Game Reviews

Rainblocks

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iOS
| Rainblocks
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Rainblocks
|
iOS
| Rainblocks

What do Threes, Dots, and Lyne have in common?

They're three of the best iOS puzzlers of recent times, of course. But other than that, they don't look or play much alike.

Of course, you might say that they're all very simple experiences. But as Rainblocks goes to show, there's a lot more required to make a memorable puzzler.

Slide rules

Rainblocks is remarkably simple. It's got artfully simple pixel-art graphics and just the one main mode of play.

While it's all about matching blocks, it takes its core mechanic from sliding picture puzzles.

If you want to match two orange blocks, you must slide all the others out of the way, with just a single blank space in which to manoeuvre.

So that's what you have to do - match pairs of coloured blocks.

There's variation in the colours themselves, and you'll soon learn to concentrate on the blocks that contain temporary power-ups (freezing and adding time, for example), but that's essentially it.

Sky's the limits

Surprisingly for such a simple game, Rainblocks lacks clarity. The sliding mechanic sees the colours changing every time you've formed three colours.

I think that's how that's how it works anyway. It's not very clear or well explained.

Also, this constantly shifting playing field meant that I often found myself forgetting matches I'd already made, and shuffling blocks around wastefully.

You could say that this is part of the inherent skill of the game, but it simply doesn't feel like that. It feels like a flawed and limited system.

Muddying the issue

Indeed, Rainblocks's gameplay seems to lack any strategic depth whatsoever.

You just keep sliding and matching and collecting power-ups.

Soon, the game artificially ramps up the difficulty by introducing ice and mud blocks, but that just makes an already wafer-thin premise extremely irritating.

Rainblocks might appear to have the building blocks of another accomplished iOS puzzler, but it lacks a clear plan to turn those components into something special.

Rainblocks

Rainblocks is simple to a fault, lacking the depth and ingenuity to raise it above the ordinary
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.