There are a lot of casual puzzle gamers out there, so Adore Games is looking to tap into that market by offering their game Shooting Blocks for free. That’s right, free.  There are no ads, bundled-in toolbars, or spyware with it, either.

The concept is simple: all you have to do is click on the blank ice cubes and once they are gone, you progress to the next level.  You start with ten lives and you lose a life for every pink-filled ice cube that is broken or falls off the edge.  If you get enough points in a level, you can earn more lives.  The challenging part is that your progress is cumulative meaning that the number of lives you have left affects all of your future progress.  If you find that one level costs you a lot of lives, it’s best to restart that level and give it another shot.  When you’re down to a couple of lives and on a difficult level, you’ll be in a world of pain.

If you break all the blocks without any mistakes you will get an extra life. Some levels have random bonus blocks that can freeze time or add barriers preventing the blocks from falling off the edges.  Sometimes these bonuses are completely random and other times they are hiding behind a specific block.

As of this review there are three worlds; Prolog is the first and has 11 challenging levels. The other two worlds (Ice Age, Ice Cream) have twenty levels each.  It looks like there is room to choose one more area so the developers may add a new world later.

The 2D graphics are simple but they get the job done.  The fantasy backdrops are colorful and pleasing to the eyes.  The ice blocks are easy to distinguish but the bonus blocks are not always clear as to what they actually do.

The music is charming and pleasant to listen to but it does get repetitive after a while.  I didn't get tired of the ice cracking sound effect though.

From a moral stand point this game is perfectly safe for people of all ages.  My kids enjoy watching me play it and I will put it on their computer too.

If you like casual puzzle games be sure to check Shooting Blocks out.  Since it’s free all you have to lose is roughly 30MB of hard drive space.  I’m curious what other games Adore Studio will be releasing and how they plan on becoming profitable.