Starting with a simple premise, “Blocky” succeeds by providing a fair bit of variety. In broad strokes, the game has you moving around the playfield collecting objects and interacting with enemies. “Interacting”, you say? In the game’s “Waves” mode you treat enemies differently from one level to the next; in some you have to shoot them all, others you have no weapons and have to avoid them all, in others still you have to use magnetic powers to push/pull/otherwise coax them to their death in vortices distributed around the playfield. Rather than have a bunch of different modes of play, you are tasked with tackling each level differently and that’s a neat touch. Eventually bosses are thrown into the mix, sometimes multiple bosses at once.
There is also a Retro mode which is a survival mode with a single life, but the Waves mode is the real deal IMO. The game doesn’t push the 360’s hardware very hard, but it does have some personality through customisation of the titularly blocky protagonists. There are upgrades to gain as you play too. 80 Microsoft Points well spent.
Here’s what the developer (think flow) has to say about the game:
“Blocky is an addictive 2d arcade style game with an RPG style reward system. Easy to learn with simple game mechanics. As you perform well, you are rewarded with unlocks and currency to buy additional items. The game has two game modes: Retro mode, only one life and try last as long as you can. Waves, a selection of levels with different goals. An easy to play addictive game!”
Writings of Mass Deduction 