Extase

Ecstasy. The name alone promises something charged, but reality is a bit more modest — a logic game where you shoot colored balls and try to prevent them from reaching the edge of the screen.

It's one of those simple mechanics that appeared in many variations in the nineties. You shoot a ball upward, it bounces, and your goal is to group three or more of the same colored shapes next to each other so they disappear before they get to the bottom. You probably play with a mouse — aim, release. Pure simplicity.

Ecstasy looks at first glance like Bubble Bobble without bubbles or Color Lines without a grid. Colored balls fall or move toward your fall, and you have the power of shooting and direction. These games have their charm — they let you play half an hour without thinking, while at the same time a small tactic plays in your brain when you place pieces. There's nothing wrong with that. Actually, that's exactly what was most often installed in school computers that year, when the teacher was out of the room.

The sound isn't particularly memorable — typical computer beeping that you stop noticing after five minutes. The graphics are colorful, clean, without frills. Anyone who had some free space on their PC and a mood for something without commitment would grab this game.

Today? Ecstasy isn't a game anyone looks up on YouTube or downloads retro emulators for. It's more of an "oh, I played that once". If you have time, you're bored and want to try how logic games were played without graphic tricks, it still works. Mouse, brain turned off, five minutes of peace — sometimes that's exactly what you want.