With so many games in the puzzle genre simply aping each other, it is refreshing when you find one that takes a truly unique turn. The just released WiiWare title, Bittos+ may use the familiar Tetris-shaped blocks, but what the game does with them is like no puzzle game you have played before.

Like all great puzzle games, Bittos+ is built on a simple concept that takes some time to truly master. You are tasked with creating block-shapes by linking together various puzzle pieces. The lack of gravity leaves the board wide open as to where you place the pieces. The game first tasks you with creating simple four-block squares, eventually asking for rectangles to increase the challenge. When the requested shape is created, it triggers a 'Bittos'; which is essentially a fuse that circles the shape several times before exploding and clearing the blocks that made up the shape. The trick is not leaving 'stray' pieces on the board that are not part of a shape. These stray pieces eventually change from the standard blue color to a dangerous red tone. The red pieces cannot be used in crating bittos shapes, and expand to nearby open spaces as time moves on. The only way to clear the red blocks is to erupt a bittos next to it, or play a special diamond-studded puzzle piece in the vicinity; which creates its own larger explosion when placed on the board. That is really all there is to the basic gameplay, but it is every bit as frantic and addictive as the game it borrows its puzzle-shapes from.

As you progress through the game, the bittos fuses begin to explode faster and the rate at which the red blocks expand through the board increases. It makes chaining together bittos blocks for bonus points more difficult. The chains eventually yield additional color patterns for your blocks, replacing the blue pieces with green and purple blocks as the chains build. An in-game reward system and a local high-score list track your accomplishments, with seven different profiles available in the game to keep your scores separate from those of your family members.

The game offers three modes. Adventure gives you nine waves per level, with a set number of pieces to clear in each wave. You can place the pieces however you wish, but the stray red blocks remain on the board after a wave is over, so managing to make it through to the latter, faster-moving levels is a challenge. The ability to start at any previously reached level, from its first wave, is a nice option.  There are two skill levels, 'mellow' and 'wired', with the latter offering a much higher-paced experience sure to challenge puzzle veterans. If you want something a little different, there is Time Attack, where you have a set amount of time to clear as many pieces in the highest-scoring manner possible. The mode offers sixty, one-hundred eighty and three-hundred second challenges. Those looking to really test themselves will find plenty to love in Survival, where you last as long as possible with red blocks closing in from the outside edges of the board towards the middle. The constant need to clear the red blocks with exploding bittos is frantic and addictive.  There is plenty to keep you busy with this one for lengthy gaming sessions, but some form of multiplayer would have catapulted this one to 'classic' status. 

The game allows for the classic controller or two forms of Wiimote controls. Those adept at using the Wiimote as a mouse can place the game pieces with the controller pointed at the screen, and the A and B buttons used for spinning and dropping them. It works quite well, but the more frantic the pace gets the more likely you will be to flip the controller on its side and use the d-pad for placement and 1 and 2 buttons. Thankfully, the game allows you to flip the Wiimote controls on the fly, based on how you are holding it. The color pallette of the game is fine, but it would be nice to have an option to change the default colors of the blocks. Sonically, the score is good enough to keep you from tiring of it, but the ambient sound effects of the game are actually much better.

The lack of co-op or versus modes, at least for on the same console, is a little disppointing but as it stands, Bittos+ is easily worth the $10 price-tag. It is one of the best straight-forward puzzlers you are going to find.

8/10