Every day we offer FREE licensed software you’d have to buy otherwise.

Magic Bricks Giveaway
$9.95
EXPIRED

Game Giveaway of the day — Magic Bricks

Logic game, explosive mix of match-3 and tetris-like games.
$9.95 EXPIRED
User rating: 249 43 comments

Magic Bricks was available as a giveaway on April 4, 2009!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$5.00
free today
Crazy Desert Car is an exciting game in the arcade genre.

Logic game, explosive mix of match-3 and tetris-like games.

Controls

  • Left Arrow: move left
  • Right Arrow: move right
  • Up Arrow: rotate
  • Down Arrow: go down

System Requirements:

CPU Pentium 1000 MHz or higher, 256MB RAM, Video 64MB or above; MS Windows 2000/XP/Vista

Publisher:

Xing Interactive

Homepage:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/magic-bricks/

File Size:

21.4 MB

Price:

$9.95

GIVEAWAY download basket

Developed by Electronic Arts
Developed by PopCap Games
Developed by Overwolf
Developed by BeamNG

Comments on Magic Bricks

Thank you for voting!
Please add a comment explaining the reason behind your vote.
#43

Thanks,
Didn't like it, I like Testris better. So how we un-install the

-------The last word was deleted because it was innappropriate for these forums----

Reply   |   Comment by guitarzan  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#42

my computer meets all the system requirements. but have the same problem as # 13 tried 3 times & the game would not open.

Reply   |   Comment by gumby  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#41

Sorry I can’t help with the access violations, my knowledge doesn’t extend to such problems as yet. All I can suggest is that you try some of the alternatives that I mention in comment #1

Thanks @lfr@n,

Reply   |   Comment by Whiterabbit-uk  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#40

When the game starts i get..External Exception c00002b5..any clue what that is?

Reply   |   Comment by schnitzl  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#39

I used to love tetris but that was about 10 years ago. I still have a working electronic tetris laying somewhere. I rarely play tetris on my PC, but I will give this game a try.
Thanks GGAOTD.

@23: Whiterabbit, most (but not all) game installers from GAOTD do not modify system registry.

Reply   |   Comment by DDS  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#38

wouldn't even start, XP Pro SP3 PIV 2.4 Ghz 2Gb, ... love the site though

Reply   |   Comment by Javelin  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#37

#20 - Install and run as Administrator

Reply   |   Comment by prof  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#36

The game wil not install properly on my laptop.
Keep getting an acces-violation-codeof some sorts.

Is there an answer???

:(

Reply   |   Comment by @lfr@n  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#35

Must say i like this game, but no one can beat Tetris Adventure. Lots of levels, completely adjustable to your wishes. Only the menu doesn't function as fast as i would like, but who cares!! Lots of levels, power ups, difficulties etc etc!!

Reply   |   Comment by der fliw  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#34

Won't run - just a flash. SpyBot sees it and OK's it, I see nothing. W2000pro, 2.8CPU 2G RAM. Any solutions? I'd like to play this.

Reply   |   Comment by Caroline  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#33

OK lets look at this game. First we have a game from a publisher that seems to not have a web site. There is no way to check them out. That is strike 1. Next there is no install process. You just unzip the file to a folder of your choice. On the surface this may seem like a good deal because you can just delete the game if you don't like it. But it's been my experience that quality games install themselves, not unzip themselves. It's a close call but...... strike 2. And lastly a game with no mouse control. Need I say any more? Strike 3. I just hope we don't see any more of this "publisher's" offerings.

Reply   |   Comment by gpc111  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#32

@21: How's your DirectX? Any error messages? Also, on a sidenote, how can you not have a C: drive? Hidden? Linux? Mac?

Reply   |   Comment by GMMan  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#31

installed to XP Pro SP3. Run EXE and get External Exception error. Game won't run. Removed.

May want to use a proper installer instead of a zipped file. Get Inno Setup (http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php), it's open source and package it.

Reply   |   Comment by WetCoastShotty  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#30

Hmm...well I never was a huge fan of tetris and it seems the match 3 games are really taking over the market. I'm a large fan of storyline myself, though the hidden objects annoy me to no end. Still gave this a try but it's just not my cup of tea. I do appreciate the game however and will send the link to friends of mine who do enjoy this. Thank you for keeping this service going.

Reply   |   Comment by Nicky  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#29

downloaded game installed and couldn't find in program files and no icon.went to were it installed (c:/games)found an icon the game worked great on xp sp3. thanks

Reply   |   Comment by doug  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#28

Hi Whiterabbit aka Stephen.

