Numblast, in it's purest form, is the sort of game you might have once played in a pub or club somewhere, full of alcohol and not quite sure where you were, what you were doing, or what your name was. Because, even when completely hammered out of your mind, block-breaking, square-twizzling games still seem to make complete sense.

Downloadable from the PlayStation Store, Numblast - a catchy yet hardly original title - mixes number-based block breaking with Japanese-style anime in possibly one of the most brain-boggling combinations ever to have graced a console (apart from maybe Sonic and guns, which was just silly). Although, for all it's strangeness, Numblast has a cute essence about it, a sort of friendly aura which is easy on the brain.

The gameplay mechanic is classic arcade style - the cross button is the only one you need to use, and it works well. Your basic aim is to 'break' as many numbered blocks as you can by sorting the blocks into squares of four, using the cross button to twizzle the area you have selected. A simple system for what should be a simple game, but confusion steps in when the greek alphabet becomes involved.

You're supposed to build up blocks in a certain way to create 'combos'. Each stage of a combo is cheerfully narrated by one of the on-screen characters - which, by the way, serve for no other reason than some dry humour at the end of each level - who seem to think it neccessary to go through the greek letter system for each combo multiplier. String together a x3 multiplier and you'll get a friendly sequence of 'Alpha! Beta! Gamma!' It gets wearing.

Graphically, the game is good and has the sort of good-old-days arcade port style which we've come to expect from this sort of downloadable outing. While being arcadey, however, Numblast avoids the pitfall of becoming lacklustre - it retains an air of class and graphical integrity which is rather rare amongst DLC games which are almost exact ports of arcade games.

On the whole, Numblast is a cute, grapically capable arcade port, which is good for family-based gaming, but lacks when it comes to anything with a little more beef. The demo provides players with three whole days of gameplay - that's about 71 hours more than most publishers give you with a demo - and should be enough to give you an idea of whether you want to buy.

Linford

Labels: DLC, Linford Butler, Numblast, PlayStation Store

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