Blocky Roads is kind of a weird game. It has block-based voxel graphics like Minecraft or the lesser-known Zelda clone 3D Dot Game Heroes, but rather than being an open-world construction title or a sword-and-shield adventure, it’s a game about driving cars in a 2.5D environment and picking up coins and treasure chests.
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: $1.99
And once you’ve picked up enough coins, you can upgrade your cars to get better at driving around the 2.5D environment and picking up coins and treasure chests. Or you can use those same coins to unlock a new level full of even more coins and treasure chests. And so on.
And all of this is to save your character’s farm.
No, really. It’s a weird game.
The premise is that a hurricane blew parts of the farm all over the world, and the only way to restore it to order is to drive around and pick up all the missing pieces, which have not only blown away but landed in treasure chests on roads among rows of tantalizing coins. I know I’m picking on the video-game logic of it all, but things kept leaping out at me.
You get around by tapping and holding either the right side of your screen, which accelerates and raises the front of your vehicle, or the left side, which applies the breaks and raises the back of your vehicle. The front and back controls come in handy to keep your car from flipping over and crashing.
It’s all to get those coins and chests and upgrades and new levels.
See, Blocky Roads actually plays a lot like developer Ubisoft’s Trials series of motocross racing games or, if you’re old like I am, Excitebike for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It’s all about when to apply gas and when to let it off, learning to properly orient your car, and managing your gas consumption for maximum efficiency. Your quest to restore the farm takes you over hills and jumps, over gaps, and across moving platforms.
And it’s all to get those coins and chests and upgrades and new levels. This is the game’s weak point, actually, because you’ll often have to choose between making your car better or unlocking the next area, but you didn’t quite clear the last level because your car wasn’t good enough, and it just goes around and around like that, but the upshot is that you’ll have to play the same areas repeatedly to get everything you want.
But the same charming and fun level is still charming and fun the third time in a row you play it, so maybe the game gets a pass there.

 Game Name: : Blocky RoadsThe Good: Cute graphics, fun and complex gameplay, tons of coins to collect if you’re into that kind of thing. The Bad: Necessary coin-grinding may put some people off. The Verdict It’s a good-looking game with a surprising amount of depth. Perfect-run seekers will find a lot to keep them busy. Buy from: App Store |
