A Mind-Blowing Game
Third-Parties have proved that doing that is pretty effective and it doesn't take too much effort. But the true challenge for companies lies in creating a good package that is based on the premise of fun and manages not only to interest casuals but also generates high expectations among a crowd that is used to play and master games like Metroid, Zelda and Mario. Just a very restrict group of companies were capable of achieving that but this group just got slightly bigger because with Boom Blox, a created by Steven Spielberg, Electronic Arts has shown us that sometimes it takes a genius from Hollywood to notice that a simple activity like destroying giant towers of blocks would make a great game.
Boom Blox is commonly confused with one of those low-quality games mentioned previously, but in fact it is a long lasting game with enough features to keep you entertained for long periods of time. People usually think that toppling towers is the only activity featured in the game but that is absolutely wrong. On Boom Blox you will use the Wiimote in many different ways in order to throw baseballs (or bowling balls) on big towers, use the pointer as the aim for a gun that fires water (or bullets), use it as a lasso to carefully remove blocks from big structures without toppling them or to simply have a fun contest where you and your pals throw balls frantically at each other's castles to see who will survive the barrage.
If you think that is not enough you will be glad to know that the developers got extremely creative and were able to design plenty of different activities using some blocks and a few inventive structures. Just when you think you have already seen it all you will discover a new experience hidden among the impressive amount of levels contained in the game.
Controlling the game is pretty simple. If you are on a throwing level all you need to do is aim carefully and press the a button to lock to your target, after that perform a throwing motion and the game will capture the power you use to make that and will automatically transfer it to the game, therefore the force you use to make the motion influences the result and the speed of the ball. Controls for the other activities are also pretty straightforward and one can quickly learn all of them. This doesn't mean that the game doesn't require any kind of skill. Truth is only the good players, that master every corner of the levels, are able to complete some of the challenges in the game.
If you want to move the camera around the level in order to get a great angle you only need to press the b button and move the pointer on the direction you want the camera to move. It is also pretty simple but it can be confusing for some players since sometimes the camera moves way too fast.
The title has a single-player mode and a multi-player option. On the first one you will encounter Explore and Adventure levels. Explore challenges will introduce you to all the concepts used in the game such as the different types of blocks and the different ways to interact with the structures the game presents. When finishing each one of the levels you will acquire a medal which is based on the amount of throws you used to destroy everything, or on the number of blocks you removed before toppling the tower, it depends on the level you are playing. After getting a medal you will feel extremely compelled to try to achieve the best rank as possible not only because you will probably unlock something interesting if you do, but also because creating huge chain reactions is one of the most fun activities you can perform while playing the Wii.
Meanwhile, on the adventure mode the game will show you a very silly story that will create the setting for your adventure, the presentation of the story is way too simple and could be more polished, but I guess the developers opted for that path to keep the same simplicity that can be found of the game's graphics and gameplay. The adventure mode has some pretty unique challenges – some of them don't even show up on the explore mode – such as protecting a group of cats from an army of zombies by throwing balls at them, or creating chain reactions by placing bombs close to massive structures in order to get the gold that was stoles from you back. Some of these levels can be slightly boring and I feel like overall the simplicity of the explore mode is much better, but you can also have loads of fun here.
In total the game has something around three hundred different levels. Some of those are exclusive to the multiplayer mode. Here up to four players can compete to see who will get the biggest amount of points, or who will be the first one to destroy a big tower by removing a part of its structure. In this mode the game truly shines and you will quickly discover that Boom Blox pleases everyone because even those who are not interested in games will ask you if they could try to cause some massive damage to huge piles of blocks. This game has one of best multiplayer modes you can find on the Nintendo Wii, easily on par with Super Smash Bros Brawl and Mario Kart Wii.
Finally there is also the Create Mode which is a very simple, yet effective tool. The tool offers everything the producers had on their hands while creating the game's levels. You can use all the blocks available such as the chemical block that explodes when it touches other chemical blocks, the vanish block that completely disappears when touched by a ball and bomb blocks that explode in contact. There are also plenty of characters available, and some of them act on their own to affect and interact with the environment around them. A really impressive feature here is that you can copy any structure that appears on any level and use it on your own user-created level or to simply see how it was made so you can build something similar.
The interface of the game is very simple and easy to navigate and the graphics could be easily made on the Gamecube, but the physics effects that are very realistic would probably be too much for that system to handle. The graphics are justified exactly because of that, had they been more polished the game would probably face serious slow downs once blocks started falling apart all over the place. The physics engine is so realistic that if you thrown a ball in the corner of a block it will spin while if you throw it in the middle it will have a more solid movement.
With more than 250 levels, and the ability to create your own, Boom Blox is a great game. At first it may look like one of those games that are simply created to sell as many copies as possible despite its quality but truth is this is one of the best original third-party efforts the system has ever seen. With endless amount of content, many activities to perform this is a game that can be enjoyed for many hours.
Actual Score: 9.2