Review: Tower Bloxx Deluxe (360)

Cutting straight to the chase, a puzzle game lives and dies on its gameplay mechanic and it is here where Tower Bloxx Deluxe both succeeds and fails. Its simplicity is that it uses a single button to play, press the A button to drop a part of the tower, simple as that. The skill is in getting the timing right so that the tower rocks from side to side as little as possible, keep dropping blocks slightly off centre and the tower rocks faster and further, drop a block dead centre and it slows down and makes it easier for you to drop the next block. It really is very simple and to start with it feels like it is something that can hold your attention forever, you'll get that one more go feeling and for the first few plays you will go back. The problem is longevity, the gameplay mechanic is too simple for its own good and instead of keeping you wanting more and more, you instead get bored very quickly, the game becomes a tedious chore to play and all of a sudden you can't wait to finish and move on.

The makers of Tower Bloxx Deluxe have gone down the same road that seems to plague so many puzzle games, the addition of a story mode. It is a totally uninspiring story about the Mayor of a town called Sunnyvale. Sunnyvale is too small and the Mayor wants to expand, however there are no funds to build and everyone is leaving and property prices falling. There is one solution though, 'The Tower Bloxx Plan', build lots and lots of Tower Blocks in bright colours to attract people back. Who can build these blocks though? That's right, you are the hero. Basically it is your job to play the same thing over and over and over to build up this town to greatness. Don't worry though there is variation, sometimes the Tower Bloxx are red, sometimes blue or another colour. That is it, keep doing this over and over until you finish and the population becomes massive. It once again feels like a story has been shoehorned in so the developers can kid themselves the title has value. Tetris didn't need a major storyline and it is still calling people back over 20 years later. Droplitz is another example of an excellent puzzle game that gets by without a storyline. If there is a need for a story in a puzzle game like this, then there is surely something wrong with what has been developed, it is basically saying that the gameplay isn't good enough to keep your interest on its own merits.

Aside from Quick Game and Story Mode there is also a Time Attack Mode and local Multiplayer. In Time Attack you start with a clock of 30 seconds and you have to keep playing until the time runs down, every time you put a block down you gain a small amount of time back and every time you reach a set marker you a rewarded with vital seconds, miss a block and you lose time. This is actually the most rewarding part of the game and easily the most playable. If the developers had focused on this particular part of the package then they would have had an excellent title worthy of anyones points. The local multiplayer options aren't too bad either, however being local multiplayer only means it may not get used as often as it should and likely would have done had it been online multiplayer. The Battle mode sees you and an opponent building a tower each and each time you reach a marker you get to use various power ups such as spinning your opponents screen to confuse them. In Co-Op you work alongside another player, you drop the blocks as they try and steady the tower. It is another decent effort and adds some nice touches to the gameplay again would have been perfect for online mulitplayer.

The graphics and presentation are decent enough, the colours are vibrant and the menus are easy to navigate. There are online leaderboards, which again cause frustration at the lack of online multiplayer. The background music is fairly annoying but you can turn that off should you wish. The overall look and feel is nothing to write home about, but it does the job as well as it needs to.

All in all Tower Bloxx Deluxe isn't a bad game, it just isn't very good. It is simple, yet too simple for its own good. It has a story that doesn't inspire you to play and where it has some good ideas, these are ruined by not being part of the main game and not having online multiplayer. Not good enough for a download only title. At 800 points it doesn't warrant a purchase as there isn't enough to keep you going. It isn't the worst puzzle game ever created and has some nice ideas, but it is no threat to Tetris' crown. If the developers could have offered a bit more with the other modes and made them the main focus then it would have been a game worthy of your time and money, however because the main game is as tedious as it is then it may well be one best avoided unless you have a lot of spare points with nothing to spend them on.

Rating: 5 / 10

Words by Bradley Marsh