This latest entry in the Apple Arcade takes a traditionally 2D tile-matching puzzle (Puzzle Bobble), makes it 3D and adds physics to it. The concept is fun, colourful, and got me to level 40. However, its aggressively mobile roots held me back from totally loving this game. 

In Spire Blaster you shoot coloured balls at a tower. The goal is to knock the tower down. You start at the top of the tower, and as you make sets of blocks disappear by shooting at it with a matching colour, you move further down the tower. Lose blocks will fall as well.

The challenge comes in a few forms, such as limited balls, special blocks, and objective. These objectives range from destroying a certain number of certain types of blocks (by shooting them, not making them fall), and feeding the blocks to a dragon by making them fall in its direction. 

Visually the game looks like a Wii game in HD, which is average for a mobile game. It’s functional, looks easy to develop, and easy to render. Extra points to the developer for adding symbols to the blocks and balls to help players with colour blindness. 

Although the game has controller support, it only plays in the vertical orientation and the touch controls fit the gameplay better. 

The gameplay is laden with artefacts of a free-to-play-pay-to-win mobile game such as elements of luck in difficulty, repetitive challenges, and power-ups that can be purchased using in-game currency. However, because this is an Apple Arcade game, a subscription-based service with no in-game purchases the balance of it all feels off.

Without the weighted difficulty enticing players to purchase power-ups just to get to the next similar but slightly different level, there is no drive to the game. It becomes repetitive. I haven’t even found a need to use the power-ups beyond the tutorial stages. 

That said, I did play this game until level 40. Because it is not as complex as Grindstone (a puzzle game classic on Apple Arcade) I find it an easier pick-up and play experience, and I go back to it between rounds of The Pathless just to see the stacks of blocks fall.