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Developed by Irem and released between 2006 and 2008, "Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship" is the PSP adaptation of the previously Ja...
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Developed by Irem and released between 2006 and 2008, "Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship" is the PSP adaptation of the previously Japan-only PS2 game, " Blokus Club with Bumpy Trot", and based on the original abstract board game, "Blokus", invented by Bernard Tavitian and first released in 2000 by Sekkoïa, a French company. Boasting with the overall success of the Blokus board game franchise (having won 26 toy awards and sold over three million copies) one has to wonder if the figures and acclaim are exaggerated or if Blokus really is one of the best puzzle games currently available to the modern board game enthusiast. For something that is supposedly so popular, I don't know many people who have ever even heard of Blokus, much less played it, and that is in reference to the BOARD GAME; the computer / video game adaptations are considerably more obscure. I'm not bringing this up to put down the franchise as it is a genuinely interesting and fairly engaging game, but curious on where the numbers come from and how Blokus managed to become (at least to an extent) a household name... and how on Earth did it get matched up with Steambot Chronicles / Bumpy Trot... who thought to combine them? I guess that's a story for another time.
To the dismay of SC/BT fans, Blokus Portable: SC is just the computerized version of Blokus (Classic, Travel, and Duo) with SC/BT characters plastered on primarily for marketing reasons (even though there are literally hundreds of better choices from a marketing standpoint), as they retain little of their personality, are confined to rooms without interiors, and only utter basic references to SC/BT (and never mentioned Blokus in their games of origin). Even worse, if you've never played SC/BT, then you won't really know what any of the characters are rambling about anyway. In short, they're just marginally better than random no-name characters. The main game takes place inside of a hotel (or rather, the "Lobster Inn") with various floors that all basically look the same and you can buy a few minor outfits and hairstyles, but you don't actually go anywhere significant, so the interface is little more than a front to accentuate the game's various features. The graphics are simply terrible (even for this kind of game) and the music is generic to put it mildly. In the end, you only have the actual gameplay and mechanics to really look forward to.
Blokus is simple in its entirety and is perhaps best described as a combination of Tetris and Othello. The game takes place between two to four players who each take turns filling up a board with twenty one tiles of varying shapes. Your goal is to get as many of your pieces on the board as possible and minimize the amount of moves your opponent can make. To do this, you can place any of your pieces in any order on the board, but each player starts in one of the four respective corners of the board. Another restriction is that you can only place pieces in a corner-to-corner basis -- no sides can touch. Things start off easily enough, but get more challenging once players face off against each other. Players who cannot make moves are forced to pass and when no more moves can be made by any player, the game ends. Scores are calculated based on the number of squares in each players unplayed hand; a player loses one point per square and awards can be won depending on how a player clears their hand. In this game, money is needed to play different tournaments and different rooms offer greater rewards.
The game is simplified to show remaining moves for each player and at best is a modest introduction to the wonderful world of "Blokus", but does neither the main franchise or Steambot Chronicles any real justice. Once the novelty wears off, you'll find better puzzlers to play for the PSP, but if you find it for cheap (which you probably will), then it's worth giving it a try, provided you can get past the awful international version case art and have a thing for Blokus and SC. This is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.
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