Tetroid 2

Returning to the block puzzle genre, Tetroid 2 is like running into an old friend with a new haircut. As the follow-up to its extremely popular first version, it’s kind of a hearty handshake turned brain-teaser. You drag and drop blocks on a 10x10 grid and try to clear lines top to bottom or side to side, much like a certain iconic brick-based game we all know and love, with its own bizarre twist.

The end of the game waits around the bend, when there’s no more room left to drop your various shapes, leaving every drop as an exciting waltz of strategy and foresight. It’s cooooooooool, as some have described it, and it had me hooked on attempting (and occasionally succeeding) to beat my high score. Others appear to nod along, admitting that there is just something about testing your boundaries in an enclosed digital world that is uniquely gripping.

And though Tetroid 2 may not have the most pizzazz of the bunch, it’s a good option for those looking for a puzzle with an approachable mechanic and a challenging gameplay loop. And if you love grid-based brain teasers, you might also like the cerebral crunch of 1010 Deluxe!