Mental Blocks Review
Played on:
iPhone
Previously, Skyworks Interactive has released sports-related games like Arcade Bowling, but on hearing of a mentally challenging game and based on their great successful of their previous games, I looked forward to what they could provide in this arena of games.
The goal of Mental Blocks is simple, you need to clear as many blocks out of the playing grid as possible in order to keep the game in play. This is done by grouping as many blocks, either horizontally or vertically, as you can of the same color together. The larger the set of blocks you click on to clear the higher the score you will achieve for that set of blocks. As each level is randomly generated it adds an extra challenge to the game, you can't rely on a pattern to play the game. The game ends only when you would run out of bonus blocks, which are blocks you can have remaining on your screen at the end of a level. The goal is try to clear the screen as much as possible to avoid using these. Also, there are special blocks which allow YOU to clear out blocks more quickly on a given screen.
As with most of the games by Skyworks Interactive, the screen layouts are clean and the field of play is set horizontally to allow maximum usage of the playing field. The screen layout contains your score, your current level of play and the number of bonus blocks you have left.
There is no music in the game and I am actually pleased about this. With this type of game it would be distracting as you need to concentrate to some degree when you are trying to clear the screen. There are 2 distinct sounds in the game, one for when you select a group of blocks to delete and another one when you actually clear the blocks out.
Skyworks is now offering the ability to send scores up to their server to see how you are doing against other people in the world. This adds an extra level of play to the game as you are now challenged by other people in the world instead of just your own scores. This feature can be found in several of their other recent games also.
The only drawback to this game is that people who are colorblind are not likely going to enjoy it. But even with my green-red semi-colorblindness, I was able to make out the colors and enjoy the game to its full potential.
This is a highly addictive game that will keep you coming back for more. With great graphics and sounds and randomly generated levels that keep offering challenges, I was not able to put this game down as it would keep drawing me back in.
