Bloxorz
.After not playing computer games for quite some time, I’ve gotten sucked into some quite addictive Flash games. I mentioned Desktop Tower Defense last week, and I’ve played that quite a bit while failing to quite get past the Hard level. THere’s a new version, 1.5, out today, which introduces some new things, like towers that don’t do anything except boost the damage of towers around them.
I tend to lose interest in games like these relatively quickly (in contrast with, say, MTG, which has held my interest for more than a decade), but at the start they grip me quite strongly. As proven again today by Bloxorz.
Bloxorz is a very simple 3D geometry game in which you move a box-shaped object (two cubes next to each other) around a maze. Your object can only move in very simple ways, so the game is all about trying to figure out how to maneuver it into subtly different positions in order to navigate the maze. There are some additions, like switches that split the box into its two cubes, and there are levels that are essentially multi-stage, where you have to hit several switches before you can get to the exit, and each switch is itself a challenge (or, later, an obstacle).
The production values, for such a simple game, are quite high, and while it’s small (and aggravating, naturally, as all puzzle games are), I think it’s very well done. It has a “classic” (or “throwback”, perhaps) feel to it, while at the same time feeling like a modern implementation.
(Indeed, it could well be a modern implementation of some obscure video game I don’t know. But it could also be an original, in which case its author deserves credit for the concept as well as for the execution.)