Game Review – Babel The King of Blocks (PSP Mini)

Ah, we at HPM do like a puzzle game. Babel The King of Blocks has three distinct modes in this fun, fresh PSP Mini. The 24mb game is all about building tower blocks. You stand on a bridge above a platform and drop blocks of various shapes and sizes down to the platform below. Each level has a set height goal to achieve. Your goal is to get there without the tower crashing down.

The first of three modes is Temple where you are given a straightforward platform to build on. I say straightforward… the difficulty curve ramps up a notch with each level. By level 5 you’re balancing triangles on circles and really having to plan your moves way in advance. This mode however is the easiest. Next up is Pyramid which takes the platform turns it into a weight scale. The beefier the block, the more it will tilt the platform and soon your tower will be doing more than leaning like Piza! This causes for some real kneejerk “argh” moments when you realise you’ve tilted too far and desperately try to salvage your building – normally to no avail. The third challenge is Tower. Here the blocks are constantly coming down from the top of the screen ala Tetris. I found this mode tricky because its just as much about reflexes as it is forward planning.

Positives

~Essentially three games in one

~Very crisp graphics for a Mini

~Genuinely challenging

Negatives

~If you can’t fathom block based games, this will do little to sway you (but then you’ll never be swayed to be honest!)

Conclusion

A great PSP Mini, each stage has almost 30 levels in each. Puzzle lovers will enjoy the satisfaction of watching Babel to a little Egyptian dance when you clear a level. If that is an incentive for the just-one-more-go syndrome, then I’ve no idea what is!