First i would like to compliment you for your outstanding,excellent comments and reviews here.You rock!!
Also thanks for your the many games you give away personally.
..ahumm,well i do have a request for a game specialist,like you.
I accidentally wiped out the game Arabica(a former GOTD) on my wife's laptop.
Since she was somewhat addicted to it,i am living now in a little place called "hell".
Maybe you can please help me to get the same or a similar game for her,so that i can live again????

I really do hope so,also because "Magic Bricks",plays fine on my desktop(XP SP3),but not on her laptop(same OS),which is giving an "access violation" code all the time and every time.
Maybe her onboard graphic controller can't cope with it?

Is there anybody out there with an answer??

Well Whiterabbit,however the outcome,my compliments and best regards.

Greetings from Holland,@lfr@n

Reply   |   Comment by @lfr@n  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#27

To all who find the game hard to uninstall, or other similar games, here are a few things to look out for.

If the game doesn't provide you with either Start Menu shortcuts or a Desktop Shortcut, then most likely you are safe to just delete the install folder.

Since most standard Microsoft Windows software installs into
"C:\Program Files" you usually do not want to just delete the folder. You should look in Add/Remove Programs first. If there is no "Uninstall" icon in the start menu, and no entry in Add/Remove Programs you could delete the folder.

Also, with regards to using the keyboard to control the games... this used to be the standard control for all games back in the day. Yes, I know I'm dating myself. =8-)

Tetris like games use the arrow keys as the standard control interface. More modern games use either the mouse exclusively, or a combination of mouse and keyboard.

My recommendation is to try these games that are keyboard only. Sometimes they can be enjoyable.

Reply   |   Comment by Will The Computer Guy  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#26

Game play is quick. Reboots computer as improper shutdown on Exit or kill with TaskManager , don't like that and don't know how to fix the reboot.?? Bob

Reply   |   Comment by Bob  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#25

Come on GGD. Where are all the fresh games?? See you tomorrow.

Reply   |   Comment by Russ  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#24

Holy schmolies, this thing's fast!!

More fun than it looked on the preview. Installed on Vista just fine, runs beautifully. This one's a keeper.

Thanks GGAOTD!

Reply   |   Comment by Babylon  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#23

Hi Ron, this game does not require a special tool to remove it. All you need to do is go to where it was installed and delete it. There's nothing dangerous about the game at all.
Most giveaway seem to be missing an uninstaller, but this is not the end of the world. As there are few registry keys added to the registry an uninstaller isn't really required. all it would do is save you having to go to where the game was installed.

Regards

Whiterabbit

Reply   |   Comment by Whiterabbit aka Stephen  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#22

When I added this to my computer it didnt work. Then I learned that there was absolutely no way to remove this and I had to use a wipe tool to remove it. CARFUL!

Reply   |   Comment by ron  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#21

I installed the game on my H drive. (The default for it's install is C drive, but I dont have a C drive, so I changed it to H) I click on the .exe file, and all I get is a short flash, but it doesnt open. Dang it! I wanna playyyy!!! Anyone have any idea what is wrong? THANKS!!

Reply   |   Comment by TW  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#20

Thumbs up. I wasn't going to bother with this as I hate using the keyboard but I did. Using the keys was simple and easy and I found I really enjoyed this little game. It will be quite addictive for a period. I wonder if I will ever get to level 9 or so?

Reply   |   Comment by EllieB  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#19

Loaded game and when trying to run it I get a message: Access violation at address 00000000. Read of address 00000000.
I am using Windows Vista Basic

Reply   |   Comment by Colin  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#18

Brilliant game, horrible soundtrack
If you get sick of it, convert some mp3's to .ogg files, then replace the original sounds
I have my favorite songs now.
This game is awesome

Reply   |   Comment by Painseeker  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#17

Thanks Virginia, your comment is much appreciated.

To Gerben, if you allowed the game to install to the default location as mentioned in my review at #1
i.e.

C:\Games\

You'll find deleting the folder is all that is required. There's no registration key for this game. Once activated via the giveaways combined set up and activation key, the game is totally free standing, which means you could put it on a flash drive and play it from there, or transfer it at your leisure to another computer.

