Tower Bloxx: New York - Xbox Windows Phone Review

Tower Bloxx Lead

Later on the huge disappointment of 3D Brick Breaker Revolution from Digital Chocolate, I wasn't exactly eager to play any more of their games. That title sported an awful 3D graphics engine, poor controls, and overly difficult gameplay and Achievements. Surprisingly, Digital Chocolate'southward other Xbox Live championship, Tower Bloxx: New York is far less offensive. It's even so nada special, just fans of casual games may enjoy information technology.

Climb the stairs past the break for our full review.

For people who like stacking things

Tower Bloxx 1

While Xbox Alive puzzler Implode! is all about destroying buildings, nearly of Tower Bloxx: New York'south gameplay revolves effectually edifice them. Square pieces of buildings (each representing one floor) swing back and forth from a crane. Tapping the screen makes the piece drop. If information technology's the base, information technology can country anywhere on the ground, merely every subsequent piece must connect successfully to the i below it.

Perfectly aligned pieces create a more stable building and get-go a philharmonic timer, with each following perfect application multiplied points. You might expect that planting the base in the center of the screen would be the key to building a steady building. Actually, planting the building all the way on the correct side of the screen works ameliorate. It'south much easier to gauge when the hanging piece is at its right-nearly point than when it'southward perfectly centered.

Blocks can state fairly far from the middle of the 1 beneath them, but y'all get less points and the building starts to sway. This makes information technology much tougher to land the side by side pieces well. If a falling block strikes the very edge of some other block, information technology knocks both of them off the building. Declining to state pieces like that either costs players lives or time, depending on the fashion.

Sliding blocks

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A secondary gameplay style pops upwards in several of Belfry Bloxx'due south modes: Renovation. Players must fix upward a wobbly building within a strict time limit. By apace sliding each slice into the correct identify, you tin reach perfect alignment and win the challenge. Renovating buildings might actually be fun if only this way included sound effects. Without audio feedback, it's tough to guess whether pieces are a millimeter or off or in the correct position. Information technology'south a shame Digital Chocolate made such an obvious oversight. Note: renovation mode isn't shown in the available screenshots.

Quite a few modes

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I expected a low-upkeep coincidental game similar this to only take i or ii modes, but it actually offers a fair number of means to play.

Quick Game: The simple tower building experience in which the game lasts forever or until you run out of lives. A height chart compares the player's tower with real-world buildings later on the game ends. Iii of the game'southward five Achievements can be scored in this way.
Board Game: Tower Bloxx'south surprisingly lengthy campaign way. A map of New York is divided into five regions, each of which makes upwards a level. Level are fabricated up of boards that contains from 6 to 28 squares. The object is to fill up as many of the country squares equally possible with buildings, while likewise earning all the Happiness (points) you tin. Only a few lands are buildable initially – the rest much be unlocked by cartoon the right cards.
The player draws a carte du jour every turn. Simply like with real board games that use cards, these tin exist helpful or hurtful. Adept cards allow land to be unlocked, buildings to be built, state to exist upgraded (awarding a bonus for building on it), upgrading buildings, awarding powerups, and more. Harmful cards can cause you to lose a plough, happiness, or exist unable to build certain building types or land types.

Board Game way actually adds a fair amount of complexity to an otherwise simple game. For instance, players must somewhen cull between four different types of buildings to make. Blue towers are all-purpose; reddish ones make next blue buildings happier; yellow monuments generate happiness every turn (instead of all at once); and green skyscrapers are xl blocks loftier, giving them the highest potential for happiness. But skyscrapers crave upgraded land to be built, tin can't exist side by side to a bluish building or they reduce its happiness to cypher, and they're just tough to build straight.
Time Attack: Try to build the tallest belfry you tin can in 30 seconds. Perfect block drops and reaching summit milestones increases the timer.
Co-Op Multiplayer: Like Gravity Guy, Belfry Bloxx offers the seldom-seen feature of same-screen multiplayer. Whereas other parts of the game are played with the phone in a vertical orientation, this mode is played horizontally. Multiplayer is as well dissever-screen, with the left role player in charge of constructing a building and the right player renovating the same building. Kids would probably similar it, though renovating is significantly less enjoyable than building.
Challenges: Throughout Board Game Style, 15 timed challenges pop up now and then. Here each claiming tin exist played on its own. They involve reaching sure heights, happiness levels, or renovating towers within a fourth dimension limit.

Run-of-the-manufactory art

Tower Bloxx Night

While the latest iPhone Tower Bloxx game uses 3D graphics, New York is a 2D affair. The block sprites are colorful and prove a good level of depth. Tower Bloxx's backgrounds exhibit a flake of personality, with people using umbrellas to bladder around for some reason, and the scenery changing as yous get higher. But the backgrounds don't get creative plenty to keep the game from having a largely generic appearance.

As for the elevator-style music, it gets old super quickly and I turned information technology off later just ane game. The edifice audio effects piece of work pretty well, though as I said earlier, renovation mode is strangely silent.

Achievements

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The Xbox Live Arcade version of Tower Bloxx has some ridiculously fourth dimension-consuming and hard Achievements. Thankfully, the mobile version includes only five easy-to-become ones. Three are tied to Quick Play with the other two coming from Board Game. Had the developers given Time Attack and Challenges their own Achievements, gamers would probably spend a lot more than time in those modes. Still, the journeying through Board Game mode will give most gamers their money'southward worth.

Overall Impression

Tower Bloxx: New York's core gameplay is the definition of coincidental, with simple to understand controls and rules and a fair amount of claiming. Simply I never actually got into the building gameplay, and the renovation gameplay just stinks. Thankfully, the artistic Board Game mode dresses things up plenty to forestall players from dying of boredom. Tower Bloxx is a adept option for Achievement hunters and casual gamers, merely everyone else should effort the demo for ownership.