Bloxi: The Word Game

[b]bloxi: the word game[/b] mixes wordsmithing with tetris really well. different colors mean different amounts of points, word length also adds to the score, but [b]the next block isn't shown[/b]. [b]4 game modes[/b] are included, they can be played on [b]3 difficulty levels[/b]. tooltips explain everything and so will I. medium is normal basically, words have to be at least 3 letters long. easy is the same but power-ups are awarded more generously, and words have to be at least 4 letters long on hard. in [u]zen mode[/u] [b]blocks don't fall unless you tell them to and each word can only be created once[/b], after that it gets removed from the dictionary for that run. [u]clear down mode[/u] wants you to get rid of gray letters by creating words with them. [u]daily challenge[/u] is the same, but with indestructible blocks and a random letter can't be used. and finally, [u]endless[/u] is what the name suggests, keep creating words while the speed keeps ramping up, and this is another mode where each word is only accepted once. [b]controls are rebindable[/b], mouse works in the menus, otherwise it's keyboard or controller. by default arrow/wasd to move, rotate and drop by one line…

Bloxi is a word building game with Tetris mechanics, which - while sounding very compelling in theory - unfortunately fails to create satisfying gameplay, at least for me. The mechanics are very straightforward: You are playing Tetris - blocks of various shapes rain down, and you have to rotate them to fit into gaps, trying to prevent your tower of from growing to the top of the screen. But in addition to regular Tetris, every square (the parts that each block consists of) also sports a letter. Squares are only removed from your tower if they form a word when read from left to right, or from top to bottom. While the combination of these two mechanics sounds quite interesting, it poses a difficult problem for game design: With 26 characters in our alphabet, there's a huge number of combinations even for words of just 4-6 letters - but only relatively few of those actually form proper words. So how do you ensure that the player can find enough valid words to keep their tower from growing quickly? One obvious solution is to let "useful" letters appears more often. Another is to remove more than just the squares that form the word, such as adjacent squares, at least under certain con…

Bloxi is a game that has an interesting premise, but then it doesn't quite work, which is why I consider this review to be "neutral". The problem lies in that by merging tetris + words the result is difficult to put words together in a conscious way, because of the limitations of letters, tetris pieces and the time we have, in the end I feel that you end up playing tetris in a traditional way, and as the dictionary is super wide, the words end up putting together by themselves by inertia + luck. - Apart from that, the technical execution is good, the game is "nice", it looks good and it's quite cheap. To the devs I would say don't give up and keep trying, the quality was there.

Bloxi is a Tetris style game in which you complete words instead of rows to clear blocks. You also have some powerups you can use to help you along. It's an interesting concept. I'd recommend it for those that like word games. It could benefit from a brief tutorial.

I love word games. And I really want to love this one - I do. But it just...doesn't work. I don't know how else to describe it. I can't go two or three minutes without butting heads with the in-game dictionary. I understand how to play: make words left-to-right or up-down, 3 or more letters, different colors and different scores etc etc. But what am I supposed to do when the game doesn't recognize the word "doe"? Or "boy"? Or "arts"? Except, sometimes it does. But then it doesn't again. I feel like I'm going crazy playing this. I'd like to think I've played enough games (and word games at that) to be able to discern the different variables that would make something work or not work, but I'm at a loss

Give it a try! Pretty neat!