Columns III

 is a puzzle arcade game published by Sega in Japan and by Vic Tokai in North America in 1993 as a sequel to "Columns II: The Voyage Through Time".
Gameplay.
Columns III consists of a Single Player mode and a Multiplayer mode.
The basic objective is to match 3 or more gems in a row, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. This must be done using blocks that are a random assortment of three stacked colored gems, which cannot be rotated, but the three gems can only switch places. The colors include red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The player 1 board is located on the left of the screen, while the player 2 or CPU (depending on game mode) is on the right. In between both the boards shows the next upcoming block for each player, the current score (up to 30), the overall number of matches, the time, and the current amount of rounds won. If you are playing single player mode, whichever CPU you are facing will also appear in the middle.
There are several ways a player can sabotage in a game as well. Once a player gets at least 10 current points, they can press C (on a genesis controller) to shoot the other board up and shoot their board down if theirs was previously shot up. There also magic blocks that, if in a certain configuration, can affect either board as well. If not rotated, the block will shoot the players board down. If rotated once, the block will make whatever color block it lands on all disappear from their board. If rotated twice, the block will shoot the other players board up. Keep in mind that any time a player moves the other players board, whatever block they are currently playing will break (including magic blocks).
There are also single-use items you can obtain in the single player mode. These include barrier, heavy weight, magic gem, hourglass, etc. These can be accessed in the pause menu by pressing start on a genesis controller.
The objective is to not place a block that reaches above your board, and to sabotage the other player to make them reach over the top of their board.
The single player story mode has 3 difficulty options: easy, medium, or hard. The only difficulty you can actually beat the game in is hard. In easy or medium mode, the game will stop after a certain number of bosses, so these are typically used for practicing basic game control. The story mode goes through different rooms of a pyramid and each room contains a boss, each of which progressively get more difficult until, finally, you reach the final boss.
The bosses go in this order:
Ports.
In 2002, "Columns III" was one of the first Sega titles launched under Sega's short-lived agreement with the RealOne Arcade download service. The Mega Drive version was released on the Wii's Virtual Console download service in Japan on December 11, 2007, in North America on February 4, 2008, and, for the first time in PAL territories, in Europe and Australia on May 2, 2008. It was also most recently ported as part of "Sega Genesis Classics".
Reception.
Electronic Gaming Monthly gave positive reviews stating “Here is another Highly addictive game with a theme similar to Tetris and Pac Attack. A very good game”.