It’s no secret that the average teenager spends a lot of time on their phone. Between scrolling on social media or listening to music before class, there’s always a lot to do. However, many students spend their time playing whatever new mobile game they enjoy. Every few months, I’ve noticed that the North Scott student population latches onto a new game. Block Blast, the latest popular game, uses simple & easy-to-understand gameplay to capture a massive amount of players. I will be reviewing the game to the best of my ability and give my honest opinion about what I do or don’t enjoy.
Playing a puzzle game like Block Blast is a good challenge. I play it all the time. — Taylar V.
What is Block Blast?
Block Blast, a very popular game with over 40 million downloads, was released in 2022. Although it wasn’t incredibly popular at first, these days it seems like this game is absolutely everywhere. When I first played this game, it didn’t seem very interesting at first due to its simplicity, but I quickly came to enjoy it for some of the same reasons others did. Its simplicity allows many people to easily play it for any amount of time.
Design
Block Blast’s interface uses a simple, colorful design. Its randomly-colored blocks and their shape are almost identical to some of the colors and blocks from Tetris, a similar block-based game. Although the game isn’t too interesting to look at, I appreciated this intentional homage to a memorable game that many of us remember, and I believe this nostalgia may be part of the reason people enjoy this game so much.
Gameplay
Although it's a very popular game, Block Blast isn’t very complex. Players play the game by placing oddly shaped 2-dimensional blocks in a 8x8 grid, trying to clear as many rows of eight as possible. Once it’s no longer possible to place any more of the randomly-generated blocks, the game ends. Every cleared row will generate some points, and players can try and beat their high score each game. The simplicity of this game allows anyone to easily pick it up and play it at any time, regardless of how technologically adept they may or may not be.Â
Playing this game isn’t very fun for some people, but it's challenging puzzle-like gameplay was something I really enjoyed. The easily-tempting but concerningly-difficult act of beating your previous high-score is something that has kept me playing for long periods of time. Although I don’t think it’s a game I would spend really long amounts of time playing, I think is incredibly entertaining when it’s played in short bursts to kill some time.
Originality
Although I think it's a very entertaining game, Block Blast isn’t very original. As I said earlier, this game draws a lot of inspiration for its design from Tetris. But additionally, I’ve seen many other versions of this game with the same kind of gameplay that were created much sooner than Block Blast was. This game’s lack of originality was a bit disappointing, but didn’t upset me too much.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Block Blast uses a lot of simplicity in its design and gameplay to create an easy-to-play game that still manages to keep its player entertained. Although it isn’t very unique, I think this game exemplifies the best version of this block-based puzzle. If you want a simple game that doesn't require too much time or focus to play, then I highly recommend this game for you.
