Boom Blox: Zen and the Art of Blowing Shit Up

    I picked up a copy of Boom Blox a couple days ago for the Wii. I had heard quite a bit about this from 1up and IGN podcasts, everyone seemed to like it so I figured I'd give it a go. Most of the games these guys talk up on the podcasts don't sound like they'd appeal to me. I had no desire to play Elite Beat Agents, Little Big Planet, etc. But, this seemed different. A few weeks ago I saw a segment on the 1up Show about Boom Blox and it looked like a lot of fun. My first impression was that it was a mix between Jenga and bowling...

This Generation's Blast Corps.

    Boom Blox doesn't really have a narrative story per se... although there is an "adventure mode" which is really just a collection of similarly themed stages. The game box claims that there are 300+ levels, this is a possible because each "level" is a different arrangement of Jenga-like blocks on the screen. There are a number of shooter style levels where you zap blocks or animals with lasers... The main part of this game revolves around Jenga like puzzles. Sound limited? Well, it's not only the take-one-block-and-put-it-on-the-top-style Jenga game you're probably thinking of. Like newer iterations of Tetris, Bubble Bobble and other puzzle games, there are certain blocks that do certain things when manipulated in certain ways. For example, there are bomb blocks which explode when hit, chemical blocks which detonate when two of them make contact, and warp blocks that disappear when hit. My favorite game play style thus far is the bomb detonation mode. There are some pretty cool levels involving towers or blocks, preplaced bombs and ramps/catapults. Some of these can get pretty creative where you have to topple towers onto a teeter totter to launch a bomb into the air and then detonate it at a specific altitude to damage another tower to release points.

This reminded me of all the fun I used to have playing Blast Corps for the Nintendo 64. I really enjoyed the complete destructibility of the maps and using ramps to achieve maximum damage. Boom Blox seems to be designed for a much younger gamer but is quite a lot deeper and complex than Blast Corps. Blast Corps was limited in the sense that you could only choose from a few vehicles that destroyed buildings in only slightly different ways. Boom Blox has a few different ways to destroy levels, you can use a fire hose, throw baseballs or bombs and pick up pieces and manually place them/hit other blocks/etc. I do like Blast Corps style and theme better than Boom Blox. I tend to prefer nukes, dump trucks and giants robots as opposed to sheep, cattle and bears that look like they are made from gummi legos. Think, Lego Blast Corps meets Animal Crossing...

The Wii controls work really well for this game, I don't think Boom Blox would be anywhere near as fun if it were played with an Xbox 360 controller. There isn't much need for the nunchuck but it will control the camera angle a little easier than doing it one handed. There is a ton of throwing, sliding and flailing involved throughout the game and it all works better than you'd think... which makes the jenga aspect a little tough at first. The Wiimote's gyro magic takes a little getting used to because it will calculate up down, left right, pitch and yaw. So every little tilt and move you make will be reflected on the screen. It does get annoying because it seems like the game is super sensitive, but you just have to be conscious of every angular move you make.

Like So Much Sid Meier's Civilization

    On the game box and the title screen Boom Blox makes it clear that this game is affiliated with Steve Spielberg. I'm not sure what kind of input Spielberg had in this game exactly... I really don't like 'video game personalities' like Richard Garriott and Cliff Bleszinski, so I was hoping this game wouldn't be present by Spielberg in the same way "CliffyB" shills Gears of War. So far so good though.