So a game finally came along that could distract us from GTA IV. If you own a Wii, go buy Boom Blox. If you don’t own a Wii, go buy one, and then go buy Boom Blox. You will love this game if any of the following statements are true:

• You enjoy building things
• You enjoy destroying things
• You enjoy Jenga
• You enjoy explosions
• You enjoy 2-dimensional barnyard animals
• You enjoy fun and happiness

For some strange reason, this game is “A Steven Spielberg Game”. I’m unsure which part of the game he’s responsible for, or who thinks that putting a movie director’s name on a video game will affect anybody’s opinion of it, but that’s what the box says.

Boom Blox is divided up into many, many stages, or levels, or whatever you want to call them. There is a party mode where you can play with up to four players either co-op, or competitive. The single player side of it has several different incarnations as well, such as adventure mode, challenge mode, and a few others. There are so many different kinds of levels, and so many different combinations of concepts, that I’m not even capable of holding them all in my mind at once, but I’ll try to explain it to you anyways.

In case you don’t know this already, the “Blox” in Boom Blox are actually blocks. They played with the spelling. I’m not sure what marketing genius decided that was necessary, but there it is, the game is about blocks. So each level of the game is about manipulating blocks in some way. There are all different types of blocks, though: blocks that explode, blocks that disappear, blocks that are worth points, blocks that subtract points, and even more blocks that explode. In each stage, a bunch of these blocks are stacked together in different ways, and you are given a different goal. Sometimes it’s about points, sometimes it’s about time, sometimes it’s about protecting something, or retrieving something, the list goes on and on. We’re only 40% through the game, and I haven’t even seen every kind of level yet. The methods that you can use to manipulate the blocks varies. The simplest is just to throw something at them. A baseball, a bowling ball, a bomb, etc. There are also levels where you can just grab blocks and pull them out, or push them around, and still others where you use a water hose or something else to get the blocks moving.

I’ll give you some examples, in case you’re having a hard time with this, which is understandable because no human brain can possibly grasp the grandeur that is Boom Blox without actually playing it. Let’s say there are four towers of blocks, and on top of each tower are crystal blocks that you have to knock to the ground. Each tower is composed of exploding blocks, and vanishing blocks, and regular blocks. You have baseballs to accomplish your task. So you have to decide if you want to just hit an exploding block and see what it takes out, or hit a vanishing block, and see if a tower tips over, or smash the crystal blocks off the top directly. One of my favourite things about this game is the rating system for each level. It’s very reminiscent of Blast Corps for N64, if you ever played that game, which you should have. It was awesome. Every stage has a goal, but it’s not about just achieving that goal, it’s about doing it well. In my previous example, for instance, you would get a Bronze medal for finishing in 5 throws, a Silver medal for 3 throws, and a Gold medal for doing it in just one throw. This gives the game kind of a puzzle-ish feel, because it shows you before you even begin what is possible, and then you want to figure out how it’s done.

Other levels might include removing as many point blocks as possible without knocking over any subtractive point blocks. Or pulling out as many blocks from a jenga tower as you can without having the top fall off. Or throwing bombs at bad guys to protect a stray kitten. Or throwing bowling balls into blocks and trying to make them fly up and hit a point multiplier. Or collapsing a series of towers with a water hose. Or using a laser gun to shoot flying blocks out of the air. Or rolling a dice to decide what colour block you have to take out of a tower next. Or protecting a herd of sheep from a castle full of monkeys throwing bombs. Do you get it yet? Boom Blox is the best game ever. Any of these little mini-games, if stretched out too far in their own title, would get boring, but the constant change of pace, and the hundreds of ways to combine game elements and approach these block towers, makes this game not only infinitely replayable, but also astoundingly enjoyable. Also, I think it would make an excellent party game, as the group play mode is expansive, and not just an afterthought.

Because I love Boom Blox so much, I am reluctant to say anything bad about it. In fact, if this were my site alone, I would purposefully hide it’s flaws from you to ensure that you actually do play it. However, if I don’t bring these things up, Chris will, so here goes…

Boom Blox has some control issues. I can’t tell whose fault this is, the game or the console (or maybe Steven Spielberg?), but there is a lot of controller janking. Either your cursor will freeze on screen, and you have to wave the wiimote wildly around to get it moving again, or it will disappear altogether. It seems that the solution for any controller problem is to wave your arm around like a crazy person. This isn’t so bad in some levels, but in stages where you’re working with a time limit, or you have to move very quickly, it can be pretty frustrating. On top of that, there are a few weird bugs, like your hand cursor gets frozen on-screen, but you can still pick things up and move them, just without a cursor. These things were heartbreakingly disappointing in a game that promises to be one of my all-time favourites ever. It’s like being served your favourite meal in the best restaurant in the world, and then finding a hair in it. Everything still tastes so good, and you want to just ignore it, but it’s always there on the side of your plate, kind of grossing you out.

Despite those unfortunate hits against it, you really would be robbing yourself of a completely amazing gaming experience if you were to skip this game. You get to blow up evil monkeys… you like blowing up evil monkeys, right? Please play this game!

The description of the game is far more confusing than the game itself. That’s not a criticism of Julie’s writing, it’s actually a compliment of the game designers. The fact that they took ideas that take paragraphs to describe and broke them down into core, visceral experiences that three year olds are able to understand and enjoy is quite an accomplishment. I’d like to think that it’s all thanks to one man: Stephen Spielberg. In my head I picture him sitting in a dark room doing the character art, coding, beta testing, everything really, all by himself. It stands with Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan amongst his best work. Okay, I’ve overdone it…

This is another game, much like Viva Pinata, where I would encourage you not to judge a game by its kiddie-cover and give it a shot.