Connection game

Lore & Background

According to Browne, Hex is considered the first modern connection game, developed independently by mathematicians Piet Hein and John Nash in the 1940s. Earlier games involving connectivity predate Hex, including Lightning (1890s) and Zig-Zag (1932), making Lightning the earliest known connection game overall. Martin Gardner popularized the genre with his writeup of Hex in Scientific American (1957), later expanded in Mathematical Puzzles & Diversions (1959). Gardner noted that Claude Shannon proposed a modified version of Hex on a three-sided board, a distinct variant that is not the same as the game Y, which was invented independently by John Milnor, Charles Titus, and Craige Schensted in the early 1950s.

In the June 2000 issue of Games, R. Wayne Schmittberger identified sub-classes of connection games: those where points were bridged to form connections (e.g., Gale/Bridg-it and TwixT), and those using serpentiles with preprinted paths (e.g., Psyche-paths/Kaliko and Trax). In 1984, Larry Back began developing Onyx, a connection game with a capturing mechanic. Popular connection games include Havannah, Hex, Tak, and the Game of Y, each with distinct winning conditions and board geometries.

Reader's Guide

Connection games form a significant genre within abstract strategy, notable for their simple rules yet deep strategic complexity. They have been studied for their mathematical properties, such as the impossibility of draws in Hex due to the topology of the board, and their relation to the Brouwer fixed-point theorem. The genre has evolved from early examples like Lightning and Zig-Zag to modern classics like Hex, Y, and Havannah, each introducing new winning conditions—such as connecting sides, forming rings, or creating forks. The work of Martin Gardner in the 1950s brought widespread attention to these games, and subsequent designers like R. Wayne Schmittberger and Larry Back expanded the taxonomy and mechanics. Connection games continue to be developed and played, with examples like Tak (2016) adding three-dimensional stacking elements. Their legacy lies in their blend of accessible rules and profound strategic depth, making them enduring subjects for both casual play and mathematical analysis.

Did You Know?

• Hex was independently invented by Piet Hein and John Nash in the 1940s.
• Draws are impossible in Hex due to the topology of the game board.
• The game Y was independently invented by John Milnor, Charles Titus, and Craige Schensted in the early 1950s.
• Havannah has three winning conditions: creating a Fork, a Bridge, or a Ring.

Gameplay & Design Philosophy

The core loop asks the player to guide Clarice, a blue-haired teenager in an orange Honda City hatchback, through twelve side-scrolling stages set in world cities such as New York, London, and Japan. Her objective is straightforward: drive across every elevated highway segment so its color shifts from white to green. The car can leap over wide gaps to reach higher road sections, adding a light platforming layer to the driving. Pursuing her at all times are police cars that trail along the stage. The player can pick up oil cans and hurl them at these vehicles to briefly stun them, then ram the dazed cars off the stage. Flag-waving cats pose a separate nuisance, blocking Clarice's path, yet they are immune to oil cans and cannot be destroyed by any method. If the player lingers on a single stage too long, spikes erupt from the ground and end the run instantly. Occasionally a red balloon drifts into view; collecting three triggers a warp to a bonus area. The overall design borrows heavily from the maze-chase lineage of Pac-Man and Make Trax.

Development, Music & Cultural Context

Jaleco brought City Connection to Japanese arcades in July 1985, and the title is widely believed to derive from the Honda City hatchback that Clarice drives throughout the game. For its North American arcade release, the title was licensed to Kitkorp and rebranded as Cruisin'. The development team drew explicit inspiration from Namco's Pac-Man and Alpha Denshi's Make Trax, translating the chase-and-collect formula into a driving context. One of the game's most distinctive features is its soundtrack. Rather than looping a single track, City Connection was among the earliest titles to assign a different musical piece to each stage. Several levels feature an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, while one stage includes a remix of Deep Purple's "Highway Star." The sound effect triggered when Clarice collides with a flag-waving cat is a clip of "Der Flohwalzer," known in Japan as "Neko Funjatta," translating roughly to "I Stepped on the Cat." This musical variety, combined with the bright palette and lighthearted premise of a teenager searching for the perfect partner, gave the game a personality that set it apart from many arcade contemporaries.

Legacy, Re-releases & the Name That Lived On

City Connection's afterlife in the gaming industry is remarkable. The original arcade title was ported to the Famicom, NES, MSX, and ZX Spectrum, with the NES version marking Jaleco's first North American release on that system. Notably, the NES adaptation swapped Clarice for an unnamed male driver, a change the Japanese Famicom version did not make. The Famicom edition later appeared in Jaleco Collection Vol. 1 for PlayStation in 2003 and JaJaMaru Jr. Denshoki Jaleco Memorial for Game Boy Advance in 2004. Digital re-releases kept the title in circulation for decades: the Wii Virtual Console in 2008, the 3DS and Wii U in 2013, Hamster's Arcade Archives on PS4 in 2014 and Switch in 2018, and the Nintendo Classics service in 2019. A 2002 i-Mode phone version, a 2003 Windows port by Mediakite, a mobile remake called City Connection DX, and a 2004 sequel, City Connection Rocket, for Japanese cell phones all extended the franchise. Perhaps most tellingly, Jaleco's successor company was literally named City Connection Co., Ltd., cementing the game's place in the publisher's corporate identity.

Reception & the Japan–West Divide

Critical response to City Connection splits sharply along geographic lines. In Japan, the title became one of Jaleco's most beloved and commercially successful games, and the NES version is regarded as a genuine classic of the platform. In 2003, the magazine Yuge ranked it among the console's finest titles, praising its distinctive gameplay, vivid visuals, and memorable soundtrack, and described it as fulfilling the childhood dream of playing arcade games at home. North American critics, by contrast, were far less generous. Reviewers at IGN, Nintendo Life, and Computer Entertainment US repeatedly cited the game's simplicity, weak controls, and limited replay value as drawbacks. Steve Bowling called the Wii U port a shallow conversion of a title he felt was already lost to the ages. Yet even skeptical reviewers acknowledged the game's charming aesthetic and inventive concept. AllGame's Christopher Michael called it a must-play, Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead compared its feel to Q*bert and Defender and found it addictive, and Computer Entertainer US noted its cute style would appeal to younger players. Clarice also stands as one of the earliest female protagonists in a console game, adding a layer of historical significance to the title.

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