes to form perfect squares or rectangles, which then disappear. It’s an innovative mix of rapid-fire action and quick spatial reasoning.
How to Play
Your ship moves left and right at the bottom of the screen. Shoot blocks upwards to complete rectangular shapes out of the descending patterns. Once a perfect rectangle or square is formed, it is eliminated from the board and you earn points. If any part of the descending blocks reaches the dotted line at the bottom, the game is over. For arcade controls in the browser, use the arrow keys to move your ship and the assigned action keys (typically Z, X, or Space) to shoot blocks.
Tips
- Shoot to stall: Firing a block into a descending cluster halts its downward movement for a brief moment. Use this to buy time if a cluster is getting dangerously close to the bottom line.
- Build larger rectangles: While clearing small rectangles is safer, waiting and building larger, multi-block rectangles before completing them will yield significantly higher score multipliers.
Leave a Comment / Review: