Piyo Blocks 2 Review

Match 3 games are a dime a dozen in the app store, and they come in all shapes and build qualities. I don't want to sound pessimistic, but the majority of match 3 games that I've played seem to be just slapped together in order to make a quick buck. Piyo Blocks 2 doesn't fall into this category. It is an extremely well made match 3 game that has a single heartbreaking problem, a broken global leaderboard.

We'll stick with the good first. The gameplay is pretty standard fare match 3, where you match together colored "Piyo's" in order to clear them off the board. The game is split into four modes, but all are really variations of the same thing, get rid of the Piyo's. While you are playing, there is a collection meter of the Piyo's that you have cleared, and different play types treat these differently. The main game type has you clear off a certain amount before you move onto the next level, and there is another that makes you clear off 99 of them before you move on.

The problem with the single player game is that once you've had fun with a tough game, you are shown your rank in the OpenFeint scores. Typically I'll look at the scores and think about how I'm going to get to the top of them, but the Piyo Blocks top scores are so out of reach that there is hardly a point. Here's how my score played out. I got pretty far, but I definitely know that there is room for improvement. My score was a respectable 109430, which put me at #364 on the list. On top is a guy named "Player 93043594". His score was 99999999. In fact, all of the scores in the top 5 were eight digits, making my score quite pathetic. I don't want to sound petty, but that all 9's score might just lead me to stop playing for good. I don't like hacked leaderboards.

So with a compromised leaderboard, most of the fun I will have is in the 2 player mode, which is very well done. It unfortunately only works via Bluetooth and local WiFi (no cross country friend battles), but does give you some fun head to head action. The basic gist is that you play like normal, but just like 2 player versions of old Tetris games, you send over attacks when you hit big combos.

With very rich, vibrant colors and some solid match 3 game play, Piyo Blocks 2 is a great game for anyone looking for a challenge. If the two player mode is the main component for you, you'll love the game, but if single player is your thing and you are driven by competition, the leaderboard may just drive you nuts.