So I made all kinds of resolutions for the New Year. Yes I am aware of how dumb that sounds, and I know what you’re thinking. “Oh, resolutions never work, you have to make gradual lifestyle changes" or “You make the same resolutions every year" or “Why would anyone need to resolve to not get arrested outside Jeff Goldblum’s apartment?" etc. etc. But hey, it’s my life and my dreams, OK?!
Besides, one of my resolutions, the one striving to reintroduce simplicity in my life, led me to discover a really charming puzzle game for your perusal. That game is Blockwick [Free] by Kieffer Bros. It’s my new favorite puzzle game, and it may just become yours, too.
Yes, that sounds like a big claim, but once you pick up Blockwick, you’ll understand. It’s beautifully, almost maddeningly, simple. There are no real instructions or explanations, just buttons. As you start out, the game directs you to connect the colored blocks in each puzzle until they touch, which completes the level. As you progress, there are different-sized obstacles to slide around and out of the path of the colored blocks. Simple, right?
Right! But also so, so wrong…because the puzzles in Blockwick get insane. I can’t tell you how many times I’d start a new puzzle and immediately think that it was impossible, only to work my way through it and feel like a super genius. And it’s strange how liberating working through the puzzles feels. Over time, I’ve grown accustomed to looking things up when I can’t quite figure out a puzzle in a game.
I’ll also usually make multiple saves so I always have a shot at a do-over in case I make a wrong decision. Blockwick offers none of that security. If I don’t understand a puzzle or get hopelessly lost, I just start it over. The weird thing? I’m totally OK with that, as the game makes starting over minimally frustrating.
Since it’s a free game, there are the inevitable in-app purchases. However, they’re not annoying or overpriced. The game gives you the first sixty levels for free; each additional set of sixty levels costs $.99 each (for a total of 240 puzzles). If you’re prodigiously gifted at figuring out puzzles, you may be disappointed, since the sixty levels you’re given for free are the least challenging.
The game also makes you work through the puzzles in order, which I was OK with. If you’re not down with that (or get stuck on one puzzle and are therefore unable to continue), you can buy the “Master Key” for $.99 which enables you to work through the puzzles in any order.
Even if you don’t make a single in-app purchase, Blockwick gives you more content for free than many paid games I’ve tried. The only downside is that the colored blocks look like gummy candies, therefore leading me to directly violate my resolution of “Stop eating the commercial-sized box of Mike and Ike’s before you pass out in a diabetic coma.” Um, there’s always next year, right?
