Tower Bloxx New York

Tower Bloxx is the foundation upon which Digital Chocolate is built, and although it's become a staple diet for the avid pocket gamer, the game really hasn't evolved all that much.

Instead, DChoc tends to go with themed versions of the same game, and therefore the first impression of Tower Bloxx New York is that we're looking at the selfsame game only with a Big Apple twist, and that's not too easy to get excited about.

But for the first time in a long time, DChoc has made a significant effort to evolve its seminal franchise. While the core gameplay remains much the same, the city planning aspect has undergone quite an interesting redevelopment.

Given that the game is set in New York, building up a population isn't really a consideration. If anything, the place is overpopulated, which has led to a disgruntled populace. So your task is to make those belligerent New Yorkers happy by redeveloping areas of their city.

Building new residential and commercial structures is done exactly as you've seen before: A crane swings one level of the building over the construction zone.

Hitting the '5' button drops the block into position, at which point the crane brings in the next block for you to drop as neatly as possible on top of the previous one, until you've got a precarious skyscraper to position on the city grid.

The less accurately you drop the blocks, the more the structure sways around as it gets taller, making it much harder to land the upper blocks properly. It's a beautiful, single thumb gameplay mechanic that never fails to entertain, no matter how often we see it.

With the addition of greater depth in the city building aspects, which require you to draw a card from the deck and choose whether to construct a building, unlock new development ground, upgrade your buildings, add power-ups to your architectural arsenal or take a gamble on a challenge, Tower Bloxx New York gives this prolific franchise a refreshing and much-needed update.

Even hardened fans of Tower Bloxx have probably played the game to death by now, so this first class update, which expands the simple mobile game into something of a virtual boardgame, should be high on your list of must have mobile games.

Tower Bloxx New York

Essentially the same game at its core, this latest addition to the prolific franchise adds vital depth to the strategic, city planning aspects to refresh the series and make it hugely addictive all over again
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Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.