$1.99Free

“Groovin’ Blocks” for the iPhone Drops into the App Store

groovin blocks exclusive

Early this month Empty Clip Studios gave us an exclusive preview of the upcoming iPhone port of their download / retail Wii rhythm puzzle title, Groovin’ Blocks. Those anxious to get their hands on this one can now try the full [link] or lite [link] version, which went live in the App Store yesterday.

Each of Groovin’ Blocks‘ 50 levels is played to a pumping techno soundtrack with scrolling beat-indicators on either side of the screen.  Block clusters slide onto the playfield in a Tetris-like fashion, and will ultimately come to rest at the bottom of the screen.  A tap on the ‘drop’ button will quickly drop the piece into place — but if you “hit a beat" (tapping the drop button during a beat of the soundtrack) the blocks will be bigger, brighter, and worth more points.  Hitting consecutive beats without a miss increases your score multiplier — but miss a beat and it drops back to zero.  Hitting the occasional Superbeat, shown brighter in the scrolling beat display, will double your current score multiplier.

Certain blocks contain power-ups that can be collected only if you hit a beat when placing said block.  Power-ups are unleashed when the successfully placed block is destroyed by a match-three scenario.

See our preview video for a closer look.


[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

GameSpot calls the Wii version of Groovin’ Blocks “a music-based game like no other."  As we said in our preview look, there’s no shortage of match-three puzzlers in the App Store, but Groovin’ Blocks’ musical / rhythm component really does set it apart from the pack.

App Store Links: Groovin’ Blocks, $1.99, Groovin’ Blocks Lite, Free