Years ago, Activision caused a minor commotion after choosing to bring Rovio’s Angry Birds Trilogy to consoles. The problem wasn’t necessarily to do with the game’s quality – on mobile it was a proven time waster – but rather the fact that they were charging £29.99 for something that cost under a quid to download on mobiles. The developers behind Blow It Up, undoubtedly inspired by Rovio’s bird flinging sensation, have managed to avoid falling into the same trap, releasing Blow It Up at a reasonable £6 – the price Activision should have released Angry Birds Trilogy for on PSN/Xbox Live back in 2012.
Unfortunately, Blow It Up forgets what made Angry Birds compelling. As simple as that game’s formula was, it turns out that – much like Tetris – it’s quite easy to mess up with careless oversights. The aim is the same – to destroy every enemy located within stages formed from construction blocks, using a pool of cartoon-like bombs (with names such as Gunny, Blasty and Jetty) – but much of Angry Bird’s mastery has been lost.
Visually it’s appealing enough, sporting vibrant colours that delightfully clash with realistic explosions, and stages formed from countless 3D objects that scatter through the air when blasted. The hub-world meanwhile takes the form of a chain of floating islands with a few secret coins to bag and a bonus achievement or two to unlock through exploration.
The game’s problems don’t ruin the experience, but they do showcase a lack of thought and care. On the minor side of things, it doesn’t do a good job of charting progression: each level is ranked with bronze, silver, and gold trophies depending on the number of bombs used, but there’s no way to see which trophies are outstanding at a glance. During play, there’s no tally of remaining enemies either, with the issue being that foes can be obscured by debris. You may think there’s only one enemy left, when in fact there’s another under some rubble smirking away.
Showcasing further carelessness is that Blow It Up goes overboard with its character roster, ergo its arsenal selection, resulting in a lack of balance. A couple of bomb types are useful in certain instances, such as Diggy who can be fired directly downwards and Jetty the plane who carpet bombs, but the starting bomb is soon overshadowed, while the remote bomb is made redundant by a much larger detonatable bomb. By the game’s end, I was able to get by just by using two or three types. That’s also to say that the stages aren’t based on the bombs available at the time, and neither do stages limit the types available. Some do however limit the number of lives, with as few as two bomb throws to clear certain stages.
Then there’s the matter of the physics engine. Towers topple, allowing for domino style destruction (unless they happen to uncontrollably topple forwards or backwards) but if a structure has an overhang, it won’t collapse in on itself. Again, it isn’t game ruining, but there will be times when you’re left shaking your head, and it can lead to odd gravity defying sights with large platforms suspended in midair.
There are a few other shortcomings which are mostly forgivable given the low entry point, such as a single identical backdrop used throughout and the repetitive music. The presentation isn’t too bad on the whole. We’ve certainly seen worse from other games in the same price bracket.
It took me just under three hours to complete every stage and see the celebratory screen. A handful of stages took multiple attempts, one of which felt very poorly designed, but the vast majority were easily completed on the first try. On one stage I didn’t need to fling a single bomb as the rumbling of exploding cannons set off a chain reaction. New things are introduced now and then such as floating platforms, but not steadily enough, and even then, they fail to shake things up significantly. The impenetrable spiked walls come off as an annoyance more than anything, especially considering the name of the game we’re dealing with.
While I didn’t dislike spending time with Blow It Up, it felt increasingly sloppier as things progressed, especially when it started introducing new bomb types with no real uses. A more robust structure and a little bit of extra thought when it came to stage design would have helped Blow It Up become more memorable. As it is, it fizzles out quickly. But at least it isn’t thirty quid.
Brain Seal’s Blow It Up is out now on all formats.