Come Sail Away

Flash games have certainly come a long way. Altough Bloxorz was not the game that brought me to this realization, but definitely reinforces that point. In a combination of solid presentation and gameplay, this game represents what has spoiled me and other gamers by providing a retail-quality game absolutely free.

I’ll admit, I’m not a enthusiastic supporter of puzzle games.  This is partially because that I have a hard time figuring them out and once I do, they consume large amounts of my time. Bloxors is no exception to this rule. When I first sat down to play, I was expecting this particular genre and began to prejudge. Then I was greeted by an aesthetic “digital” themed menu complete with ambient techno sounds, a 3D rotating brick animation, and flickering font all of which seemed to come from some sci-fi movie I can’t put my finger on. Had this been a retail puzzle game, I would have been unsurprised and even critical of the menu screen but the fact that this was a free web-based flash game had me impressed.

Many of the flash games that I am used to (even the entertaining ones) look as though they were drawn by child with very inconsistent animations. This is not the case with Bloxorz. It is presented in a fixed-camera, pseudo-3D environment with very fluid animations. The objective of the game is to navigate a rectangular brick, using the arrow keys, across a series of narrow, tiled pathways to designated endzone using only right angles. If any part of the brick hangs over the edge, the level must be restarted. A bonus I enjoyed in the gameplay is the clicking sound the brick makes against the tile. It’s a fresh slight twist on the genre that puzzle fans will greatly enjoy and anyone with time to kill on the internet can certainly appreciate.