Lose Your Marbles

Lose Your Marbles is a head-to-head puzzle game released by SegaSoft in 1997, with a Mac port distributed alongside the original Windows version. Players slide three columns of colored marbles up and down to line up matches faster than their opponent, who is busy trying to bury them under falling pieces.

Gameplay

Each side controls a three-column board. New marbles drop in from above on a timer, and the player shifts entire columns to align three or more like colors horizontally or vertically. Successful matches dump extra marbles onto the opponent's field, and the first player whose board overflows loses the round.

Modes and presentation

The game ships with a single-player ladder against a roster of cartoon CPU opponents and a much-praised hot-seat and network multiplayer mode. The marketing campaign famously stamped early boxes with a Better than Tetris or your money back tagline.

Reception

Reviewers were split: GamePro called it one of the most addictive PC games of the year and gave its fun factor a perfect score, while GameSpot's Nicole Freeman judged the single-player AI too easy to sustain interest. The game was a runner-up for Computer Gaming World's 1997 Puzzle Game of the Year.