Fortress is a puzzle title that blends Tetris skills and battling in one. Players use Tetris-like blocks to built up a Fortress and can add items like cannons, lasers, monsters, and people, to try to take down the opposing fortress.
Players can choose to play the game in four time periods - Stone Age, Pirates, Medieval, and Future. None of themes change the gameplay, just the visual theme.
There's three gameplay modes in Fortress - Battle, Blitz, and Tournament. In Battle, players can build up their Fortress with Tetris blocks and weaponary attachments for 30 seconds. After the 20 seconds are up, your Fortress starts to attack the enemy. In Blitz, players start battling right away, and Tournament lets players build up for 45 seconds before battle starts.
The basic gameplay is fun, but not all that addicting. Players mix and match shapes so that the level can be flat to add weapons and other attack items. It's amusing to watch cannons and other things fire out of your puzzle block fortress, but the action isn't all that fast or intense.
When players reach the top of the screen, they can try to build more on the very edges of the fortress, or use the trigger to destruct and start building over again. The objective is to reach a certain number of points that each level designates.
There's a two player link-up mode in Fortress so you and a friend can battle with one cart. The competitive nature of the game is enhanced much more when you take on friend instead of the boring CPU.
Fortress is an average puzzler that's okay if you have time to spare. The different play modes aren't all that unique from one another, and the different themes don't do anything to the gameplay. It's an interesting take on block building that could have used more variety.
