"Tetris in outer space."

Have you ever wanted to play Tetris with new rules and abilities? If you have, look no further then Bloxeed. It's a great game in it's own right.

The guys who made Bloxeed should be commended for what they have done. They have kept the Tetris gameplay we all know and love, but added special power-ups which change the way you play it. These power-ups include the ability to shoot away pieces with a satellite, blow up portions of the Tetris towers with a bomb, add pieces with a special robot or take out 4 rows at once just by filling in one line.

Now the majority of the time, you are just going to be playing Tetris. The big differences here are that every so often, rows will pop up from the bottom. This might seem unfair at first, but the game gives you those power-ups I was talking about to make up for it.

Here is how the special abilities come into play. Every so often, the pieces that come from the top will have a letter on them. When you fill in a Tetris line that includes the piece with the letter on it, you are granted whatever power-up that letter represents.

I hope you understand that those power-ups are pretty rare. You'll be using your regular Tetris strategies most of the time while playing. But the power-ups really make this game stand out. I'm sure even guys who have played Tetris religiously will be amazed at Bloxeed the first time they use the piece-destroying satellite or the piece-filling robot. It totally changes the dynamic of Tetris for the short time they are available.

I guess my only gripe is the difficulty, but that is a part of Tetris we have all encountered (and cursed at). Once you get to a certain level, you need to be as quick as lightning and as smart as a nuclear physicist just to stay in the game.

I sure am glad they didn't take the "if it's not broke, why fix it?" mentality over at Sega when they made Bloxeed. Tetris might be one of the greatest games of all time, but Bloxeed makes it even better. If you ever play Bloxeed, you will probably not only agree with me, but wish that Bloxeed game options were available on all versions of Tetris.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/05