Topic: Groovin' Blocks

Wow, what a great little game! Here are my quick impressions:

• First off, I'm terrible. I don't even know what a "down beat" means... but it's going to take some practice before I can start racking up decent scores. That's a good thing in a puzzle game like this.
• Timed levels is a great idea. Puzzle games are sometimes hard to sit down and play. I can play Dr Mario or Tetris and not die for hours, so it's always a question of whether it's even worth starting. Making each song an individual level pushes you to a score-attack mindset and ensures you can fit a game in anytime you've got 3-5 minutes of spare time.
• Liking the soundtrack so far! Every level is unique because of how the music affects gameplay, so you might be able to get a great score on one level but have a harder time elsewhere.
• Great production values. Everything is smooth and intuitive, and the game plays really well. You can tell the dev team put some real effort in polishing the game. (Great work, if anyone from the dev team ends up reading this!)
• Time to keep my eyes open for the retail version. Personally, the convenience of always having the downloadable version available will probably outweigh the bother of putting a disc in... but this game is worth owning and playing, and the extra levels and features found on the disc-based release would be worth checking out. It's a budget release too so there is no reason NOT to get the game.
• Definitely a good idea to watch out for the upcoming game, Symphony. Not sure what platform(s) it will arrive on, but you can see some details here: http://www.emptyclipstudios.com/symphony/

I think we should start a high score challenge for one of the early levels to see how people on NintendoLife are doing. I'm curious to see just how weak my scores are compared to all you gaming gurus!

Edited to fix formatting...

Symphony HOLY SHIIIIIIIII

@ejamer Oh, thanks for letting us know about that one! It looks interesting, even though I'm not yet sure what you're supposed to do other than shoot the things, which looks incredibly easy, and I'm not sure what the music has to do with it. But it looks intersting, and I'll keep my eye on it (and hope it's for WiiWare, since it doesn't actually say that!).

As someone not so big on puzzle games, I must say it is highly enjoyable though. The quick pace and rhythm aspects are really enjoyable.

Great production values, and such. Highly recommended.

I told them this morning i added them, but still no game.

I can't provide direct terms, but the bar thingy's note thingys turn into bats. If it's a fast-paced and loud song, the bars will rise higher, causing more enemies to appear from them. I'm sure it has something to do with placement as well.

Ok, so I got the letter with their friend code this morning, so I added them right away and then eamiled them saying I added them, and I got another email back telling me they received my "entry." Later, I sent them a Wii Message, but I still didn't get the game yet.

Same for me, but I didn't send 'em a wii message. I guess we'll have to be patient.

Yeah, I think that patience is the key here. I can't believe they are working on the weekend just to give away free stuff!

Regarding Symphony, I'm not sure exactly what is happening either... I guess you specify an MP3 and the game creates level structure based on the music? That's my guess, which probably means it'll be an iTunes app? Groovin' Blocks seems cool enough and fun enough (even if you aren't very good at it) that I'm interested in learning more. My only concern is that it won't come out on Wii since Groovin' Blocks didn't seem to sell very well. I guess that you could load music files from the SD card though.

So what strategy do you guys use when playing Groovin Blocks? The generous combo system is pretty sweet, so I've been trying to stack a lot of blocks and then use combos to get rid of them - keeping the beat the whole time to increase my bonus score. Sadly I'm terrible at placing blocks in rhythm with the game, even with those bars on the side showing me when I should be dropping blocks. But the switch from meticulous building and placement in games like Tetris to timing-based movement here is a really neat challenge.

I played the first three songs and I can't seem to get a feel for the game's rhythm. It seems like I'm hitting down with the rhythm of the song but the game says I'm missing the beat around half of the time for some reason. Does anyone have any tips?

Indeed. Try going to Options, Calibration. Some tips there might help.

I just got my copy now.
I played the first two levels and I love it. I completely adore this game now.
This cost those two guys $800 to do this, but they have a new fan on facebook and a new purchase of their iPhone game Glow.

Actually, with royalties and everything, it technically cost them $200-400. Still not exactly chump change, though.

Does anyone know if its possible to get the game if you're in Canada? Can you gift a game from US to Canada or can I just change my country settings for a day (will this erase my wii shop points/account)?

That depends on whether they've made it past the threshold to get returns or not - I have no idea how the game sold, but it didn't seem to get a lot of acclaim despite being a good game... then again, if it was under the limit for getting royalties then maybe this will help push it over the edge!

I've switched regions before for cross-border gifting with no problems. You just change the country setting, turn on WiiConnect 24 to accept the user agreements, and then open the Wii Shop Channel. Unless Nintendo has changed something, it doesn't affect your points or Wii account in any way.

If you are trying to get a feel for the rhythm, watch the bars on the sides of the play area - they will show when to drop blocks and keep your bonus alive and growing. From there, the only hint is to use calibration if your TV has processing that throws the image out of synch with the controls.

Waiting....

God it is way to hard to get moves on beat, and its really annoying that I lose my ENTIRE multiplier when I miss one.

Huh, it's way easy! Also remember you don't have to hit down every time. Letting it go won't mess up your multiplier.

I've had 4 people try it now and they all have the same complaint @_@. Also, I know about the don't press down thing.