This is what could only be called a cloned hybrid of Zookeeper for the DS and one of the many Tetris style puzzle games out there.
This strangely addictive game by Silvermax is one of those games that you could find yourself playing for hours on end, but the same could be said for many games of this kind. It is annoying to the point of maddening, but still strangely addictive. The music as always when it comes to Indie games is fun for about 5 minutes but you will soon be muting your television in order to stop the inevitable brain melt that is bound to happen.
The concept is simple enough, you have a screen which is quarter filled with various coloured blocks and you have to link said blocks together in groups of three or more to make them vanish in a tiny explosion. What makes this game different is that blocks don’t fall from the top of the screen to hamper your progress. The blocks push up at a horribly slow rate which adds to the slow pace of the game in general. However don’t be fooled, because you can soon lose your concentration, especially in the harder difficulties and find yourself with a screen full of blocks while your opponent slowly edges closer and closer to victory.
There are various game modes to try but they all amount to the same game. It basically amounts to choosing the difficulty for the computer controlled opponent and to be honest unless you play this game for a while or have played games of this type before you’re not going to win the first few times regardless of how hard you make it for the computer.
Online mode I assume will be fun but due to a lack of online players during the time I was playing I could not find an online match. This seems to be a regular occurrence with downloadable games on the 360, but it’s not a major problem as the game dynamics do not change apart from you will have an opponent with a skill level similar to your own on occasion.
If you are a fan of the puzzle genre and you are looking for a distraction then this game will give you just that. It doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a simple remove the blocks and move on style of game, and for this simple fact I feel that the designer has done very well. Too many designers put up slogans and promises about their games and never deliver to a gamers satisfaction, but in keeping the premise simple and leaving out any space filling plot, this game has done itself proud.
A steal at 240 MS points but not necessarily a must have. If you have an infinite amount of patience I think you would probably get a lot of fun hours out of this game, but if you don’t I recommend steering clear of it.
An ambivalent little title which could go either way in popularity.
VideogameUK verdict: 6/10
You can download the demo, and purchase the full game, at Xbox.com.
