“Falling blocks” games are a dime a dozen, but only a few are worth your time. Star*Burst, developed by the creator of the popular 90′s arcade game KLAX, happens to be one of the few.
Star*Burst is similar to KLAX in its basic mechanics. Stack three or more bricks of the same color to make them disappear and earn points. Stack more than three bricks or stack them in certain patterns (“X”s, diagonally, etc.) and earn even more points.
In Star*Burst bricks will come down the conveyor belt and players will have to collect them on the platform they control by tapping and dragging their finger across the screen. Once the brick is safely on the platform players can tap the platform or the stack of bricks to launch the brick onto the collection area. Players can stack up to five bricks on the platform at once in order to juggle their placement on the playing field. If the topmost brick on the platform is stopping a player from matching up a set of bricks, one can simply touch and pull down the platform in order for the brick to be tossed back onto the conveyor belt.
If one brick slips past the platform and falls from the conveyor belt and into the abyss, players can only have four more bricks slip past them before they have to start the level from scratch. However, if the conveyor belt isn’t going fast enough, gamers can touch and hold the arrows on the right and left hand sides of the screen to speed up the conveyor belt.
As the stages progress Star*Burst introduces new types of bricks. The wild brick which flashes different colors can be sued as a match for any brick. The bomb brick explodes and takes out the bricks nearest to it when placed on the playing field. Not only can it be helpful at times when players need to clear a few spaces, but it can hurt them too when they’re working on a big combo and don’t need any bricks destroyed.
Not only does Star*Burst have solid gameplay, but it delivers solid graphics as well. With trippy backgrounds, art and good particle effects when bricks are broken, it’s obvious a lot of polish went into Star*Burst’s appearance.
Star*Burst‘s sound design also deserves notable mention as it’s enjoyable techno beats and sound effects compliment the tight gameplay mechanics and polished graphics.
Star*Burst also integrates it’s own achievement system with Facebook via Facebook connect. If players enter their Facebook login details they can choose to publish in-game achievements to their Facebook walls. With 100 levels packed with achievements theres no shortage of game time.
Developer Super Happy Fun Fun has not only made Star*Burst a great puzzle game with a simple concept, addicting gameplay and polished graphics, but a great value as well at only $1.99 on the iTunes AppStore.
For a chance to win Star*Burst follow VGTribune on our Twitter account here and “@” reply us with your favorite “brick” or “falling brick” game. Yes, we do expect the most poular choice to be Tetris. After “@” replying us one fellow tweeter will be picked at random!
