Mine Blocks is Minecraft in 2D!

What is Mine Blocks?

Mine Blocks is a Flash game built to capitalize on the Minecraft craze. It has a very similar feel to Minecraft in 2D. Your avatar wanders throughout a world you generate from a seed, harvesting blocks of various materials and doing whatever you please with them. You can dig tunnels to the depths of the world, build towers until you see nothing but sky or carve a sprawling metropolis out of the mountainside.

It is a sandbox game, meaning you can do what you like for as long as you like. There are a few objectives, but these are geared towards teaching you how to play the game and create your first objects. Some of these objects, like torches, are necessary for deeper play. This is because, like Minecraft, zombies and creepers can spawn in dark places.

The Good

Mine Blocks is not a halfhearted attempt at making a Minecraft clone in Flash. A large amount of effort was put into making the game and keeping it stable. It has a large number of possible materials, a variety of environments and plenty of craftable items. You can easily keep entertained with Mine Blocks for hours, building your home and protecting it from the variety of hostile monsters out to get you. There is even the ability to create a Nether Portal, for yet more exploration and even more hostile foes.

The Bad

Mine Blocks might suffer from sticking too close to the source material. If you have played Minecraft, there isn't much in Mine Blocks to draw you in unless you're playing it on the go. It benefits from Flash in that it is quick to load and easy to play. On the other hand, it suffers from the platform as well. Flash is a platform designed for use on many different websites, and Mine Blocks does not have a central storage server. This means playing through one site keeps all your data in one place, but if you start on a second site, you will have to start from scratch. Flash storage is also risky, as occasionally web browsers will clear Internet files and take your save files with it.

The Verdict

If you enjoyed Minecraft and want to play something a little flatter, Mine Blocks is an excellent choice. The developers support it, so new content is added on occasion, keeping pace with Minecraft. Overall, the game is an adequate substitute for the popular 3D mining game.

Play Mine Blocks here: http://www.silvergames.com/mine-blocks

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