This year has been fantastic for Xbox Live Arcade. After the ‘Summer Of Live’ promotion the quality of the games up for download has gone through the roof.
There is no longer a stigma surrounding Xbox Live games, we no longer see them as cheap or knocked together, so it’s a shame then when I play a game like Tower Bloxx which feels exactly that.
Your task in Tower Bloxx is to build a skyscraper as high as you possibly can, by stacking blocks of a building on top of each other one at a time from a crane controlled by your Xbox Live avatar.
Pressing ‘A’ releases the block and a new one appears for you to make your next move. Unfortunately there’s some pesky wind in the air, making your crane swing from left to right so lining up each building block isn’t as easy as you would hope. The more off-centre your block drops, the more the tower sways, making things harder for yourself. The skill then lies in not missing the tower completely – if that’s done too many times it’s game over.
With a game this simple there really needs to be some other draw, interest or hook. Unfortunately this is where Tower Bloxx falls short – that really is all there is to it.
Keep pressing ‘A’ until the you make a few mistakes, look at your score and start again, there’s nothing else there to keep you coming back
Take Peggle for example, this game also requires just one button press – in fact for most of the game you’re actually just watching a ball bounce to the bottom of the screen, yet it keeps you interested. It finds a way to make every move seem exciting, simply by adding some appropriate music and over the top visuals. There’s none of this present in Tower Bloxx.
There are three single player modes to fight your way through. Quick Game asks you to try and build the tallest building possible. Unfortunately there’s not enough happening here to keep you playing. It just seems like a missed opportunity to add a little variety to the gameplay. For example, when you reach outer space why not have a little fun with the lack of gravity? Maybe make the ‘bloxx’ drop a little slower, mix it up a bit. Because of the lack of variety you’ll have no drive to beat a score that took a good 5 minutes to get the last time.
Next up is the Build A City mode. Here you are in charge of building up a run-down city by constructing tall colourful Tower Bloxx in order to increase the population.
When starting out in this mode it seems as though there might actually be an interesting element of strategy when deciding where to build each tower, but soon it becomes evident that it’s just another way of getting you back into the monotonous task of dropping bloxx again.
The one saving grace is time attack mode. This adds a running clock into the mix, and it really does make a difference. Although the task and gameplay is the same as before, you now have the added pressure of reaching a certain hight to extend your time.
This forces you to drop each building block that little bit faster, forcing you to make mistakes and to try and recover your building. It’s the mode I spent most time with and the only one that gripped me and made me come back for more. Time attack can be played with four people locally, and is genuinely a fun experience.
There are other multiplayer modes – co-op sees you building alongside a friend, switching between two jobs. One working the crane, the other controlling a giant hand making the building straighter, and therefore easier to drop more floors on to. There’s also a battle mode, in which each player must reach a certain height while picking up power ups along the way to make things harder for each other. The power-ups are not fun at all though, and kind of become a little redundant during play. There’s also a complete lack of any online play.
Maybe it’s the recent run of high quality XBLA games, but I expect more from downloaded games these days and Tower Bloxx simply doesn’t cut it. It’s the lack of attraction, ideas and direction which makes it feel nothing more than a jazzed-up browser game, and at 800 points it becomes almost impossible to recommend.
Score: 5/10
The Good
Time Attack Mode
The Bad
Gameplay is dull
Visuals are basic
Lack of Xbox Live
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