Pentix Nova - Falling Blocks

I played the free version for weeks before getting the version without ads. They just added some extra levels with little vortices and blocks you have to hit thrice to make disappear. I initially found this game while looking for Tetris. You can play with only 4 block pieces (basically Tetris) or with only 5 block pieces (Pentix, which is harder) or with a combination of 1,2,3,4,5 block pieces. It took awhile to finish the Pentix challenge series. You can play by level and level up through challenges, or play the regular game, or play a random “adventure” level.

It’s a serviceable Tetris variant. At first I was making a lot of mistakes with the touch controls but you get used to them and the app has a decent enough UI. the Pentix game mode with only pentominoes is pretty difficult by nature and that’s where some of the mechanics start to be a problem. The hold function in this game doesn’t work like other games, making it feel punishing. Basically in other tetris games you can switch the held piece at will, but in this game you have to hold and then unhold that piece before you can hold again. There are some problematic pieces that you basically will want to hold 100% of the time, so you have to be playing around this hold and unhold mechanic which is a bit frustrating. It’s not as big a deal with the other game modes which are significantly easier. All in all I’ve sunk some time into this one so nice job.

I would recommend that they add two things: 1) being able to rotate the pieces both ways instead of having to choose clockwise or counterclockwise rotation. And 2) being able to start the game at different drop speeds Other than that, the game is better than the current Tetris app in my opinion because I prefer the NES version of Tetris. It’s just plain solo competition trying to get your highest score from banging out tetrises. I actually like the 5 block piece version as well, it’s challenging and a great spin on the traditional game. Rotating the pieces both ways would really take this app to the next level but it’s a very well done version of Tetris.