If you’re thinking that a game designed by Steven Spielberg would undoubtedly feature aliens, dinosaurs and robots – or even robotic alien dinosaurs – then you’re completely mistaken. Instead the stars are chunky block-like animals, but all signs suggest that these oddly sinister looking creatures aren’t anything to do with Spielberg as early builds were sans character. It’s probably all down to EA’s marketing men, as in case you’ve forgotten, all Wii games have to feature colourful critters of some description.
Boom Blox is a game that requires both aggression and patience although rarely at the same time. You see, some levels involve knocking over stacks of bloxs with as few throws of a ball possible to send precious gems crashing to the ground; others involve carefully removing blocks, Jenga-style, via a disembodied floating hand. The better you do the shinier the medal you receive.
Along the way you’ll come across bloxs that explode when hit, bloxs that vanish, chemical bloxs that go ‘bang’ when struck together and a range of different balls including bomb balls and bowling balls that cause more damage. The laser weapon is a bit pointless though – merely pointing and clicking is nowhere near as fun as taking a swing with the Wii remote.
Granted it’s an incredibly simple game at heart but one that’s perfect for the Wii and has several streaks of genius. The physics for starters are brilliant – often you’ll be waiting with baited breath to see if the last few bloxs will eventually topple over – while stray airborne bloxs have a habit of crashing into spectators. Scouring for weak spots is another joy, as is looking for ways to start a chain reaction. The controls work perfectly taking in both speed and power of your swings and pulls. Later levels throw new ideas into the mix, such as time limits and having to remove blox without causing characters to topple from the top of the pile.
Bad stuff? Well, the presentation isn’t up to the usual EA standard – the menus aren’t anything special and the music sounds like it has been taken directly from MySims. However, on the plus side you can make your own puzzles in the easy to use create mode and host them on WiiConnect24. There’s also an adventure mode with a loose story attached and a wealth of multi-player modes such as co-op. If your friends and family are still to be convinced by the Wii, then there is no better game than this to change their perspectives.