A little over a year ago, it was announced that Steven Spielberg and EA were going to be teaming up to develop two new video games. One was to be a next-generation title with a focus on story and graphics and the other a game that would resemble Jenga, slated for a release on the Nintendo Wii, called Boom Blox. This Elebits-like title had a steady stream of positive buzz in the months leading up to its release, with some players saying that it was shaping up to be the best third-party game for the Wii in 2008. After some extensive play time with the title, I feel confident in saying that although BoomBlox is a lot of fun, those predictions were wrong.
I'm calling Boom Blox a puzzle game because there really isn't a better way to classify it. There are several game modes that involve destroying pieces of the world by throwing objects at stacks of blocks to create chain reactions, and most of the levels involve throwing the fewest number of times possible to complete an objective. Other modes add in different ways to manipulate the blocks but most of the game will be spent swinging your arm at the television in a somewhat nerve-wracking and screen-threatening fashion to hurl baseballs at badly stacked rectangles. While this is incredibly simplistic, it is also incredibly addictive.
