BlastBlox

Rock beats scissors. Scissors beat paper. Paper beats rock.

There can't be many of us who haven't played rock-paper-scissors several times. Whatever the victor might claim, coming out on top relies almost entirely on luck.

Well, either luck, or a complicated system of mirrors.

Regardless, what would happen if someone managed to weave in an element or two of skill into the rock-paper-scissors approach? BlastBox, in a fashion, sets out to answer such a question, applying the same hierarchy of hurt to a Tetris style setup.

It's quite a departure from that classic, however. Your aim is to flood a gauge at the bottom of the screen with water, but getting said fluids down to the floor of BlastBox's vertical grid is easier said than done – there are processes aplenty to go through first.

Namely, ridding yourself of the base of brick-filled blocks each level begins with.

Doing so is a matter of taking charge of an additional series of blocks that scroll down from the top of the screen in true Tetris style.

Coming in lines of three, some of the blocks are filled with bombs and it's your initial aim to plant these explosives so they blow up as many blocks as possible.

Rather than disappearing in the resulting blast, however, the blown-up bricks actually turn to wood - logic clearly only having a bit-part to play in BlastBlox's approach.

Nonetheless, what happens afterwards adheres more to reason.

Setting the wood alight via a series of flame-filled blocks is your next target. This itself is merely a ruse for finally bringing water into play, with said sodden blocks - which, likewise, scroll down from the top of the map - flooding any squares gripped with fire upon contact.

Though complicated to describe, in short your long-term goal is to ensure each and every square you initially detonate later ends up flooded with water, with those at the bottom of the pack then pouring directly into the gauge.

Like all the best puzzlers, it's actually a simple – albeit elongated – process in practice, but pulling it off as the blocks begin stacking up and room starts to run out is no pushover.

Throughout the process, getting the right squares touching each other is fairly fundamental, with wooden blocks catching fire if their neighbour happens to be burning, and water putting out flames in abundance if the squares are all in one area.

But all this relies on you nailing the first stage – blowing up as many squares as possible. Again, this relies on your ability to match the squares up, lining up bricks of the same colour the only way to ensure blocks are blown up en masse.

Get this right, and the whole of play begins to fall into place – though it rarely becomes boring or stagnant.

This is largely due to the additional 'unlimited' mode, which swaps the gauge based play of the main mode for merely surviving as long as you possibly can. Once the blocks reach the top, it's Game Over.

Either way, BlastBlox is deceptively addictive. Never swayed by luck, its challenge – though admittedly bizarre and unashamedly one-dimensional – is one that values sheer brain power over good fortune.