Up until the point at which I booted Blockey up on Xbox Live Indie Games, my initial thoughts were ‘What kind of name is that?!’. I envisioned some type of tedious match-3 game that would bore me within an inch of my life. Instead I got a game of Ice Hockey… with blocks! OK, so still not a great name, but at least it makes sense.

Blockey may appear too simple in execution, but taken as a 4-player button-mashing romp, this is an absolute hoot. You’ll most likely have sucked all the available fun out of it within a couple of hours, but for 80 MS Points ($1) you’re guaranteed to have a fun night in with friends.

GAMEPLAY

Your basic Ice Hockey rules are in place – take control of the puck, drive it down the ice and slam it into the opponent’s goal. You’ve got a pass button, a shoot button and a tackle button, and that’s pretty much it. Rather than go for a more complex take on the sport, Blockey keeps it plain and simple, and really comes up trumps for it – anybody can pick up a controller and be scoring within minutes.

It takes a little while to fully appreciate the play on offer, however, as it can initially feel a little frustrating. While there is a tackle button, players can also grab the puck by simply moving into the currently active character, hence there’s plenty of ‘to me, to you’ action involved. Shooting is also pretty difficult, as the aiming is more precise than you’d imagine.

Once it all comes together, however, there’s plenty of fun to be had. Taking on the AI-controlled teams is pretty challenging stuff, and I found I could only just beat the Easy mode. Yet it’s multiplayer where the real fun lies – 2 local players can take on a AI team, or up to 4 players can battle it out 2v2. The fast-paced nature of the game suits a party situation well, and it’s really hilarious and enjoyable stuff.

Unfortunately, there isn’t exactly much content. Besides choosing your number of players and hitting go, there are several different teams to choose from (which simply reskins your players with different shirts) and a crazy bear that utters random nonsense. A league mode of sorts would have been a nice addition, plus the ability to add more than 3 players to your team.

And how about this for a missed opportunity – there are no fights in Blockey. I know what you’re thinking: An Ice Hockey game with no fighting? Surely this can’t be true! Yet it is, and you’d have thought it would have been easy to throw in too and compliment the rest of the button-bashing pretty well.

STYLE

Hey, here’s where the ‘Block’ bit of the name comes in! Everything in game is made up of squares, from the confetti that falls at the end of the game to the characters themselves. There are some very clever ideas too, like a rectangular version of the rotating siren light when somebody scores, and spinning blocks at the start of each match to signify spotlights moving around the ice.

Unfortunately, the game’s interface isn’t so pleasant. Blockey uses an awfully overused font all over the place, and it gives the game a bit of an amateur feel. The menus look just as boring, from the main options to the player select screen.

The music isn’t too bad – I found myself humming the title screen guitar ditty, so it must be good! (or really bad, depending on how you see my musical tastes).

STORY

No story going, would you believe. Yes… I guess you would believe. I believe.

OTHER

Blockey isn’t going to pick up too many fans, as you really need to spend a good 30 minutes with it to fully appreciate what’s on offer and, well, the demo isn’t that long! Still, you should give Blockey a go – for $1, you’re getting a fun little Ice Hockey bonanza that will have you and your friends punching each other in the shoulder.

BUY/TRY