Skyblocker is how I’d imagine the love child of Jenga and Tetris would turn out if it were conceived in a competitive area. It is a simple premise, with some fun and challenging physics to wrestle with, and it is an addictive online leaderboard challenge.
Skyblocker has two distinct modes – normal and zen. In normal mode, each player starts with a 3×3 foundation platform and needs to build the highest tower possible as quickly as possible. Each block is a 3D set of cubes that remind me of Tetris, and the player can flip and rotate the block into any orientation, and when lined up, can be dropped into place with the press of a button. Blue highlights show if you haven’t quite lined something up nicely, and the block will bounce off the side or slide off the edge of the tower. Each block that falls off the tower gives the player a fault, and once you run out of faults, it’s game over.
Scoring is interesting in Skyblocker. The speed at which you drop blocks continuously boosts a multiplier for each block you drop. You aren’t strictly under time pressure in normal mode, but if you don’t drop blocks quickly, your score will be poor, and you won’t trouble the competitive online leaderboards. Build up faster and the score racks up, but you’ll never get higher if you aren’t precise. It’s a clever scoring system that pushes both skill sets. Precision is crucial because as soon as you get a wonky tower, you can’t use the full 3×3 foundation grid to build upwards. This gives you less room to play with, and the Jenga balancing act begins. As you build upwards, wind starts to play a part too. Watch as your skinny skytower starts to wobble and sway. The fact that each block is dropped slightly into place amplifies this issue, too. Keep a steady hand!
Zen mode removes the score multiplier and just lets you build. You can also turn off any weather physics, too. The more blocks you build, the more graphical variants of blocks you can unlock and choose from. These do not appear to have different physical properties, though, so it is for visual aesthetic only. You can also unlock different backgrounds to build in, too. Zen mode also comes with 4×4 and 5×5 foundations too, which adds some block variety to contend with.
I originally had some issues with the camera, but this seems to be down to having stick drift in my controller. The developers are looking into adding a tweak to allow some deadzone for controllers to stop the camera spinning around as much for old controls. I have a new controller on the way to triple-check that it’s a stick drift problem, but it seems to be the case. My only other thoughts would be in the future, having maybe a 1, 3 and 5 minute mode to see how quickly we can build and having unique leaderboards for those would be amazing.
Skyblocker is a simple but addictive twist on Jenga and Tetris. With everything requiring speed and precision, all in the pursuit of online leaderboard bragging rights and glory, it is an addictive loop. This is a little hidden gem that deserves some love and attention.
Review copy provided by the developer. Skyblocker is out now on PC.
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