Box cover

EA and Steven Spielberg team up once again to bring you BOOM BLOX Bash Party for the Nintendo Wii. While the first BOOM BLOX was a successful venture between the two parties, what can we expect from this sequel?

When we first load up the game, we’re asked to create a user profile. There’s a wide range of characters to use as your profile avatar and once you’ve decided, it’s time to choose which game mode to play. There’s Solo, Versus and Co-Op and since I was on my own, it seemed like the sensible thing to do was to pick Solo.

A novel thing you can do when at mode selection screens and level select screens is to grab the blocks that represent the modes with your wii-mote and bash them about with the others. Not that you’d be wishing you could do this had they not included this but I think it’s a sign of things to come… fun to be had. Let’s hope so.

BOOM BLOX Bash Party is one of those games where they sound rubbish when you try to explain it to friends. Imagine you’re at a fairground stall and you’re presented with a ball-game that merges Jenga and Dominoes together, with elements that can only be found in a video game. Minus the creepy carny who doesn’t seem to blink, and you have fair description of the structure found within BOOM BLOX Bash Party.

After completing the tutorial mode, which runs you through various types of themed levels and the methods required to pass them, you find yourself free to explore the park and the five sections within it.

Some levels require you to simply throw various types of balls and knock down specific blocks, some require you to carefully lift away blocks without moving or knocking “penalty blocks”, and others require you to utilise the various types of balls, each with specific characteristics, and manipulate the level in strategic and methodical ways.

Gamers can earn Gold/Silver/Bronze medals on each level. Obviously, the better you perform, the better the medal and the better the medal, the more Boom Bux (money) you earn. Each stage has a series of levels, and levels that can be unlocked by gaining silver medals on each stage on a previous level. There are also a variety of achievements which range from the amount of money collected, number of gold medals earned, number of baseballs thrown etc.

Most of the levels require you to throw a type of projectile and this has a similar feel to Baseball in Wii Sports, except here’s a lot more aim and precision here. One of the several variations that I like is the Slingshot type levels where you have to choose which block to carefully ping off in a certain direction with a certain amount of force.

At first, every level in every stage is locked, apart from the first and it’s up to you to medal in them and unlock the next level one by one. Should you have any difficulty, you can choose to spend some of the money you’ve earned to buy the next level. This I feel is a nice option to present to the gamer.

As you progress, you will unlock various types of items that you can use in the Create Mode. These range from different types of blocks, to characters, each adding a level of depth to the custom levels you can create. You can also edit existing levels but the place to have the most fun is definitely the Create Mode. Being able to download and upload levels is a very good function to have in this game. Not only can you rate them, it also adds a lot of replay value.

When you come to create your own levels, you really appreciate the thought and design that has gone into the game. You realise even the most simplest of concepts can take a while to construct. There are tutorials that you can work your way through which are both enjoyable and educating. The more you understand, the more adventurous you can be.

One area of BOOM BLOX: Bash Party that really shines is its physics engine. You really appreciate its realism when multiple blocks are flying everywhere; each with its own trajectory, interacting with the environment and each other with plausibility. Gravity is not quite 1:1 but then again, this game wouldn’t be as enjoyable if the ratio was spot on.

Aside from the often colourful levels, the game isn’t visually stunning. I feel the focus is solely on the levels an the physics used within them. There’s no fancy over-the-top visuals, cut sequences are mostly transitions of still images, but you don’t mind. You don’t play this game for any narrative development or stunning pre-rendered sequences; you play it to have fun. Whether it’s completely destroying the contents of a level, or strategically scoping out the surroundings before executing your tactical throws.

The sound design is fairly standard. There’s no voice acting, levels generally contain ambient tracks, which is fair enough. Any game that requires a level of lateral thinking usually benefits from a down-tempo soundtrack.

One minor annoyance is that the game sometimes declares what score you have obtained a little too early. There are rare occasions when you miss out on points due to this which can mean the difference between medals. The levels that are prone to this are the ones where there’s a huge amount of blocks and the ones that are teetering taking longer to topple. Don’t worry, this doesn’t happen often.

Overall, this is a very impressive game. Shame there’s not much difference between this and the first one. Aside from the new types of blocks you have, I would like to have seen more development in the online department. I’m very satisfied with the ability to create your own levels, upload them as well as downloading levels that others have made.
Even if you don’t buy this, it’s certainly worth renting.

+ Lots of levels
+ Very good physics engine
+ Create your own/download other gamers’ levels

- Some levels feel a bit repetitive
- No online competitive modes
- Not much different from BOOM BLOX

Score – 8/10