One of the more peculiar mysteries in my life as a Wii gamer is how my two-dozen-strong disc collection has never included EA's Boom Blox. Well, truth be told, I really didn't know what the heck to think of the game when I first heard about it. Steven Spielberg? Making a... game? went the thought process, as I recall. By time I heard it was actually good, I was too busy enjoying other titles to go back and correct my mistake.
Even without my sale, though, EA seems have been happy enough with the original to give it a sequel. Boom Blox Bash Party—the name clearly calculated to resonate with someone's idea of a Wii buyer—arrived recently and I got my hands on a copy and gave it a spin.
The first thing I noticed about Bash Party is that yes, its core mechanic is very solid and definitely one of those designs that understands how best to utilize the Wii Remote. You'll generally be chucking balls at increasingly complicated structures of blocks, trying to get at the sweet gems inside; this is done simply by pointing the Remote's pointer at the spot where you want to throw, locking with A, and making a tossing motion—releasing A when you're going at the appropriate velocity. It feels great, and never leaves one feeling that "oh, I would have got that throw, but the controller/game messed up"—something that's all-too-common in many other Wii games. (I did have a little trouble with actually getting the pointer to point in my sometimes-sunlit living room, though; Bash Party seems to have a little trouble that no other Wii game does in this regard. Nonetheless, it never actually screwed me up, just annoyed a little.)
Bash Party is a highly physics oriented game; blocks bump each other and topple convincingly (though a bit slowly—but that's certainly no criticism.) It's made all the more visceral by the feeling that yes, you're actually knocking them down like you would in a carnival bottle toss game, though there's no carnie intent on cheating you out of that giant pink stuffed bear and, by extension, the affections of any girl you may be with. That's great and all, but leaves the million-dollar question: can the basic idea survive for the 400-plus levels that Bash Party has?
The answer is no, but Bash Party doesn't stick to that same basic idea throughout. There's a ton of different ideas at work here; some work better than others, but I'm hard-pressed to say there was one I didn't enjoy. There are sets of levels where you must pull gems out, Jenga-style, and toss them up in the air to score them, which can be a bit nerve-wracking as you'll lose anything that falls over and hits the ground. There are levels where the gems don't need to be toppled so much as mined from underneath a pile of blocks that won't score you any points—with a limited number of throws, these levels in particular can be head-scratchers if you want to go for the gold medals. There are even gravity-free levels set in space where you simply need to make sure there's enough explosion going on to pitch the gems outside of a grid surrounding the playfield. In short, they've pretty much attacked every possible angle.
Being a decidedly family-friendly game, I of course let my family in on the action as well. My six-year-old daughter loved playing, though I think she likes the destruction more than she likes the more cerebral levels—and my wife is content to play with her. My two-year-old son is content to shout "uh-oh blocks!" when a particularly devastating topple is put into action, which makes it more enjoyable for pretty much everyone.
My brother-in-law and I also tackled what I understand is the new-to-the-series co-op mode. Here, we each get a certain type of ball to throw; he got the weightier bowling ball, which is good for knocking down heavy things, while I got the bomb, which is more useful for trying to unearth prizes. Even though I was re-playing levels I'd already medaled in single-player mode, they felt brand-new as we worked together to clear them with the tools we were each given. Definitely worth a try if you can rustle up a second boom-bloxer.
Even when you've wrapped up all the on-disc content, there's a full-up level creation tool (which isn't quite as good as Marble Saga Kororinpa's, but works pretty well nonetheless) and a good amount of content already available for download, along with a user-created content server run by EA with out-of-5-star ranking. While I can't say I've yet found much that's stunningly good online, it's definitely a nice feature to have.
Boom Blox Bash Party, despite the possibly scary name (and box art), is one of those Wii games that I think anyone can enjoy. It's well-engineered, has about the widest-ranging assortment of content I've seen in some time, and taps into the joy of destruction I think we all have deep inside. I'm glad that I finally got into it. And to Mr. Spielberg: I can only offer my apologies for having doubted your chops.
Even without my sale, though, EA seems have been happy enough with the original to give it a sequel. Boom Blox Bash Party—the name clearly calculated to resonate with someone's idea of a Wii buyer—arrived recently and I got my hands on a copy and gave it a spin.
The first thing I noticed about Bash Party is that yes, its core mechanic is very solid and definitely one of those designs that understands how best to utilize the Wii Remote. You'll generally be chucking balls at increasingly complicated structures of blocks, trying to get at the sweet gems inside; this is done simply by pointing the Remote's pointer at the spot where you want to throw, locking with A, and making a tossing motion—releasing A when you're going at the appropriate velocity. It feels great, and never leaves one feeling that "oh, I would have got that throw, but the controller/game messed up"—something that's all-too-common in many other Wii games. (I did have a little trouble with actually getting the pointer to point in my sometimes-sunlit living room, though; Bash Party seems to have a little trouble that no other Wii game does in this regard. Nonetheless, it never actually screwed me up, just annoyed a little.)
Bash Party is a highly physics oriented game; blocks bump each other and topple convincingly (though a bit slowly—but that's certainly no criticism.) It's made all the more visceral by the feeling that yes, you're actually knocking them down like you would in a carnival bottle toss game, though there's no carnie intent on cheating you out of that giant pink stuffed bear and, by extension, the affections of any girl you may be with. That's great and all, but leaves the million-dollar question: can the basic idea survive for the 400-plus levels that Bash Party has?
The answer is no, but Bash Party doesn't stick to that same basic idea throughout. There's a ton of different ideas at work here; some work better than others, but I'm hard-pressed to say there was one I didn't enjoy. There are sets of levels where you must pull gems out, Jenga-style, and toss them up in the air to score them, which can be a bit nerve-wracking as you'll lose anything that falls over and hits the ground. There are levels where the gems don't need to be toppled so much as mined from underneath a pile of blocks that won't score you any points—with a limited number of throws, these levels in particular can be head-scratchers if you want to go for the gold medals. There are even gravity-free levels set in space where you simply need to make sure there's enough explosion going on to pitch the gems outside of a grid surrounding the playfield. In short, they've pretty much attacked every possible angle.
Being a decidedly family-friendly game, I of course let my family in on the action as well. My six-year-old daughter loved playing, though I think she likes the destruction more than she likes the more cerebral levels—and my wife is content to play with her. My two-year-old son is content to shout "uh-oh blocks!" when a particularly devastating topple is put into action, which makes it more enjoyable for pretty much everyone.
My brother-in-law and I also tackled what I understand is the new-to-the-series co-op mode. Here, we each get a certain type of ball to throw; he got the weightier bowling ball, which is good for knocking down heavy things, while I got the bomb, which is more useful for trying to unearth prizes. Even though I was re-playing levels I'd already medaled in single-player mode, they felt brand-new as we worked together to clear them with the tools we were each given. Definitely worth a try if you can rustle up a second boom-bloxer.
Even when you've wrapped up all the on-disc content, there's a full-up level creation tool (which isn't quite as good as Marble Saga Kororinpa's, but works pretty well nonetheless) and a good amount of content already available for download, along with a user-created content server run by EA with out-of-5-star ranking. While I can't say I've yet found much that's stunningly good online, it's definitely a nice feature to have.
Boom Blox Bash Party, despite the possibly scary name (and box art), is one of those Wii games that I think anyone can enjoy. It's well-engineered, has about the widest-ranging assortment of content I've seen in some time, and taps into the joy of destruction I think we all have deep inside. I'm glad that I finally got into it. And to Mr. Spielberg: I can only offer my apologies for having doubted your chops.