Beatblox is a rhythm puzzler developed by Aaron Ramsey. The game will set you back 80msp(£0.68) and features block matching beat-based action, 3 singleplayer modes and 5 completely original tunes.
Beatblox tasks you with the challenge of matching various coloured blox together to form a string of blocks. Players can move the blocks in a direction by pressing the corresponding face button on the controller. The game places 'Beat Blocks' into the playing field depending on the musical rhythm itself. When a Beat Block explodes any coloured blocks touching it will also chain together to explode - the key is to link multiple blocks of the same colour together to create a large chain. Whilst all this is going on your 'Life' is ticking down, when it reaches zero you fail, however each successful explosion chain will gain some of this life back.
The game offers 5 different tunes, each with unique backgrounds and different speeds of play. This lack of variation seems to be offset by the fact the game is brutally difficult. Even on Easy the third level for example is still extremely tough. Along with that most of the tunes are largely forgettable, all apart from the Chiptune track which is an awesome retro modern blend. The 3 modes of play are Normal, Time Attack and Challenge mode - all of which are basically alterations on the standard formula. It would have been nice to see a Multiplayer Mode of some sorts, or something to spice up the gameplay.
Graphically the game is a standard affair. The 2d sprites are all colourful and crisp but will never really impress. The different board backgrounds are appropriate and a nice touch but again never really stand out. The overall presentation of the game however is reasonably good, and stays consistant throughout - with clean simple menus and styling.
Overall Beatblox is an interesting concept but never really delivers. A Block Puzzler affected by the music is a fantastic idea, yet the gameplay itself never truly feels affected by the beat, and the content which is there never hits its full potential. Nevertheless the game is priced at 80msp and still manages to do alot of things right for the genre. If your looking for a challenging block puzzler at a cheap price look no further.
Chaz gives Beatblox a 2.9/5
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This game is very very simple. There's a big randomly generated grid of coloured tiles, which you can slide around using the controller. Every once in a while, these grey Beat Blocks will drop onto the grid in time with the music. Beat Blocks count down and eventually explode, destroying all the tiles connected to it.
There's also a lifebar , which constantly drains away to nothing, the only way to stay alive is to constantly make huge explosions. The problem is that the bar is always draining, while the Beat Blocks only explode occasionlly. This results in a lot of extremely frustrating situations where the lifebar is near death, a Beat Block is about to explode and refill the lifebar, but... the bar drains just before the block explodes, and now you're just dead as dead can be. It's a pretty unfortunate situation to put the player in, and this happens ALOT!!!!.
Still overall, for the price, it really isn't a bad game, just frustrating at time's, no....all the time.