05-10-2008, 05:12 AM
Spielberg's explosive puzzle game knows what boys like.
by Tom Chick
At first, you might think it odd that director Steven Spielberg is associated with this physics-based puzzle game from Electronic Arts. This is what the creator of Saving Private Ryan helped bring to the Wii? A sort of Virtua Jenga meets Breakout meets Duck Hunt meets Legos? Where's the pulp of Indiana Jones, the thrill of a T. Rex attack, the meditation on the nature of evil in Schindler's List, and the jet packs from Minority Report?
So you shrug and jump in, working your way through the relentless but gratifying progression of unlockables, from the tutorial, to the challenges, to the new goodies you earn in the build-your-own puzzle mode, to the expert challenges, to earning medals, and so on. Maybe you try it with a few friends, discovering an almost absurdly generous number of modes. There's a lot of hit or miss in the different ways to play BOOM BLOX, but rest assured that the hits are hits enough to more than make up for the misses.
The unifying factor of all of BOOM BLOX's many ways to play is a relatively simple physics system that combines gravity, lots of individual pieces (the eponymous Blox), and your own application of a little kinetic energy, usually administered with a flick of the Wiimote. The play style ranges from careful puzzles to freewheeling destruction -- although it's mostly the latter -- and in either case, your task is to topple towers of blocks by throwing, grabbing or straight up blasting them away.
And the more you play, the more you appreciate BOOM BLOX's uncanny insight into the psychology of children. Oh, the sweet anticipation of deliberately stacked bricks, mortarless and tottering precariously on a single load-bearing beam! Oh, the delight of knocking down carefully constructed edifices, of seeing the blocks go flying, of the tilt and tumble and clatter! Oh, the joy of chaos out of order! Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg understand that we all have an inner boy who can't help but delight at things falling down. The more elaborately, the better.
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"BOOM BLOX is so simple and its appeal so universal that we're hard pressed to think of another Wii game that can so effectively bring a room together."
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Engineering nerds will thrill to the depiction of weight, friction, and mass in this unbridled Newtonian drama, but on top of all the physics is a layer of Spielberg's unmistakable brand of charm, courtesy of several themed areas and cute characters that seem to be on loan from various Playmobil sets. Most of the time, the waddling characters are loitering around in the margins, dancing to the destruction or tensing up when you make a risky move. But they're also used as "blox" in their own right, sometime integrated into the puzzles with loosely scripted A.I. behaviors. For instance, the gorilla mom always moves towards gorilla babies, so there are puzzles where you have to clear a path to help her reach the little fellows. Other times, it's as simple a matter as not letting a tower collapse because there's a cow on top. And not just any cow, but a baby cow! Who wouldn't want to save a baby cow?
There's also an ambitious and incredibly flexible building mode, although you won't get full access to it until you've played through a good deal of the single-player content. This should give BOOM BLOX an enormous amount of longevity, particularly since you can make levels and swap them online via Nintendo Friend Codes. An included Rube Goldberg style demo will be enough to get any Legos fan, science project nerd, or mod-maker quivering with excitement at the prospects.
Last but certainly not least, there's the party game aspect. BOOM BLOX is so simple and its appeal so universal that we're hard pressed to think of another Wii game that can so effectively bring a room together. Whether it's the Jenga mode, taking turns knocking gems off each others' destructible castle walls, or bringing down a tower together in the cooperative challenges, BOOM BLOX is one of the most gratifying jump-in-and-play games you can get on the Nintendo Wii. Don't knock it down 'til you've tried it.
Available 5/5/08. Reviewer gives 5/5. Pros: Lots of modes; entertaining physics; cute animals give it charm; powerful puzzle builder. Cons: unlockable single player stuff might frustrate some players; not all the modes are winners.
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by Tom Chick
At first, you might think it odd that director Steven Spielberg is associated with this physics-based puzzle game from Electronic Arts. This is what the creator of Saving Private Ryan helped bring to the Wii? A sort of Virtua Jenga meets Breakout meets Duck Hunt meets Legos? Where's the pulp of Indiana Jones, the thrill of a T. Rex attack, the meditation on the nature of evil in Schindler's List, and the jet packs from Minority Report?
So you shrug and jump in, working your way through the relentless but gratifying progression of unlockables, from the tutorial, to the challenges, to the new goodies you earn in the build-your-own puzzle mode, to the expert challenges, to earning medals, and so on. Maybe you try it with a few friends, discovering an almost absurdly generous number of modes. There's a lot of hit or miss in the different ways to play BOOM BLOX, but rest assured that the hits are hits enough to more than make up for the misses.
The unifying factor of all of BOOM BLOX's many ways to play is a relatively simple physics system that combines gravity, lots of individual pieces (the eponymous Blox), and your own application of a little kinetic energy, usually administered with a flick of the Wiimote. The play style ranges from careful puzzles to freewheeling destruction -- although it's mostly the latter -- and in either case, your task is to topple towers of blocks by throwing, grabbing or straight up blasting them away.
And the more you play, the more you appreciate BOOM BLOX's uncanny insight into the psychology of children. Oh, the sweet anticipation of deliberately stacked bricks, mortarless and tottering precariously on a single load-bearing beam! Oh, the delight of knocking down carefully constructed edifices, of seeing the blocks go flying, of the tilt and tumble and clatter! Oh, the joy of chaos out of order! Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg understand that we all have an inner boy who can't help but delight at things falling down. The more elaborately, the better.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"BOOM BLOX is so simple and its appeal so universal that we're hard pressed to think of another Wii game that can so effectively bring a room together."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Engineering nerds will thrill to the depiction of weight, friction, and mass in this unbridled Newtonian drama, but on top of all the physics is a layer of Spielberg's unmistakable brand of charm, courtesy of several themed areas and cute characters that seem to be on loan from various Playmobil sets. Most of the time, the waddling characters are loitering around in the margins, dancing to the destruction or tensing up when you make a risky move. But they're also used as "blox" in their own right, sometime integrated into the puzzles with loosely scripted A.I. behaviors. For instance, the gorilla mom always moves towards gorilla babies, so there are puzzles where you have to clear a path to help her reach the little fellows. Other times, it's as simple a matter as not letting a tower collapse because there's a cow on top. And not just any cow, but a baby cow! Who wouldn't want to save a baby cow?
There's also an ambitious and incredibly flexible building mode, although you won't get full access to it until you've played through a good deal of the single-player content. This should give BOOM BLOX an enormous amount of longevity, particularly since you can make levels and swap them online via Nintendo Friend Codes. An included Rube Goldberg style demo will be enough to get any Legos fan, science project nerd, or mod-maker quivering with excitement at the prospects.
Last but certainly not least, there's the party game aspect. BOOM BLOX is so simple and its appeal so universal that we're hard pressed to think of another Wii game that can so effectively bring a room together. Whether it's the Jenga mode, taking turns knocking gems off each others' destructible castle walls, or bringing down a tower together in the cooperative challenges, BOOM BLOX is one of the most gratifying jump-in-and-play games you can get on the Nintendo Wii. Don't knock it down 'til you've tried it.
Available 5/5/08. Reviewer gives 5/5. Pros: Lots of modes; entertaining physics; cute animals give it charm; powerful puzzle builder. Cons: unlockable single player stuff might frustrate some players; not all the modes are winners.
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