You live through life fending off all kinds of intrusive thoughts. Resisting the urge to kick every tire icicle. Plucking at grass, which wasn’t bothering no one. Lighting a really tall candle and giving it a nudge just to make sure it couldn’t possibly fall over otherwise. A new game from the creators of Shotgun King will free you of those inhibitions. A reimagining of Tetris that demands that you ignite the wick right through to the stem. As much as Hot Wax latches itself to an impulse, it still demands you carefully consider your next move, lest you burn yourself out later.
Presented deep within some unilluminated, dungeon keep, Hot Wax has you kicking off a summoning ritual with the use of magical candles. While tetromino shaped, these blocks do not extinguish themselves upon forming a horizontal line. Instead they must be burned from the top down. Every couple of pieces, the player is given a small ball of fire, which will carry along the path of the candle. Lighting any other exposed twine it brushes up against. However, remaining blocks of wax will tumble down when separated, a la Mr. Driller, and the ember will be snuffed out if smothered. Leaving you with a big basin of impenetrable goo.
Hot Wax requires you to rewire your Tetris instincts. The default practice of neatly arranging your blocks is efficiency for efficiency’s sake. What you really want to do is create a safe path for the ember to do as much arson as possible. The rules differ slightly between modes as well. In the standard ritual, the flame only progresses one block per turn, though there is an opportunity to nab devilish power ups. In other modes, the fire will scorch right through, not just an immediate gratification but a helpful visual aid for seeing the game logic in real time.
Created by Shotgun King developers PUNKCAKE Delicieux, Hot Wax was born out of a 2024 Ludum Dare game jam. Like King’s blasting of chess, Wax comes at Tetris from underneath. Taking the malleable shape of it and working it with its fingers. It’s reminiscent of the early dreamscape days of the genre, where Pipe Dreams tried to put a blue collar spin on the hit, while Alexey Pajitnov himself wondered “What if I gave Tetris a fancy little hat.” It’s a comfortable space for PUNKCAKE, who will be hitting word jumbles the same way with If Letters Had Pants, Would They Wear Them Like This?
