Tumble Review From Gamespot.com

It's probably been quite a while since you played with building blocks; perhaps erecting towers just so that you could knock them down again or--if it was even longer ago--smashing one against the floor while gnawing and drooling on another. Saliva isn't simulated in Tumble, but if your building block ambitions aren't motivated by teething, then this PlayStation Move puzzle game almost certainly has you covered. Varied and imaginative puzzles challenge you to both build and destroy unlikely-looking towers in the lengthy single-player mode while enjoyable local multiplayer options afford you an opportunity to pit your stacking skills against a friend. Tumble isn't reason enough to invest in any Move hardware, but if you already own a Move motion controller, then that's reason enough to drop $10 on this clever and well-presented downloadable offering.

Tumble is a game that uses the Move motion controller to great effect, and the controls could hardly be simpler. You point at the block you want to pick up, use the trigger to grab and release it, and hold down the Move button when you want to reposition the camera. And that's it. The camera isn't quite as versatile as it could be and refuses to go low enough to be useful during tricky limbo-themed levels, but outside of this minor irritation, the controls are difficult to fault. Tumble even makes it incredibly easy to recalibrate your controller on the fly because you can hit the O button to center your position on the screen at anytime--very useful if you want to sit down and play after standing for a while, for example.

The puzzles in Tumble start out simply enough. Early levels do nothing to mess with the gravity that serves as your enemy and challenge you either to build as high as possible or to use as many blocks as possible. As you progress, puzzles introduce seemingly minor new challenges that end up changing the game completely. Blocks made of different materials, for example, force you to concern yourself with qualities like weight and grip, while oddly shaped blocks (does an egg even qualify as a block?) are clearly more difficult to work with than cubes. The platform that you build on gets smaller, sloped, shaky, and even swapped out for a seesaw on occasion, ensuring that Tumble's puzzles never feel overly repetitive. Other hazards you have to contend with en route to the last level include fans powerful enough to blow light blocks away, moving obstacles that will push your blocks out of the way unless you build around them, and antigravity rooms in which different-colored blocks are pulled in different directions. There are also some really satisfying puzzles that involve using mirrored blocks to manipulate beams of light. Inevitably, there will be one or two puzzles that frustrate you, but attaining bronze medals for level completion is rarely difficult--it's only when you push for silver or gold medals (which you need a number of to unlock subsequent challenges) that things get tough.

When Tumble isn't keeping you busy building, it's testing your demolition skills with score-based challenges that see you trying to take down towers using only a few limpet mines. You score points not for simply bringing the tower down, but for sending the blocks as far away from the tower's original location as possible. It doesn't sound difficult or even particularly interesting, but when you factor in blocks of different weights, blocks that offer score multipliers, and a baseball block that awards you a home run medal if your explosions send it all the way to edge of the level, these challenges become surprisingly compelling. Later demolition levels are among the most fiendish that Tumble has to offer because towers are assembled of mostly heavy blocks and have almost no obvious weaknesses.