Builder's Block

"Build skyscrapers on shaky ground against the clock. Just like they do in Mexico."

Back in the old days, before microchips and oven chips and all the other chips, it was only possible to be patronized by the living. But now it's the space age and, lucky us, we can be patronized by machines as well. Cashpoints started it, and recorded phone messages have since made it their own. It was only a matter of time before it came to Playstation.
Builder's Block's characters are always ready with a post-match comment. ''You are not so bad. But not quite good enough,'' spouts one, obviously aching to give the player a consolatory pat on the head. Bad enough in the bitterness of defeat, but she says it when you win as well. Still, it's nothing compared to ''If you ask me, the match depends on your appearance.'' Pardon? have you checked your own face in the mirror recently, you purple-haired manga moron?

The game's guys and gals don't make the best impression, so it's lucky these Arcade mode irritants don't appear in the Puzzle or Battle modes. Sticking to the latter forms won't see you missing out gameplay-wise either. Though there's a great difference in presentation, the game's essence doesn't change. You shoot colored blocks down a board, trying to create clumps big enough to form buildings. A two-by-two set will have a small condo popping up, whereas a five-by-five effort will result in an impressively large tower block. You can go bigger, but the opportunities are rare. The playing area make the San Andreas Fault look stable, and your property is constantly rumbling towards the edge of the board, pushed by the cliffs at the top. Reach the precipice and it's game over.
The way to avoid this terrible, uninsured tragedy is to shoot a block at the very corner of another. All adjoining squares of the same color will then disappear, giving you a bit of breathing space. But the controls have you making this move more often than you'd like. You can use the Dual Shock, which provides you with a suitably earthquake-like rumbling, but, oddly, the analogue sticks don't work. The digital keys are quite sensitive and it's easy to move the block-firing crossbow a tiny bit too far or too little. It's particularly annoying to have built a giant luxury hotel only to demolish it accidentally. it seems strange to include such fine control, when preset increments would have done the job better.

Destroying the correct blocks to allow ever-bigger conglomerations is the key to Builder's Block. levels start with varying patterns already on the board, and they'll often need at least partial demolition before work can start on the target building. In fact, there's little else to it. This game has the same sort of appeal as solitaire: little in the way of action, but strangely captivating nonetheless. Part of what makes the manga characters so annoying is their complete superfluity in what's actually a simple geometric exercise - well, that and their stupid kung fu moves. Oh, and their dialogue which has been touched already. ''I will burn this entire area with my flame!'' Oh please.

Attempts to dress Builder's Block up as a super-duper fight-a-thon are unnecessary, and worse than that, desperately lame in execution. Pictures of stylized idiots drifting across the screen aren't going to butter anyone's muffin, even if they are in a 'fighting' pose.
So, let's talk about the game's graphics and sound then. You wouldn't think that such a puzzle game would ask much of the Playstation's capabilities, still, the screen is half blank in Puzzle mode and overwhelmed with extremely tiny characters and explosions in Arcade mode. Odd.
The sound is just abhorring. It sounds like a battle between a telex machine, a Formula 1 car and a malfunctioning Casio VL-Tone organ. Better turn it off or risk medical attention over time.

But these kind of puzzle games are not judged by their graphics, sound of extra bits. It's the gameplay and lifespan that counts. Builder's Block's Arcade mode tries to be an exciting experience of lighting reactions and strategy. It flops. The rest is just gameplay at its simplest and ugliest, but works. Just about. It's simple, derivative and strangely catchy. Once you've started it it's hard to stop, but there's very little incentive to play.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/16/02, Updated 11/16/02