STARBLOX INC. Review: Not The Best Mix
When I first saw gameplay of Starblox Inc., it seemed super chaotic and a crazy concept. Super Smash with Tetris? How would that work? But I figured it would make a lot more sense once I got my hands on it for awhile. However, picking it up and playing was even more intense and intimidating than watching it. After awhile, I got the hang of the game and got to see it for the interesting, fun, hot mess that it is.
The game looks pretty good for the most part. All the visuals are a somewhat simple and blocky form, but the cartoonish look is probably best for the game to help players differentiate and see what is happening on screen. The sounds are pretty good and the announcers are surprisingly entertaining. But, and a big BUT this is, the games visual and audio cues are not really helpful at all. There is a lot going on all the time, various blocks being thrown, at least two characters flying around punching each other, incinerators, many bright colors, and loud noises from people locking pieces smashing each other or dying in the incinerators. With all of these and more, players can lose track of many things, locking in pieces and aiming can be very difficult while still trying to not be kicked around by your opponent. There is no problem with a player juggling many things at once, but there is when they all appear on the screen in very jumbled ways while demanding speed, accuracy and puzzle solving skills. Starblox Inc. just has too much clutter with sounds and visuals during any given match or game.
Aside from all that, the puzzle mechanics are interesting; matching colors and building up the “fuel” for rockets by either collecting the requested number of colored cubes or by filling up a specific enclosed shape. These puzzle mechanics are actually quite a fresh take on other, similar puzzle games, but having to aim them with a throw from your robot while flying and running can be quite demanding and a little frustrating. The aiming is more suggestive and the game will automatically lock-in the piece somewhere close or the block can miss altogether because the auto-lock in didn’t work. I see why the auto-lock mechanic is necessary, but blocks can be put in the wrong places and make future blocks a lot harder to place. It may be because I am used to puzzle games being about precise movements and planning, but this game feels more like a carnival game than a thorough puzzle game.
Along with the odd puzzle solving mechanics, there is also fighting in the game. Players can smash each other or throw blocks any given time. While this does make the gameplay significantly urgent and exciting, it feels a bit like if you had a baking competition where there was only one oven and people were allowed to knock over other people’s mixers and everyone was on roller blades. Interesting, entertaining, but is it ultimately a better form of competition or is it just a way to have lots of fun where the consequences come from a variety of factors, not just personal skill. I think if players completed certain objectives or used enough of a color, they could then physically attack the opponent, thus making the fighting part still very active and important to the game, but not make it so chaotic all the time.
Overall, this game is a lot of fun. It is entertaining to set up and play for a while with its mixed bag of treats, but ultimately tries to spin too many plates at a time and doesn’t do the fighting or puzzling super good.
