Palamedes II: Star Twinkles

Palamedes II can be described as “its predecessor, turned upside down”. As before, your goal is to rearrange a set of dice and put them in a row for elimination. Only series of dice such as 4-4-4-4-4 or 1-2-3-4-5 can be eliminated, and depending on the series, this will result in one or several rows of dice to be eliminated from the screen. Unlike the original Palamedes, this time your character stands on top of the dice, and the growing pile of dice will crush him unless he makes the correct combinations to eliminate the pile. It’s a bit like Tetris, and a bit like Klax.

Two modes are available: Mode 1 puts your player on top of a growing pile which must be eliminated. It can be played alone (single), against another human (match) or in a quest against the computer.

Mode 2 puts your player on an already well-stocked pile, but unlike mode 1, the stacks can’t be rearranged in order to reach the desired dice, so you have to make do with what is in the top layer to match whatever dice is shown on top of the playfield. An opposing player does the same, and the first one to reach the bottom wins. If both players run out of matching dice, a countdown begins to reveal a new dice, and it’s necessary to react quickly to find the matching one in your pile. Due to the nature of mode 2, it can’t be played alone, only in match or quest mode.

Unlike the original Palamedes, this was only released on the Japanese Famicom.