PSN PS Vita: TOM Blitz

I’ve been playing the free game for PS Vita referred to as TOM Blitz … for short … as if it IS it’s name. Anyhow, it’s fun, Treasures of Montezuma Blitz, but can be very frustrating for anyone that plays and doesn’t want to or cannot pay for more lives. (By the way, the sounds are really nice, mysterious Mexico legend stuff.)

You get 5 lives to start with, and after 5 minutes you get another, and one life is one game, and it’s 1 minute long, maybe longer depending on things during game play. That makes for 6 games in a row then … do something else for awhile (15 or so or more minutes) until your lives are refilled.

It’s not an easy game to ALWAYS get a good score, those on the leader boards are the ones who pay to play, they can buy lives AND crystals. Crystals are something you get in the game by swapping the gems to erase them, if there is a crystal or more in the gems erased you get them, and they are added up and timed by something after your game. You can also get crystals via a Scratch Off Game that you get randomly mostly one time a day, different amounts are won depending on what 3 symbols are “scratched off” and you cant’ “lose” you always get “something”.

The other way to get crystals is via Near. You not only can get them that way from other players, you can also Give crystals, which is called “Share” after the scratch off game. You have to tell it Yes to launch Near and then hit the Near button to get it to update … then you can go back to the game, your crystals that you gave are there for Near people and your friends list people. You Get crystals from both sets of people as well.

Their is another way to get crystals, that is leveling up. On each one you get crystals. For instance I just leveled up to 6 and got 750 crystals for it.

The final way to get crystals is to PAY for them. That is something I won’t do. At least not until I’m “RICH” LOL

The game is very much like Bejeweled except everything else about the game play. You swap 3 or more gems, you get score multipliers, there are special Totems and Bonuses you can add on to a game round (they cost you crystals to use for each game they are in) you can take them out or change them around each game.

Game play is better with Totems and Bonuses available and that’s why PAY TO PLAY gets the highest scores. My many crystals got down to 0 once before and 5 today. I’ve played mostly today without anything extra and my scores haven’t been very high for the most part. I can’t top my own high score, it’s really hard to have a good game, it IS possible, just not very likely.

Anyhow you swap the gems, and you can keep moving more swaps as the board changes, THAT is NOT like Bejeweled at all. It’s sweet. As your levels progress there are harder things thrown at you, like what I see, a chain and lock around an occasional gem, you can’t move to swap unless you do it right, it’s harder, the rules are different for that chain wrapped gem.

Every week there is a “new” tournament, your friends that play and you are in the “tournament” and your score gets wiped to start over, but your LEVEL stays.

We aren’t sure in our house what happens if you win the week or whatever. We started the game with just 3 days (my son) and 1 day for me left in the “week tournament”, there are 23 or so hours left in THIS weeks right now, so I’ll know better then. My son has the top score right now, and other “friends” I have on my list are lower than me. One is catching up though and my lack of crystals is causing me fretting over getting put into third place maybe. That’s just on my list. His list could be different, and my sons only has me and him on it. So … how it works out, who knows.

All in all it’s a very fun game, just limiting in how much you can play at one time, and it’s very much something that makes you WANT to play it MORE and MORE, yet you can’t unless you wait between sets of lives or PAY for more. Either way, you are out either time or money and money takes time and so it’s all time and it’s all money … right?