Boom Blox Bash Party (Wii)

This fantastic sequel slips the surly bonds of the original party block-knocking game.
5/26/2009 7:25 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3

Boom Blox Bash Party is the inverse of that destructive phase you went through in childhood when you burned or smashed all your model airplanes. As a kid, you probably discovered the joy of building first. And then, at some point, that gave way to the joy of smashing. All those airplanes you spent so much time lovingly gluing together and painting were just so much fodder for all the awesome ways plastic would melt and smash. I may be inferring too much from my own childhood, but barring some child psychologist telling me otherwise -- and, really, how many child psychologists are going to read a Boom Blox Bash Party review? -- I'm going to assume that's just how it works. You build stuff, you break it, you grow up. But in Boom Blox Bash Party everything is switched around. First comes the joy of smashing. Then you discover how to make your own levels. The growing-up part is mostly discouraged, since you're presumably an adult playing with blocks. It's possibly a guiltier pleasure than anime, Funyuns or cheesy sci-fi novels. The doggone cute little animals don't make it any easier.

Boom Blox is primarily about knocking over block towers and watching physics in action. The Wii is exactly as next-gen as it needs to be in the glorious presentation of intricately built stuff teetering and tumbling down. Bash Party adds just enough gimmickry to distinguish its puzzles from those of the original Boom Blox. Gravity (or the lack thereof) and buoyancy are the new physics guest stars. Welcome to outer-space levels in which edifices shatter without regard for up and down. It's pretty darn glorious. This is the LEGO version of planets exploding and stars going supernova. The underwater stuff isn't nearly so spectacular, despite a giant squid who's not above messing everything up. (She even comes up for air to mess around with the pirate-ship levels.) But it comes into its own when you discover buoyant barrels holding blocks in place. Something so simple as upside-down gravity! Elsewhere in Bash Party's bag of new tricks are force fields and conveyer belts. All these gimmicks are such pure examples of how physics makes everything better. Boom Blox has convinced me that if you could get the physics right, you could make an awesome game about playing with a sock (besides Noby Noby Boy, of course, which is a game about playing with a sock after you've taken LSD).

Also new in Bash Party is some tried-and-true match-three gameplay, which has brought my progress to a screeching halt. The new slingshot trick is gratifying, but hard to aim precisely, which makes for a few frustrating levels. The shooting-gallery stuff is back, but only in small doses. There's some frantic timed throwing, which gets my pick for the levels I wish they'd left out. You'll probably have your own list of levels you wish they'd left out, but it'll probably be short. Besides, Boom Blox Bash Party is like the weather in [insert name of place that has weather here]: If you don't like it, hang around for five minutes. Also, don't get it into your head that this is just a few new levels based on the new gimmicks. There's enough content here to more than displace the previous game. And while it's a bit of a shame that we can't import the original game's levels into Bash Party, I trust some of you enterprising level builders will get on that.