Unless you are some kind of weird lab experiment that enjoys reading our site (hello!) you, the reader, were at some point a child and as such, you played as child, thought as a child but most importantly - destroyed things as a child. Did you enjoy doing that? Then Boom Blox is for you. One of the best Wii games you’ve never played.

Boom Blox is a simple premise and one that when described can sound a bit rubbish (maybe that’s why the sales have been quite poor so far). The idea is to destroy, blow up, knock over and shoot piles of blocks arranged in such a way to set off a chain reaction. Do you know those lines of Dominos people set up and topple over? Or the car advert a few years ago which used all of the cars parts to set off a chain reaction? Boom Blox plays like that with more of a puzzle edge to it.

Using a selection of different items to throw like baseballs, bowling balls and bombs you have to select the point at which to throw at to set off the chain reaction and thus net you a lot of points. This is done with the Wiimote and works as if the player were swinging the real ball, Think Wii Sports baseball. Like I said earlier, it can sound a bit rubbish, but instead its addictive in the same way Tetris and Meteos are with some of the later levels in the game causing me the same brain ache that I suffered at the hands of Toki Tori.

While Boom Blox starts off fairly slow, it builds up using different types of blocks such as vanishing, exploding, negative (you lose points of hitting those) and gem blocks. Your first taken through the ability of each block and shown how to use each one to your advantage and could even give you ideas for your own levels (but more on that later). Some of the later puzzles in the game can become tricky, introducing several different elements into one puzzle can take half an hour to solve and half a minute to blow up, it’s a great feeling. Those purists who love getting top scores won’t be disappointed either with a points system in place for every puzzle and different scores giving bronze, silver and gold. Some puzzles also include unlockable content for completing which can be used in the Create Mode.

Correct. Create Mode. Boom Blocks has an unbelievable user feature which allows for any number of stages to be made by the user, sent to friends, altered and sent back. The game features a few levels already pre-made, one of which is a checkers board which is a great example and really got me thinking. Inside Create Mode the player is free to make any type of level they can think of with no restrictions unlike the recently released Smash Bros Brawl, Boom Blox leaves itself completely open for the user to do whatever they want to and share it with Wii friends.

Not a great deal can be said for the visuals in the game. While bright and colourful they aren’t exactly amazing. What is amazing however is the engine this game works on. Every block moves in its own way with different weights and behaviours. I would compare it to the engine in of Half Life 2. Considering the amount of blocks on screen that can blow up at the same time, I’m glad the visuals haven’t been pushed hard as the game runs smoothly even when 100 blocks are going off. Either way the game boasts some bright visuals and a few animal characters which most won’t find appealing, but the kid inside us will chuckle at.

Sound is almost absent in the game except for a few background music pieces and sound effects but this allows for the player to concentrate a little more. If you’re like me and like background music I suggest playing some of your own collection. What music there is fits to the games general feel with happy tunes and cow moo’s it all feels childish, but in a good way.

Closing Comments
Boom Blox is an interesting experience. While the idea of the game and why EA thought this would work still makes my head spin, playing it is a joy and with some friends round it’s even more fun. Don’t let reading this review be the last thing you have to do with Boom Blox, rent it, enjoy it and then buy it because this is one of the games the Wii was made for.

Score 8.9

+ Great physics engine
+ Oodles of levels
+ Endless replay value with user created stages…

- …Unless you don’t have Nintendo Wi-Fi or friends with a copy
- A non-friend level sharing community would have been nice
- Controls can get fiddly for precise aiming
- Some levels feel a bit samey