This color-matching, falling block puzzle game with the long name is a downloadable PSP Mini title. It’s similar to Tetris, although it really plays much more like Sega’s Columns, except the falling blocks are horizontal, not vertical. As the blocks fall, you must position them into play and use the L and R buttons to shift the three pieces to your liking. Match four colors to make them disappear, and use strategy to perform chain reactions to boost your score.

Mad Blocker Alpha has three modes of play. Each stage in Story Mode has a mission you must complete to move on to the next level. You might have to attain a certain score, reach that score in a given time, match a particular number of colored blocks, or perform a certain amount of chain reactions. If you clear out 8 or more blocks at once, you’ll earn a power up block that you can use at any time to help you clear out the rubble at the bottom.

Endless Mode is pretty self-explanatory, but Tower Mode is the most unique. Normally, in these types of puzzlers, you want to try to avoid reaching the top of the screen. But in Tower Mode, that’s the goal, and you lose if your stack of blocks reaches below a certain line! Power-ups from the other modes are obstacles in this one, so you want to position them where they WON’T clear out a lot of blocks! I almost wish they would’ve focused more on this mode since it’s much more original.

A two player mode would’ve been nice, but I guess you can’t expect too much from a PSP Mini game. Only other problem is that the blocks seemed to fall almost too fast, even on the easy settings. It may not be very original, but for a PSP Mini title, it’s not a bad on-the-go puzzler. One neat thing about some PSP Mini games like this one is that it’s also compatible to play on the PS3, too!

Kid Factor:

Mad Blocker Alpha: Revenge of the Fluzzles is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Tobacco Use. What? Where? I didn’t notice anything. Apparently one of the characters in the background smokes a cigar. But there’s no violence, and while reading skill is helpful, it’s not required. Some kids may get frustrated by the difficulty of the quick falling blocks, or the lack of variety, but it’s still a decent enough simple puzzler for the whole family.

Tags: Game Reviews