History Main / BlockPuzzle

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* The ''Puzzle Boy'' series of games by Creator/{{Atlus}} (localized for the UsefulNotes/GameBoy as ''Kwirk'' and ''Amazing Tater'') featured blocks of varying shapes and sizes. Some blocks just had to be pushed out of the way; others were needed to fill holes.
* The ''Franchise/ProfessorLayton'' series loves this type of puzzle. The early one aren't so bad, but by the end of the game they get pretty difficult, but still doable. But then, you get to the postgame puzzles.

* ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'' is notorious for the prevalence of its block puzzles, in which nearly every other room has some block-pushing that needs to be done to traverse it. It even keeps records of how fast you can clear each room. To their credit, the developers pushed the block puzzles to their limits, with blocks ranging from boxes you can pick up and chuck around to heavier crates you can only push, rocks you can only roll, and more complex versions like magnetic and frictionless blocks.

* In every ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game, there will be a level where a Pokémon with the Strength move is needed to push boulders. Some places you just had to shove a rock out of the way to show you had Strength, but there's always at least one block puzzle going on. Moreover, several areas featured multi-level block puzzles, where you had to push rocks through holes to land in the level below. But here's the catch - if you didn't correctly push all the necessary rocks through the holes before descending to the next level (say, by accidentally falling through the hole after the rock you were pushing), the puzzle reset itself. In the Generation 4 games, the sliding block puzzle in the ice-type gym is {{That One Puzzle}}. This section is easily the hardest, puzzle wise, in the entire game. But it's subverted in [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black and White]], as most of the [=HMs=] (including Strength) are no longer required to complete the main game. There are still a few points where moving a boulder can create a shortcut, but even those aren't as common as they used to be.

* ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' has block puzzles all over the place. The 7-block puzzle in the Inferno Cavern for the Flare Gun is the first really tricky one. The Infinite Corridor has a long series of them on the fourth level (which completely averts this in the remake), surpassed in trickiness only by the ones in Hell Temple. Interestingly, it even subverts this at one point; there's several blocks and plates in one room, but the puzzle is actually a RedHerring, because it's unsolvable. Thankfully, there is an item that greatly increases the speed at which your character pushes blocks.

* In the ''{{Wild ARMs}}'' series, nearly every single dungeon in all of the games contains a number of block puzzles and other environmental puzzle tasks.

* ''PerplexCity'' manages to have a block puzzle card.

* The ''Puzzle Boy'' series of games by Creator/{{Atlus}} (localized for the GameBoy as ''Kwirk'' and ''Amazing Tater'') featured blocks of varying shapes and sizes. Some blocks just had to be pushed out of the way; others were needed to fill holes.

* In ''[[Franchise/TheMuppets Muppet]] Monster Adventure'' the main purpose of the "[[FrankensteinsMonster Ker-Monster]]" powers is shoving blocks around.

This occasionally crosses over with SolveTheSoupCans, when the block puzzles really don't make any sense, and coupled with a particular variety of UnexpectedGameplayChange. With the push towards realism in environments, the Block Puzzle does seem to be on the [[DiscreditedTrope decline]], but is far from [[DeadHorseTrope dead]] -- you never know when you'll find yourself near a ledge you can't quite reach, in a room filled with CrateExpectations.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' has one in almost every dungeon. Notably the first one, in which they're actually ''{{Golem}}s'', and so have to be beaten into submission before you can use them. In ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' the four most egregious were optional, albeit rewarded with one of the most useful titles in the game.

* A few times in the ''{{Avernum}}'' series, most irritatingly in the second game's aptly named Test of Patience. Good thing they could almost always be skipped.

* ''LostInShadow'' enjoys having block puzzles that span both the shadow and living realms.
* ''LegacyOfTheWizard'': Xemn and Meyna have to deal with these in their areas. Lyll can just break blocks once she finds the [[PowerfulPick Mattock]].

* ''Sanity: Aiken's Artifact'' is half action game, and half block puzzle. To its credit, most puzzles are more complex than just pushing rocks around. Still, it's perhaps the best example of GuideDangIt game, as finishing it without external help is a real test of patience.
* One of these shows up in the Japanese freeware game ''Guardian of Paradise'', with a slight twist in that it's the blocks that are ice instead of the floor. It makes no conceptual difference in the puzzle, though.

