Publisher: EA Casual Entertainment
Developer: Electronic Arts Platform

I don’t know what it is about monkeys that people always have to make them evil! I mean seriously: Dr Cornelius? Those winged bastards from the Wizard of Oz? And let’s not forget about that son of a bitch in Outbreak who could have done us all in. However, Steven Spielberg has now brought us a monkey of such terror that we can hardly speak its name—and no it’s not King Kong 2.

Boom Blox is Spielberg’s first major venture into the video game world, and his first major disappointment since he attempted to salvage A.I. once Kubrick kicked the bucket. Stuck somewhere between a childs toy and an all ages game, EA’s Boom Blox is about as wholesome and candy coated as they come. No, seriously, candy bursts out of boxes and enemies when you kill them as though the game is just one giant piñata. As the cutesy characters, paper cut out backgrounds, and awfully redundant soundtrack play towards children (I’d rather listen to Kids Sing!: Volume 2 than listen to another “Medieval Medley”), the infuriating and often incredibly challenging puzzles put this game a bit above the demographic that the characters seem to be appealing to. There is no casual progression of difficulty as you move from level to level, the game jumps willy-nilly from ridiculous simplicity to eye gouging difficulty.

What is most maddening in any particular level is the faulty hardware provided by the Wii-mote’s waggle control. Remember how the Wii-mote was going to change the face of gaming? How it was going to create a whole new world of opportunities for interactive gaming? Bollocks. Boom Blox solidifies just how faulty the Wii’s controller really is. For a game full of animals that can waggle their tails, you think at least that the Wii-mote’s waggle would be up to par in turn— and you’d be wrong. Throughout the course of the “Adventure Mode” (these creative titles absolutely slay me by the way, like the Dave Matthews Band or John Butler Trio) there are several levels that are nearly impossible thanks to controller based lag. You sit there with several kittens’ lives on your shoulders. All you have to do is protect them with an unlimited supply of baseballs, and what happens? The cursor freezes, inhibiting you from wailing the zombies, grim reapers, and monkeys that attempt to kill the poor little kittens. This is the first game for the Wii where the controller strap is officially mandatory because without it you may almost certainly slam the controller directly onto the ground and proceed to smash it continuously, resulting in an emergency room trip—“Um, I kind of have shards of plastic lodged in my foot from annihilating my Wii controller playing Boom Blox.”

Yet it’s not all bad. For such a small and simplistic game there certainly is plenty to do. The game features four single player modes each with over 50 levels, an incredibly detailed and thorough “Create” mode in which you can build levels to your hearts desire (that is, once you’ve collected all the items hidden throughout the four single player modes), and a hugely competitive and enjoyable multiplayer mode.

The real question that you’ve got to pose though: Is it quality over quantity? Would you prefer one “perfect 10” girl who lets you have sex with her once a week, or 75 “5.7 on a scale of 10” girls who are willing to do shit that Chasey Lain won’t even consider? Exactly.

With all that there is to do in Boom Blox, you are certainly engaged and getting your $50 worth, though it becomes monotonous as the levels begin to bleed into one another as the game soldiers through it’s many modes. The key to any puzzle game being successful is its ability to be played over and over again: Dr. Mario , Tetris , Bejeweled , even Snood (don’t act like you forgot about it, everyone had their addiction). These games all had that. Boom Blox just doesn’t. So if you’re in the market for some incredibly entertaining animated sequences and puzzles that don’t quite deliver, then by all means pick up Boom Blox and enjoy. I’ll be the other guy — the one laughing at you from a distance as you come back to purchase your third Wii-mote since you got the damn game.

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