Block Buster Billy review for PC, Nintendo Switch

I saw the screenshots for Block Buster Billy, and I instantly assumed it would just be an easy math game. This was despite the fact that there’s a the game’s Steam page proudly displays a quote calling it “(o)ne of the most challenging puzzle games on Steam”; surely, I figured, that was just exaggeration, and it wouldn’t be all that difficult.

I’m just going to admit up front I was completely wrong: it really is that hard.

As in, it’s so hard that I was literally looking up walkthrough guides just a handful of levels in.

Admittedly, some of that was because I went in underestimating the game. If I felt like flattering myself, I’d say that if I’d started off the game fully aware of how tough it would be, I might have devoted a little more brainpower to solving those early puzzles. That’s probably me trying to make myself feel better, but I’ll cling to that explanation regardless.

What really makes Block Buster Billy so hard, though, is that it combines sokoban games – those puzzle games where you have to move blocks around to reach your goal – with math. On their own, those two things would both be manageable, but when you mix them together, they become a lot more challenging than you might expect.

This makes sense, of course. In a regular sokoban game, your goal is usually just to arrange the blocks in a way that helps you get to the exit. There’s occasionally multiple ways to approach a puzzle. Here, by contrast, you have the added challenge of figuring out how to add math equations to the mix, and you need to think about math equations moving in multiple directions, and there’s generally only one right answer per level.

Block Buster Billy is definitely worth checking out if you like your puzzle games hard. It’ll challenge you and it’ll probably frustrate you, but you can rest assured that it’ll make you think.

Bigosaur provided us with a Block Buster Billy PC code for review purposes.