Blocks That Matter, developed and published by a small French indie team called Swing Swing Submarine, is an engaging action puzzle game that stays true to its roots. As with the best puzzle games, the premise of BTM is pretty simple. You play as a little robot with the goal of getting to the portal at the end of every stage. There are enemies, but the larger task is navigating the 2D landscape. Your equipment consists solely of a drill, which you use to break and collect blocks from one part of a stage to build new structures in another. This description is an oversimplification, sure, but all puzzle games can be oversimplified; Tetris is just about dropping blocks onto a field and making lines, after all.
The intricacies are what make the game unique, as with all puzzlers, and BTM unabashedly uses mechanics from other block-based games to create something new. It draws one of its key elements directly from the aforementioned Tetris: when creating structures, you can't just plop down blocks anywhere you want. You must create a four-block structure, shapes that are burned into the subconscious of any Tetris player. Also, all the block types found around the world are ripped directly from Minecraft, even the way that sand is affected by gravity while almost everything else is not. Not only is this a welcome homage to BTM's inspirations, but they are easy concepts to grasp that automatically challenge you to give your structures some forethought and planning.
BTM has impressive pacing. Your robot persona gains a few upgrades over the course of the 40-stage "Adventure Mode," but they are introduced slowly enough that you can practice with a new concept in relative safety. For example, an early upgrade gives you the ability to blow up a row of blocks provided there are at least eight all touching each other. When you're first given this ability, the game basically shows you a section you need to blow up and gives you plenty of blocks nearby in the stage to collect so you can build a structure to finish off the row. Later stages that require you to blow up rows will often provide you with just enough blocks to get the job done, and if you make a mistake, you'll need to restart the level.
These restarts will be pretty frequent as you figure out solutions, but I was never frustrated. I confess that I'm not very good at puzzle games, but any irritation I felt when restarting a level was self-directed. BTM has extremely tight controls, consistent physics, and no graphical lags. I never encountered any bugs, and what bugs seemed to exist on the first release have been patched. BTM may drive you crazy, but only because the puzzles themselves are so damn challenging. A gamepad is preferred and feels far more natural, but the game is perfectly playable with a keyboard if that's all you've got.
Adventure Mode, the main campaign of BTM, is a fun trip for old-school puzzle gamers and new gamers alike. It starts with a cute story starring characters named after Alexey Pajitnov and Markus Persson, the creators of Tetris and Minecraft respectively. Every level of Adventure Mode features a treasure chest that's difficult to get to, forcing you to use perfect block management and timing to acquire. Getting a chest rewards you with a block reference from a game in the past, such as a Medikit from countless first-person shooters or the numbered grid from Picross 3D. These blocks are just trophies and don't actually do anything, but collecting them opens up a special prize at the end of Adventure Mode and gives you bragging rights. Almost every block will make you smile with nostalgia as you remember the game they came from.
BTM has adorable cartoon graphics and a lilting soundtrack to match. It's extremely easy on the eyes and ears, though personally I was hoping for a bit more variety in the levels. Even so, you'll be far more concerned about getting through every level than the fact that you're always surrounded by dirt.
