Block Puzzles: The Good, The Bad and The Mixed

Block puzzles are one of the staple puzzles of video games, and while some are well-regarded, others are tedious or frustrating.

Before I begin, I'll note that there can be many different types of puzzles. In some puzzles, you are able to drag and drop the blocks, while in other cases, you are a character that navigates through the maze, often walking on top of the blocks, rather than merely pushing or going around them. In some puzzles, all blocks occupy a single tile, while other puzzles have larger or differently shaped blocks. Some puzzles allow you to push and pull them, while others only allow you to push. Some puzzles are dense and cramped, forcing you to move blocks in order to clear pathways for the important ones, while others are wide open. There's a surprising amount of potential for variety in these puzzles.

In some block puzzles, it can be rather easy to get oneself into a situation in which the puzzle is no longer solvable. For example, if you push a block into a corner that is not its final destination and are unable to pull the block, you will most likely have to restart the puzzle. The use of an undo command and/or restart command can make things, easier, though; for example, Patrick's Parabox not only allows you to undo your moves or restart the puzzle, bu undo restarting the puzzle if you did so by mistake.

In many games, pushing the blocks around can be surprisingly tedious. Your character tends to push more quickly than they walk, especially if the block is large and heavy enough to support their weight and may have to push the block many feet.

Unlike some puzzles, providing the solution to a block puzzle does not merely involve posting an answer, but a step-by-step description of how to do the puzzle, which can involve dozens of steps. In some cases, following a walkthrough down to the precise details without making a mistake along the way is almost as challenging as doing the puzzle yourself. This also complicates the task of providing hints for people who are stuck and need a hint but aren't ready to resort to looking up the solution, since most hints I've seen, such as for the Professor Layton series of block puzles, tend to involve the first several(out of potentially dozens) of moves.

In short, block puzzles can be a challenging way to force players to think outside the box, but they can also be tedious and frustrating. It all depends on how they're executed and how creative their designers are.

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