As mentioned above I do think some of the freeware games I mentioned at #1 are better than this game, however, that said, this can be a very challenging match 3 Tetris despite it's simple game mechanics. Try playing it on any speed above 4 or 5 and you'll be hard pushed to beat it unless you are very adept at using the cursor keys. Unfortunately I think the single drop blocks destroy the game somewhat because there appears to be no control over them, so they are more an annoyance and game spoiler than an integral part of the game. I would suggest to the developer that they fix the issue (well I think it's an issue) with the single block so that it falls at the same speed as the rest of the bricks. I'd also try adding some different modes of play to make the game more interesting.

The graphics are actually quite nice, but unfortunately graphics are only a small part of this type of game.

To Graffx & Gunar, have you updated your drivers recently? If not I'd do that first, then perhaps defrag you drive, clear out your windows cache and then try the game again. These fixes are only suggestions though. Oh yeah, some community members have tried changing their screen resolutions with other games and that has fixed whatever the problem was. I hope these suggestions help to get the game fixed. If not I'd try some of the other games I've suggested in my first comment @ #1

Reply   |   Comment by Whiterabbit aka Stephen  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#16

Cool!

Downloaded & installed w/no problems, opened & filled my wide screen in Vista Ultimate. Fit screen much better than most games I DL.

I'm totally inept with cursor keys, but it's really pretty and I'll see if I can pass the level 1 speed!

Thanks muy mucho, GGAOTD!

Reply   |   Comment by HerCathyness  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#15

I would like to thank whoever it is that sends out the emails about these games, for letting us know about the controls. I, too, don't like using the arrow keys, I only get games that use the mouse. This bit of information up front saves me the time of going through all the comments, hoping for a hint as to how the game is controlled. Kudos to the emailer! Also my very sincere thanks go out to White Rabbit, he usually lets us know about the controls also, in his VERY CONCISE description of the games. Stephen, you are greatly appreciated.

Reply   |   Comment by Virginia  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#14

The game will not start on my XP SP3. A very short flash and that's it.

Reply   |   Comment by Gunnar  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#13

Tried several times,the game would not open.

Reply   |   Comment by graffx  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#12

I installed the gam, didn't like and it
Now I can't find a way to deinstall it.
So watch it!!!

Reply   |   Comment by gerben  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#11

Having played very good tetris-like games that were only a few hundred kilobytes in size, I find I cannot justify a 21mB download or 49mB install size. The description and the review don't suggest that Magic Bricks has much more variation than these smaller freeware ones.

Is it just me, but aren't the vast majority of recent offerings bloatware?

Reply   |   Comment by Jacques  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#10

my problem with this software...

Doesn't (appear) to support widescreen, even after fiddling with the config file, no option to disable fullscreen either, just aligns on left with desktop exposed on right.

Reply   |   Comment by David  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#9

It's an okay game. It seems to be going for a sort of Tetris/Lumines/Columns mash-up. Not a great description with the game: nothing is particularly "explosive" about this game, and there doesn't seem to be much to get the logical brain circuits firing. The best match 3 games will do that, this one had me bored in 20 minutes. It needs more than just the one game mode.

There's nothing particularly special about this game. Marginal thumbs down.

Reply   |   Comment by rkdn42  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#8

Nice colors.......soothing sounds........but how do you play this game?

Reply   |   Comment by DragginMaster  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#7

downloaded game and gave it a try. A little more challenging than I thought it would be. Think I will keep it as it challenges me and I think my sharpen my aging skills - lol - I can dream right. Thanks for the game - keep it up people - cheers.

Reply   |   Comment by Lynn  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#6

Woot, first comment.
I didn't like this game very much, i sort of hate 3-match games.
Maybe tommorow...
Thanks GAOTD.

Reply   |   Comment by lars  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#5

I've always liked a game of tetris but this is so quick (even at lower speed settings) without a preview of the next block (I can't find it if it exists) that it feels a lot more random than other versions of the game.

Reply   |   Comment by Christina Williams  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#4

I don't do games with arrow keys anymore, but thanks anyway! :)

Reply   |   Comment by Skye-hook  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#3

Nice game, harder than it looks. Thanks!

Reply   |   Comment by Sappho  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#2

WIL TRY TETRIS GOOD,WIFE LOVES IT, GOOD AND HARD (GAME) LOL

Reply   |   Comment by DAWOOD  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#1

Magic Bricks: A 'Very' Short Review:

Installation:

The game installs to C:/Games by default, but you can select your own path to install during installation if you wish. The downloaded zip file is 21.4Mb in size and when installed opens up to 49.5Mb. There is no desktop or start menu shortcuts intalled upon installation so you’ll have to create these for yourselves. If you’re not sure how to do this there’s a simple tutorial for creating both shortcuts in the games forums:



Find Creating Shortcut Tutorial HERE

I couldn’t find a web site to download a demo andcheck details of the game, so wasn’t able to write up a detailed review prior to the game giveaway this week so today’s review will be rather short.


