As far as the term ‘arcade’ goes, Tower Bloxx Deluxe fits the bill far truer than many of the bigger games on release through your chunky green Microsoft interface: the likes of Epic’s Shadow Complex, Battlefield 1943 or Konami’s Zombie Apocalypse are not far off being shop-worthy games in their own right as opposed to mini distractions in the mould of Pacman or Space Invaders, and in this respect, Tower Bloxx Deluxe is an arcade game in its definitive form. It’s simple, archaic and, if my atrocious scores are anything to go by, really damn difficult.
The premise here is tower-building. The building of towers from blocks – or Bloxx, rather – and that’s it. No messing, no real purpose, but the game’s simplicity offers a good deal of entertainment from a relatively stale proposal. Starting from the grounds of a particularly vibrant building site, players are required to stack blocks on top of one another while the crane shakes around doing whatever it feels like: timing is the key, and believe me, reflexes will be tested and quite possibly, like mine, embarrassed. A tap of the A button drops the block from the crane, and the player will have to account for speed, distance, etc. in order to land the thing directly on top of the last. Accurate positioning is rewarded with bonus points, with perfect drops generating big multipliers.
