Browser Round-Up: Jenga Edition
What’s more fun than stacking dozens of blocks on top of each other? Knocking them down, of course! Sure, people might get a sense of accomplishment out of stacking together cups, building blocks, or boxes to make a giant tower. But the real adrenaline rush comes from bringing out your destructive instincts and knocking everything down.
Take a ball and hurl it towards that stack of building blocks! Pull the bottom block out of a Jenga pile. It’s destructive and it’s fun!
That leads into the Blosics series. In these physics-based puzzlers, players are presented with stacks of blocks and the object is to knock them down. These are three games (two Blosics titles and a game inspired by the series) that let you satisfy your destructive urges.
Blosics – Developed by Igrek Productions
Blosics is very brief. It’s ten levels that require you to knock down as many green blocks as you can, using a slingshot-style interface. Get enough points and you can move on to the next stage. It’s a simple use of real-world physics. Sling your shot back further and you’ll launch the ball with additional force, which brings down more blocks. You can also get more force by holding down the left mouse button to create a bigger ball, though this will cost points. Obstacles come in the form of red blocks, which deduct from your score, and it’s difficult to avoid these red blocks when the laws of momentum are working against you.
Blosics is a little unforgiving. If you choose to restart a level, your score is deducted. If you decide to take a break, you have to start back from the first level. The game’s brevity is likely the reason for this, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. The game is loads of fun, but those flaws are a little glaring. Maybe the sequel will fix this.
Blosics 2 – Developed by Igrek Productions
Sure enough, the sequel not only fixes the issues of the first Blosics, but Blosics 2 improves upon its predecessor in every single way. Instead of a brief ten levels, this game boasts a beefy 30 stages. If you finish one level, you can come back to the game later, thanks to the new level select feature. And there’s no longer a penalty that comes with restarting a level.
The object is the same as the first game. Take a ball and knock over green blocks. Blosics 2 mixes things up, however, by offering different types of balls. The mechanic of creating bigger balls by holding the left mouse button has been replaced with the ability to switch between ball types on the fly. The slingshot principle is still in place, which preserves the game’s feel.
Perhaps the best part about Blosics 2 is the addition of a level editor. Players are offered a blank slate and are given every tool in the game to play with. Completed levels can be exported and players can come back to them at any time. So far, enough levels have been made to create a Blosics 2 Level Pack.
Cubium – Developed by Godvil Games
Cubium is directly inspired by Blosics, as indicated on the game’s title screen. Those familiar with the Blosics series may cynically dismiss this as a direct ripoff. While I won’t make such a charge, I will note that the game mechanics are very similar to Blosics 2.
The big difference is that Cubium offers the use of explosive balls to help clear out the green blocks. Cubium has seven different types of balls, four of which are of the explosive variety. Each ball actually has a different effect on the stack. For example, one ball will blow the stack in different directions, while another will simply transfer its momentum to create a tidal wave effect. The game does a poor job in actually explaining what each ball does, so you have to try them all out for yourself to see which ball does what.
Even with its derivative formula, Cubium is still a solid 30 levels, but it suffers a bit from not including a level editor. Players can return for high scores, but players won’t find much to do beyond that.
