Intro
“Fox on the run, you scream and everybody comes a-running”, so sang glam rock gods The Sweet in their 1975 hit, however in this game you won’t quite be doing much running but you’ll certainly be side-stepping as fast as you can, but we’ll get to that later.
A few years ago I played all 25 games in the ZX Dev 2021 competition. The contest was strong and over a dozen top tier games emerged, with Tokimal and Nothing bagging joint first place. All the way down in 18th place was an unassuming little game called Blocks ‘n’ Fox.
Gameplay
Created by Yprit, Blocks ‘n’ Fox is based on an obscure flash game called “Sobics” and plays like a cocktail of Puzzle Bobble, Kaboom and Klax with just a little pinch of Breakout thrown into the mix. If this sounds like your bag then you may well be in for a treat, as Blocks ‘n’ Fox is a fantastic little time waster.
The object is to match 4 or more blocks of the same colour to make them disappear, you have indestructible blocks & column clearing TNT in the mix to keep things interesting. There are 12 levels in total and completing it feels like an achievable goal.
This is one game I spent a LOT more time playing than I thought I would, my son came into the room as I was testing it out and we ended up scrapping over whose turn it was! Like the best kind of games, it is really easy to get into, with a sensible difficulty curve that starts off pretty easy but becomes utterly frantic on later levels.
Graphics and Sound
OK well this game isn’t going to will awards for it’s visuals or audio, but they are perfectly functional and very reminiscent of those early Speccy titles, so there’s a nostalgia pull there. You can do what I used to do back in the day & stick the radio on while you play, or maybe the greatest hits of The Sweet, they had some absolute stompers after all.
Verdict
Yprit has done a fine job of converting this little gem to the Spectrum, if you like simple tile-matching type games that draw you in and get you hooked, then this one is for you.
At the time of writing my high score is 60,100 reaching level 9. The gauntlet is thrown, can you reach level 10 or higher with a better score? Do let me know.
Info
Release Date: 13 December 2021
Original Publisher: Yprit
Machine Type: ZX Spectrum 48K
Price: Free
Available from: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/36953
Sounds intriging though not really my kind of game. I will slip it on the Div and give it a try though thanks to this post.
Looks clean, which is good. I adore the Spectrum as you know but sometimes games look messy which can spoil the enjoyment for me.
Yeah, if you’re not into the Bubble Shooter/Klax type games then this isn’t going to change your tastes. I just love the simplicity of this one, almost like something that could’ve been on the Horizons tape, but very playable.
Unlike the rest of the Horizons tape :p
Haha indeed!