Normally we'd just send out a tweet about this (that's usually what we do with free app deals, so if you're not one of
the almost 40,000 people following us yet, you definitely should be), but this is a good one, and it's a holiday, so we wanted to make sure you knew. Sega is feeling particularly generous this weekend, so they're
giving away free copies of
their Columns Deluxe, a port of
the old Genesis game, for the iPhone. The game is a pretty straightforward port -- it doesn't have any extras, and the accelerometer controls are a little tacked on from what we hear, but if you like the puzzler gameplay of
Columns, and you should, it's a fun one to pull up for a few minutes at a time.
Plus, it's free -- from July 3rd to Monday, July 6th, Sega says it'll be on sale for the low price of nothing at all. Sounds good to us -- sit back, put a few brats and burgers on the grill, grab a Corona (and lime, of course), and enjoy some old-school dropping block gameplay for no money at all.
Tags: columns, download, free, free-stuff, gaming, genesis, holiday, independence-day, iphone, sega
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
oboewan said 7:41PM on 7-03-2009
Still says $1.99 for me.
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oboewan said 7:48PM on 7-03-2009
Just found out from another site that the deal starts tomorrow at 12:01am.
Also, the screenshot is of Puyo Pop (also included in the package), not Columns (Sega nerd here). So, that's two games for free.
TheOrienteer said 8:28PM on 7-03-2009
If you search for columns in itunes it shows up as free!
Piotr Malecki said 7:44PM on 7-03-2009
Me as well. Both on my Canadian and my US iTunes accounts.
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tripm said 8:31PM on 7-03-2009
if you search for "columns" it comes up as free, but when you click the link it still says $1.99
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Eric said 8:34PM on 7-03-2009
If you follow the link in the article to the game's page, it is $1.99. If you click to see all the games offered by Sega, it's free. Download it from the menu page, rather than the app page.
There's also a Virtua Tennis 2009 minigame for free on the same menu.
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Forsakenzoul said 8:44PM on 7-03-2009
Still says $1.99 if you go to the App Store on the iPhone.
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Robert said 9:09PM on 7-03-2009
Are you sure this is Columns, it looks suprisingly like Sega's other Tetris rip-off, "Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine"?
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Seanross said 9:43PM on 7-03-2009
The official name of the Game is Puyo-Pop (Puyo-Puyo), but as always back in the day, they had to americanize stuff and attach a well known franchise name on it for it to sell.
there are actually tons of Puyo games if you look them up
hikingbear said 9:12PM on 7-03-2009
it's free. I downloaded it anyway and it was free.
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JKT said 12:01AM on 7-04-2009
Yeah, and it's free for a reason. Not a whole lot going on with this one. Back to Harbor Master for me.
alansky said 9:28PM on 7-03-2009
It's almost 6:30 pm Pacific time and Columns is still $1.99 at the App Store on my computer.
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Jal050688 said 9:41PM on 7-03-2009
It shows as free when searching for it on your iPhone, but after selecting it sells at $1.99. After trying to download it, you're unable to because it's being "modified".
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Zac Grose said 9:45PM on 7-03-2009
I can see why they made it free. This game is absolutely abysmal — playing 'endless' on easy lasted all of 20 seconds until the game defeated me, and I promptly removed the game from my iPhone. Really, genuinely poor form.
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JKT said 11:55PM on 7-03-2009
I agree, it doesn't look too promising. I haven't even completely figured out the premise of the game yet--there weren't any instructions. It's kind of Tetris-y, kind of Match-3-y. But the bottom of the board moves up on the computer's side and not mine, and I'm not at all sure what that's about. The control is iffy--about 1/4 the time I try to move a falling piece left or right I get ignored. This seems like a Beta version at best.
JKT said 12:19AM on 7-04-2009
MAJOR PLAYING TIP: The TUAW description mentions the accelerometer controls are "tacked on". It's much worse than that.
YOU MUST TURN THE ACCELEROMETER OFF for the game to not be impossibly hard to play. So do download, but immediately go into the settings and turn off the second option. Once you do, your pieces won't fly to the bottom of the screen 5x faster than the CPU's and you'll actually have a chance to win.
Hope this helps everyone else!
Michael said 8:48AM on 7-04-2009
I agree. Also it's really, really buggy. Classic Sega I guess.
Ryan S. said 10:07PM on 7-03-2009
My dad can play columns on our old Sega Genesis (that still works!) for HOURS. He'll probably kill the battery on his iPod playing this. xP
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bobics said 10:43PM on 7-03-2009
Skittles!
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bobics said 10:58PM on 7-03-2009
Play Puyo-Pop aka Puyo-Puyo aka Candy Crisis aka Skittles on you Mac (free): http://candycrisis.sourceforge.net/