Falling block puzzlers are the colourful, sugary, family-friendly games that often model what it’s like to be buried alive. Tetris panic, the screen filled up and the music racing: isn’t that fear you feel at this moment a little too primal to be the result of a simple game you’re about to lose? Isn’t there some kind of deeper sinking feeling as you mess up a round of Lumines and there’s simply no space for anything else to fit on the grid?
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon reviewPublisher: Yacht Club GamesDeveloper: Yacht Club Games, VinePlatform: Played on SwitchAvailability: Out now on PC, PlayStation and Switch
Okay, maybe this is just me. But anyway: if you find falling block puzzlers a little claustrophobic, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, a game I absolutely cannot remember the name of when discussing it with others, is going to do a serious number on you.
Why? Because it’s a falling block puzzler in which you’re inside the grid! You’re moving around as the blocks stream in from above. And they’re not all blocks! Most of them are monsters. And if you don’t work quickly yet thoughtfully they will pile up above you! They will block you in! You will be left writhing, stuck between blocks and a hard place, as the screen fills and fills and you feel the weight pressing down. Puzzle horror!
Deep breath. I should probably say right now that Puzzle Knight – Knight Pocket Dungeon – is an awful lot of fun. It took me a little while to get in gear with it, but then suddenly everything made sense and I was in love. Swoon. You could say, I guess, that
I love that this is the sequel – of sorts – to Shovel Knight, a fondly regarded 2D platformer in the spirit of the original Capcom Duck Tales games. I love the fact that Puzzle Dungeon – Dungeon! – is not a platformer at all. It’s a falling-block puzzle game innit. But the more I play, the more this switching up of genres makes sense.