TiQal

I decided to try out this latest addition to the XBOX LIVE arcade, and overall I think that this is a game that I wouldn't mind adding to my collection.

It's a puzzle game where you are trying to place colored blocks that are in different formations on existing layers of blocks. The object of the game, as far as I can tell, is to just stay alive by making at least a square of the same color. If you make the square larger you get more points, and if you make it to a certain size you can get power ups to help you conquer the level.

The controls for the most part are solid. All you really need is the right and left direction, and the X, A, B buttons. From time to time I found myself accidentally releasing puzzle pieces before I got to flip them with the X or B button, but most of the time I was able to survive from my mistakes. The directional movements can sometimes be a bit to sensitive going over 2 spots instead of just the one that you need to drop the piece. Also when flipping a piece sometimes the shape moves slightly differently than you would expect.

The game play is creative and fun. It took me a bit of time to figure out that you had to have your piece holder touch the power ups as they floated up, but once I figured that out I was having a blast. The one thing I have to say is that once you drop a piece it is going to stay exactly how it is dropped, it isn't going to deform. Also once you make a square of the same color the blocks start to light up more and more until the explode to give you points, but if you drop a block of the same color to increase the size of the shape that you've created the blocks will start their lighting up process again. Another feature of the game is that not all the power ups are unlocked for the player right off the bat, if you complete certain levels more power ups are at your disposal.

The graphics are sharp, and I think that if I had a HD TV I'd probably like it even more. The use of colors on the blocks, as well as the backgrounds and the story map look great. The one flaw to the graphics is the choice of text colors and background colors. Almost on every screen that there is some text there is some blending issue making the text difficult to read in places. I know that in some cases they changed the text color to emphasize a point, but they should have been more careful with what the background color was going to be.

Overall I'd have to give this game a 8.2 out of 10. So give it a look over, all you need to do is go onto XBOX Live and download the demo and try out the first 5 levels of the game.