The Game:

This is a basic match three Tetris game with single player and two player modes. There are no bells and whistles to the game, just pure game play. You can adjust the games speed by going into the settings menu and adjusting from 1 to 12. The higher the number is, the faster the blocks drop down. The maximum numbers of blocks that appear are combinations of four blocks in various shapes and colors; the lowest number of blocks is one. You can turn the blocks, move them from side to side and make them drop faster by using the arrow/cursor keys. This game is keyboard only controls. There are power ups but these are not available if you set the game speed at the slower settings, as far as I could tell from the limited amount of time I played the game this morning. There’re no details in a help me file, though one appeared to destroy the brick it touched upon impact and another destroyed a whole column of bricks. You have to arrange the blocks into the correct color, in combinations of three or more columns or rows. Creating a group of three or more will not destroy the bricks unless they are in rows or columns.


Images:



See Slideshow of Magic Bricks images HERE

Music:

If you don’t like the in game music, you can change it by replacing the files that are present in the games data folder.

D:\games\Magic Bricks\MagicBricks\GData\Music

The games music files are in the ogg format so you’ll require a suitable audio converter to convert your mp3 or WMA files. You can find a free audio converter in the freeware library:



Get free audio converters HERE



Conclusion:

If you like Tetris then this is the game for you. The game is very basic, but colorful. There seems to be a problem with the design of this game in my opinion as the single blocks fall at a constant speed no matter what game speed you set the game at. Setting the game speed at 12 is near impossible to play unless you have lightning reflexes (and is what the default speed for the single blocks seems to be set at, so maybe it is a challenging game. There are plenty of free Tetris games around so personally I couldn’t imagine paying for this game. I would score this a 5 out of 10 for game play. Not really my game as I burnt out on Tetris years ago when the first game boys were released, though I will occasionally play one of the freeware Tetris games I have which to be honest are as good if not better than this game. You can find several free Tetris games in the games synopsis thread over in the forums. These include Color Tetris, Firestones, Halloween Horror Tetris, Rhombis, Trismania, Trixx and Wordtris:

Find other Tetris games in the Free Games Synopsis HERE



You can also get a few Tetris like match three games called Gem Mine, Magic Drop and Rhombis from Gametop:

Get Gem Mine

Get Rhombis HERE

Get Magic Drop HERE

Games from gametop once closed do open your browser, but once the browser is closed there's no other hassles. If you do decide to download any games from the site be aware that some do try to install tool bars and hijack your browser; though this can be prevented by unchecking the tick boxes that appear during installation. I've also been getting pop ups occasionally that are usually rated red by the Web of Trust (WOT).

Reply   |   Comment by Whiterabbit aka Stephen  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
Add a comment

iPhone app giveaways »

Tilterpillar Giveaway
Play this classic game of "snake" by tilting your device as a controller.
$1.99 ➞ free today
C.H.A.D. Giveaway
A collection of animated stickers about the pool season.
$0.99 ➞ free today
App Secret Giveaway
App Secret offers you a new way to protect your data and keep all the important information untouched.
$1.99 ➞ free today
Modern Ludo Giveaway
Use your bullet to destroy all enemies!
$4.99 ➞ free today
Calendar Widget - Date Widgets Giveaway
Calendar Widget is the app you need for customising your home screen with beautiful calendar.
$0.99 ➞ free today

Android app giveaways »

Demon Hunter: Premium Giveaway
The must try game for any real hack and slash fan who already got bored with just mindlessly smashing buttons.
$0.99 ➞ free today
Audio Player Giveaway
Probably the most lightweight audio player for Android.
$1.99 ➞ free today
BodyQuest: Anatomy for kids Giveaway
Learn the basics of human anatomy.
$3.99 ➞ free today
Slime Legends - Survivor Giveaway
You are a slime survivor preparing to step on the path to becoming a monster slayer.
$0.19 ➞ free today
Heat Pump Calculator Giveaway
Installing heat pumps to meet your heating and cooling needs is becoming increasingly popular.
$1.49 ➞ free today