With four Indian Jones sequels, who knows how many Jaws sequels and the re-mastered ET DVDs it’s hardly surprising that there’s already a sequel to the gaming classic Boom Blox. The second game of a franchise is as difficult to make as the sequel to the first brilliant film, just look at The Adventure of Link to see how hard it is, as a sequels master, Spielberg’s venture back into videogames has a lot to live up to.
Boom Blox Bash Party is an entirely different experience to its predecessor, although in essence little has changed, the actual game itself is far meatier and there’s entire new dimensions to the gameplay. As with Boom Blox, Bash Party is much more than a simple puzzle game, there’s no chance at getting it wrong and putting it back right again and there’s very little obvious “common knowledge” questions or tasks. With three main modes of play as with the original at first it’s very easy to dismiss Bash Party as nothing more than a slight extension of the classic first title.
Fortunately there’s much more to Bash Party than expected, the three modes Solo, Versus and Co-Operative are easy to find and have a little explanation attached to them for first time players. The main mode throws the player into a theme park, as with all theme parks there’s a few rides and these rides each represent different types of levels and most notably there’s a Spaceship level.
When the player enters the Spaceship level an entire new dimension to this physics puzzle game is created. In the Spaceship levels there are many puzzles that are zero gravity, which in itself creates difficulties when trying to complete the level, as objects don’t stop moving easily in space. In many other publisher’s hands these levels rather than exciting, would become tiresome and tedious due to the nature of these complex puzzles. Fortunately EA have managed to achieve the difficult balance between challenging and enjoyable.
The other levels are just as interesting with underwater themes, robust and complicated challenges and the standard fare that existed in the first game. Unlike many sequels there’s no recycled levels, all of the 400-odd levels are entirely unique to Bash Party and there is next to no reappearing levels with a slight difference either. Every level is individual and entertaining. Yet the old “Jenga” style levels have remained, as they are just as challenging and interesting as the new levels – there’s just less of them.
Like the first game the basic controls have remained the same – move the blocks with the Wii Remote. To move a block, it simply needs to be selected with A and then gently pushed with the Wii Remote. The accuracy has been improved and this level of sensitivity is as much a blessing as a curse as the player will need a very steady hand not to create problems by knocking the wrong block. A new tool is the slingshot, all the player needs to do is load the slingshot with a block and fire. The slingshot is very intuitive, with a high level of accuracy and is actually a useful feature to the title.
One of the most improved features of Bash Party is the level editor. In Boom Blox the level editor, although good, was very fiddly and could be difficult to use. The entire process has been more refined and simplified in Bash Party whilst retaining all of the functionality of the original – more importantly is the seamless introduction of online functions. Players are able to trade levels with each other and download new levels from EA. This content is all free and there’s not a friend’s code in sight.
The graphics have been improved, with better textures, more detailed characters and better explosions whilst retaining the fluid motion of the graphics. Equally the music is just as good as the original and the sound effects have had a slight upgrade.
