Ultimate Block Party is an addictive and extremely frantic puzzle game with a bright, flamboyant style to match. The back of the box incorrectly claims Ultimate Block Party to be "the first Tetris-like puzzle game for the PSP." In actuality, the game plays more like a souped-up version of Tetris Attack rather than the classic Tetris that millions of people know and love. The focus of this game is on competitive battles, not solitary point chases. And those battles tend to get heated quickly, serving up quick and intense matches without forcing you through a protracted progression of levels.
Ultimate Block Party is a very simple game. You start out with a screen that is about a third of the way filled with colorful blocks. Every so often, a new row of blocks pushes up from the bottom, and you lose when the blocks reach the top of the screen. As time goes on, the blocks start adding up a lot faster. You can remove blocks by lining them up so at least four blocks of the same color are touching, at which point they'll disappear. You do this by moving a 2-by-2 cursor around and spinning the highlighted blocks in either direction until they match up. There is a slight delay between when you match up the like-colored blocks and when they disappear, and during this time you can attach other blocks of the same color to make them disappear as well. That's all pretty simple, but the game offers a lot of room for advancement once you're ready to move beyond the basic four-block strategy.