Nine Blocks is a fun puzzle game that features tile shapes found in classic Tetris and 20th century offline Pentomino shape-making games. The gameplay is simple. A player must create and clear tiles made of small, multicolor blocks from a 9x9 grid board utilizing a variety of strategies. Every action earns them points that they can track at the upper left and right corners of the screen. To win, they must earn as many points as possible for as long as possible.
Nine Blocks refers to the main method of creating and clearing tiles. The player creates a 3x3 or 9-block shape in a highlighted light- or dark-colored area using random tile shapes supplied to the right of the board in groups of three tiles at a time. They can also create and clear blocks in horizontal or vertical rows. If they can't use an entire group of tiles, they lose the game.
That said, unlike many similar puzzle games, Nine Blocks provides several methods for clearing the grid to make room for new tiles and disposing of unwanted supplied tiles that won't fit on the grid. Above the board, the player can select a tool to copy other tiles and tools, a bomb to clear blocks from part of the grid and an option to swap the supplied tiles with three different shapes. They earn more of these tools during gameplay. Lastly, they can drag an unwanted tile into a trash can located below the board.
