Guardians

Guardians is an interesting puzzle game from Loriciel which, true to their reputation, is quite unique in its concept.

The game looks like a cross between Tetris and Origamo, except it's a little more cumbersome and confusing. The designer takes the basic "align blocks of the same color together to make them disappear" concept of Tetris, but adds the challenge of "patterned board" -- instead of a free-form playing field you have in Tetris, in Guardians you are given a specific board for each level, with holes and other obstacles, on which to place the tiles. This makes the game decidedly much more difficult than Tetris, but also unfortunately not more fun, because it's too frustrating most of the time to rotate the pieces so that you have the right pattern to fit the board.

Tetris fans who want something more challenging should take a look at Guardians, but the rest of us should definitely steer clear of this muddled puzzler that frustrates more than entertains.

Review By HOTUD