When the collaboration between gaming juggernaut EA and renowned film director Steven Spielberg was announced, people were no doubt expecting something rather cinematic, and certainly not a very gamey puzzle game, of which Boom Blox just so happens to be.
As the name so not eloquently suggests, Boom Blox is about blowing blocks (or should that be blox) up, by tossing things at them, but it’s also about pushing and pulling, so it’s not just booming you‘ll be doing. It in part takes the childish past time of building huge towers of blocks before proceeding to knock the lot over to make an almighty mess, the game comes complete with authentic tumbling physics, that in itself makes it huge amounts of fun to play, even for us adults who perhaps should really know better by now.
The primary single player mode is the adventure mode, but perhaps your first stop should be the explore mode. This option allows you to play whatever puzzle type you desire, which is handy to see how each different blox behaves and to pick up some general tips, before tackling the adventure mode. This in itself is a substantial mode and gives you an idea of just how much Boom Blox has to offer.
The adventure mode features all the different puzzle types that you played about with in explore (that’s if you were nice enough to take my advice) all given purpose (as if a puzzle game is in need of it) by juvenile, though charming stories, consisting of a cast of cutesy animals.
The puzzles themselves are initially simple, but it doesn’t take long for them to turn considerably more fiendish. Some require you to destroy all the blox in as little amount of throws as possible, others require you to gently remove blox from a tower, whilst being careful not to send the whole thing tumbling down, there's some that require you to make and open paths for characters and others that task you with shooting enemies, which is fun but can’t quite match the puzzle levels in terms of goodness.
The controls for all this generally function to a pleasing degree, though the throwing motion required to, well, throw doesn’t always feel as accurate as I would have liked. Apparently the strength of the motion translates to the strength of your virtual projectile, though this wasn’t always the case in my experience sadly, it's a good thing this isn’t a regular occurrence then. The precision motions required for pushing and pulling blox work wonderful, but often require a steady hand for success.
After the meaty single player modes have been conquered (no mean feat) you might want to try out the fantastic multiplayer options. There are a wealth of modes and levels, consisting of both competitive and cooperative, many of which are excellent.
Yet another way to glean additional hours from this generous game is in the create mode, a perfect outlet for creative minds, that allow you to both tweak existing levels and knock up your very own with some accessible tools. Completed levels can even be shared online, which does further wonders for the games hefty lifespan.
This first collaboration of EA’s three game deal with Stephen Spielberg isn’t what one would have expected from this coming together of giants and some will perhaps be disappointed by this. To puzzle game fans, it will hardly matter though as Boom Blox is an excellent brainteaser that is simple enough for kids, but more than deep enough for adults. It’s even good fun for those who just enjoy knocking things over and making one hell of a mess.
8/10
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