Boom Blox Impressions February 17,2008 - Electronic Arts recently made it out to the East Coast, and of the games that were on display, one of them we got to sit down with was the highly talked about Steven Spielberg collaboration, Boom Blox. A game Spielberg supposedly conceived at E3 2006 after having played the Wii for the first time. Brilliant minds…but the question remains whether or not the game will be any good. We got to play it, and while it has its rough spots, the game’s basic premise is wholly enjoyable.

At its heart, Boom Blox is a puzzle game. You use action gestures with the Wii remote to strategically move objects around, or more commonly, throw a baseball at a stack of blocks that you are meant to topple. There are several different block types in the game, with the objective of knocking them over, or using them to achieve a goal.

For instance, we were given the task of toppling four towers of generic building blocks using the least amount of baseballs. Each of the towers had various special blocks within them, such as vanishing blocks, which disappear when hit with a baseball, and chemical blocks, which explode when in contact with another chemical block.

Obviously, there’s no way of knocking down all four towers with one ball. The strategy we took was to knock out the bottom vanishing blocks of one of the towers, sending it crashing towards one of the adjacent towers, connecting two parallel chemicals blocks to cause an enormous explosion. Although it took us two balls to get the job done, the point was to strategically plan out our actions. Although there are many others, including more we didn’t see, another notable block was the bomb block, which detonates when you hit it with a ball.

Another really fun mode was one that was essentially Jenga. There were sheep at the top of a tower of building blocks, and we were tasked with pulling out as many of the blocks as possible without making the tower topple, sending the sheep to a tragic demise. Conversely, we played one of the 11 multiplayer game modes that was all about knocking a tower down. The one caveat was that the blocks had varying weight values, making bigger blocks, which were worth more points, especially difficult to dislodge.

We got a quick look at the level editor, which seemed really easy to manipulate; which is a necessity considering the casualness of the game. There’s little in the way of restrictions when creating a level, considering the nature of the game. You can erect structures of all shapes and sizes and share them online for others to download and play on. Think along the lines of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

All in all the game handled fairly well. There isn’t a lot of intense movement necessary to play the game, so there isn’t much to botch up. Granted, good players will set off one chain of events with one throw and quickly time a follow-up throw to maximize the amount of destruction. Aside from situations such as though, however, there isn’t a lot of sporadic movement. It’s a game appropriately targeted at the casual audience.

The segment targeted for this game isn’t one that terribly cares about stunning visuals, and it’s clearly apparent that EA knew that. Although it’s a fun game to play, especially with others, visually it’s pretty substandard. The graphics are akin to an early Gamecube, and that’s being somewhat generous. The physics are great, as you would expect from a game such as this, but the graphical quality comes at somewhat of a shock. There’s no other way to put it; they’re really poor, and with only three short months away from release, it’s unlikely, we’ll see too big of a change. The Wii isn’t an amazing system visually, but there are definitely better looking games.

Boom Blox is a fun game, and it’s being aptly marketed as a casual game appropriate for your family or kids. Though, we would venture to say that you don’t have to be a child to find enjoyment in what Boom Blox offers. Just don’t expect to play it non-stop, or even for too long alone. Like many Wii games, it’s best experienced with a friend or two. There will be enough puzzles (over 300) for months of casual playtime when it drops in May.

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