Tricky Towers Review. Be the Wizard of Building Blocks

If you were a fan of the older Tetris games, Tricky Towers would undoubtedly be a newly discovered thrill for you. Although the gameplay is entirely different, you’ll appreciate the innovative game mechanics and enhanced utilities that add fun to the game.

Graphics: 3.5

The graphics aren’t bad at all, but they also aren’t too fun to look at. A 2D animated theme dominates the game, including the characters and backgrounds. The characters never seem to change position on the main playing window, and the environment gets a little old at times. The game physics such as dropping blocks and bobbing of the structure due to its weight is what makes the graphics come alive.

Gameplay: 4.5

Tricky Towers is a tower-building physics game which also encompasses puzzles. Unlike Tetris where the objective is to clear rows, Tricky Towers needs you to stack blocks on each other until the structure gets as high as possible, within a limited timeframe. Blocks may drop off the tower depending on their placement or the affected physics. Certain events may cause the blocks to change size, become slippery or even drop faster.

You can play as one of several wizards in the game, with 17 spells available. These spells are either light or dark. The former is used in augmenting your tower by, say, making it more stable. The latter is useful for destroying enemy towers, such as by weakening or meddling with their blocks. You get three modes with this game: Race, where you compete to build your tower high enough for it to cross the finish line first; Survival, in which you are to drop as few blocks as possible so as not to lose health points; and Puzzle, where you need to keep the tower below a certain line through manipulating the physics.

Controls: 3.5

The controls on Tricky Towers are quite convenient and simple, as appropriate for a tower-building game. All you need is the D-pad to control the movement of blocks and place them. I did come across a bug with the controls where at times the D-left makes the blocks move faster while D-right rotates the bricks. Occasionally, you’ll find the game reading one press of the D button as two. This affects gameplay considerably, especially since it’s a puzzle game.

Replay Value: 4.0

Tricky Towers offers a variety of levels in single-player and other modes with multiplayer. These can be accessed independently, which breaks the monotony of a regular tower building game. There are several achievements to work for, therefore you can always have a focus for your gameplay even if the game lacks a storyline behind it. The gameplay is quite self-explanatory, and there isn’t any steep learning curve that may hinder replayability.

Conclusion

Tricky Towers stands out as a distinct game from Tetris and manages to introduce unique gameplay elements into the fray. The use of spells makes the game fun and unpredictable. It is a casual and relaxing game that you can play alone or tag friends along. The gameplay seems simple enough, but it will take you a good amount of time and replays before you can fully master it.