* The PuzzlePlatformer ''{{Castlequest}}'' has lots of block puzzles, some of them quite elaborate and involving pulleys to raise/lower blocks. It's often useful to balance a block on the edge of a lower block, which possibly inspired the similar mechanic in ''La-Mulana''. Blocks will kill enemies when pushed on them or even against them, which helps a good deal.

* ''RogueGalaxy'' employed what has to be the most epic block puzzle in the history of the galaxy. OminousLatinChanting and everything.

* ''StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' had a series of increasingly difficult ones of these in one optional dungeon. The catch? The blocks moved along set paths (traced out in their color), and of course occasionally you needed to block one of those paths with, you guessed it, another block. Also, there tended to be several exits from one block puzzle, and often also treasure chests within the puzzle that you might have wanted to get to.

** Block puzzles in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' have different characteristics that change depending on where they are. The floating crate puzzles in the Tower of the Gods have water whose level rises and lowers periodically. The lowest floor of the Earth Temple combines this with LightAndMirrorsPuzzle in order to get the key to the boss' room, as the "blocks" are huge mirrors. In the last room of the Wind Temple, there are blocks that can only be moved while wearing Iron Boots, as there's a strong wind blowing from huge fans.

** The floating crate puzzles in the Tower of the Gods in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker''. The lowest floor of the Earth Temple combines this with LightAndMirrorsPuzzle in order to get the key to the boss' room.

* ''{{Nitemare 3D}}'' required you to push blocks and tombstones around occasionally to clear a path... or block one.

* The bulk of actual gameplay in ''{{Catherine}}'' ultimately consists of a variety of Block Puzzles that must be solved across three dimensions so the main character can climb a tower. This might not sound especially enthralling, but the addition of a ''de facto'' [[TimedMission countdown timer]], [[NintendoHard Atlus Hard]] puzzles, and the [[PrimalFear very human fear of falling]] can make for some rather gripping gameplay. That's ''before'' you get to the trapped floor panels, icy floors, and very angry sheep-men.

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* ''VideoGame/{{La-Mulana}}'' has block puzzles all over the place. The 7-block puzzle in the Inferno Cavern for the Flare Gun is the first really tricky one. The Infinite Corridor has a long series of them on the fourth level (which completely averts this in the remake), surpassed in trickiness only by the ones in Hell Temple. Interestingly, it even subverts this at one point; there's several blocks and plates in one room, but the puzzle is actually a RedHerring, because it's unsolvable. Thankfully, there is an item that greatly increases the speed at which your character pushes blocks.

->''The block puzzle is the cornerstone of gaming, or at least it will be once you pull it out of the corridor, rotate it so the sun emblem is pointing up, drop the water level and hit the switch that activates the crane that moves the bus that allows you to push said stone into said corner.''
-->--'''Website/{{Cracked}}''', [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-real-skills-video-games-have-secretly-been-teaching-us/#ixzz1aa4xYJ1T "5 Real Skills Video Games Have Secretly Been Teaching Us"]]

* The bulk of actual gameplay in ''{{Catherine}}'' ultimately consists of a variety of Block Puzzles that must be solved across three dimensions so the main character can climb a tower. This might not sound especially enthralling, but the addition of a ''de facto'' [[TimedMission countdown timer]], [[NintendoHard Atlus Hard]] puzzles, and the [[PrimalFear very human fear of falling]] can make for some rather gripping gameplay.

This occasionally crosses over with SolveTheSoupCans, when the block puzzles really don't make any sense, and coupled with a particular variety of UnexpectedGameplayChange. With the push towards realism in environments, the Block Puzzle does seem to be on the [[DiscreditedTrope decline]], but is far from [[DeadHorseTrope dead]] - you never know when you'll find yourself near a ledge you can't quite reach, in a room filled with CrateExpectations.

Named after the infamous block puzzle mechanic in ''VagrantStory''. Also see {{Klotski}}. Not to be confused with FallingBlocks.

* In ''LittleBigAdventure'', Twinsen needs to arrange a bunch of crates in a storeroom, which looks exactly like the first level of ''Sokoban''.

%%* ''{{Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance}}''. It was part of the ''mandatory'' quest.