Life is all about trends. With or without realizing it, people subscribe to trends every day. We search for and take the opinions of others to decide what show to watch next, what restaurant to try and what water bottle to buy – we live by trends. TikTok’s latest trend in cellular games is Block Blast, a Tetris-like game that is so addictive, it will make you want to throw your phone against the wall.
Block Blast is available to play on Apple products, Android devices and online. Block Blast has two game play settings: a classic block puzzle game and a block adventure game. In the classic setting, the objective is to strategically place the blocks on the board and “blast” away rows of the blocks. You blast the blocks by filling a whole row of the board.
While there is no winning or losing per se, the player earns points by both placing blocks on the board and blasting rows of blocks. The bigger the blast, the more points awarded. The points are added together and displayed throughout the game.
Players receive five points for placing a block on the board and anywhere from 10 to three hundred points for blasting away rows of blocks; this is dependent on whether the player completes a “combo.” A combo begins when a player continually blasts blocks within three moves of the last blast.
Essentially, a player has three moves to be able to complete a combo. If the player blasts a row and receives 10 points, they must blast another row of blocks within the next three moves in order to receive credit for a combo. If they fail to do so, the combo “count” resets. I have managed to complete 12 combos in a row, which is no easy feat.
The adventure setting of Block Blast is essentially the same as the classic setting, except instead of the only goal being blasting blocks, the secondary goal is to collect a certain number of diamonds and gold. The diamonds and gold are “embedded” within the blocks. Players collect them when they blast those specific blocks.
Failure to collect the correct number of diamonds and gold results in a game loss and the player must restart that level. If the player completes all the levels within the allotted time, which is usually about seven days, they receive a trophy.
From the colors of the blocks, to the confetti and the words of encouragement, the game is very visually stimulating. The colors include light and dark blue, red, yellow, orange, green and pink. Not only do these elements make playing the game fun and rewarding, they also keep players involved and interested in the game.
While Block Blast does not require much skill or practice, it has certainly helped to develop my problem solving and critical thinking skills. While it might not seem like it, Block Blast can require quite a bit of thought. If you are in a situation where you have oddly shaped blocks and not much room left, you must plan out and make each move count.
One downfall to Block Blast, however, is that it is not doing any favors for my poor attention span. The game, especially at the beginning of the round, is very fast paced. It is easy to determine where to put the blocks since it can basically be done at random, and you will still get a good base score no matter what.
The fast pace and ability to blast blocks into oblivion makes it obvious why this game became so popular on TikTok, another application that is diminishing society’s ability to pay attention. So, if you want a crazily addictive and insanely easy game to play until three in the morning, Block Blast is the way to go.
