Blocks That Matter

More than merely a game's, Blocks That Matter’s biggest value is the one of an artifact.

Developer: Swing Swing Submarine
Publisher: Swing Swing Submarine
Release: 2011
Platform: PC (played), X360, iOS, Linux
Genre: Puzzle

Everything is a tribute in Blocks That Matter, but it’s by no means derivative; on the contrary, it spins the “Minecraftris” premise to a carefully tailored experience—and level/puzzles design here make it well worth its salt as heir of the giants whose shoulders it tactilely bounces from.

The floaty jump is a problem though, one that pitifully shouldn’t be hard to solve. Unnecessarily “fixed” (its arc, that is) as every other (rightfully, on the puzzle side) aspect of the game, it surely pumps some involuntary replays into many platforming levels—especially where time is an issue, like those “running from Mama” boss ones. A lack of “undos” hurts the game more, but checkpoints wouldn’t be feasible with all the material management going around; implementing rewind mechanics in the gimmick’s infancy (moreso among indies) was prohibitively out of question in 2011.

Satisfyingly drilling the way through materials galore.

A solid puzzler as is, Blocks That Matter’s biggest value is the one of an artifact. It’s built upon previous gamedev history while acknowledging the names of those who came before—a particularly important of a role for a medium that’s prone to erase its own ways as it threads on (as easily attested upon realizing many of the honoured names aren’t promptly available around anymore).