No matter what a game may look like when I check it out on the eShop before loading it up, I always try to keep an open mind. There have absolutely been some titles that I’ve under-estimated that have then blown me away with outstanding gameplay or other surprises that still images simply don’t manage to capture. Other times though, the poor impression you walk in with ends up being consistent with what you end up playing, and that’s what happened for me with Shooting Blocks.

The best way to describe it is as an extremely primitive twin-stick shooter where you’re simply a square shooting at other squares of varying sizes that also happen to have numbers on them. In a move that feels reminiscent of early Atari 2600 games I remember playing, there are then two rotating bars as well, but that’s about it. If you touch the bars you die, if you go to the edge you die, and your only goal is to survive as long as you can, getting your score at the end. You’re armed with only a few different weapons, though honestly I found the base one the most effective anyway, and that’s all there is to it. I’ve honestly played more thrilling tech demos than this.

As many well-made indie games in this generation have proven, simplicity can be done in a way that’s still compelling and worthwhile. That said, just like in food preparation, the simpler you make something the closer to perfection it needs to be. Shooting Blocks, unfortunately, is both simple and not terribly good on just about any level, as it lacks ambition and executes what little it aspires to poorly.