Falling Blocks

Overview

Falling blocks appear in Tetris and similar puzzle games, but also are prevalent in platformers, action games, and more. Tetris is one of the most popular games to use the falling block concept. Some other great examples of falling blocks are seen with newer titles, including the Super Mario Bros. franchise, Lumines, and Boom Blox.

Falling blocks can be associated with numerous elements in a video game. In the Tetris franchise, the blocks are considered the main portion of the game, with the gameplay focused purely on the arrangement and placement of the falling blocks. This can also be said with more modern titles like Lumines.

For games like the Super Mario 64, falling blocks are used as a environment element, often falling to give the player a sense of urgency to either cross a difficult area or to not get hit and lose health. Many times the falling blocks can also become used for cover in action titles.

In games such as Boom Blox, to make blocks fall is the ultimate goal of the game, using one of a variety of projectiles.