Video game number two hundred and six: Boom Blox Bash Party

Video game review number two hundred and six in my 365 Games in 365 Days project is "Boom Blox Bash Party"

I never owned the original Boom Blox, but I have borrowed and played it quite a bit in the past. I'm not sure why I never bought it, it's actually pretty awesome. Every time Best Buy or Toys R Us was having one of those "Buy 2 get 1 free" sales, it was always one of the ones I thought about adding as my third, but I never did. Finally, last year...they had the sale, and I did exactly that, with the sequel.

I'm only just now getting around to cracking the plastic, but wow...this is a fantastic game. The tutorial modes take you through all the basic controls, and most of them were really familiar to me, even though I hadn't played the original in years.

There are solo, versus and co-op modes (and I am looking very forward to trying the latter two with a friend at some point). For now, I jumped into the campaign and started playing the first eight or nine levels, which focus mostly on the "throwing" controls. The games ranged from knocking stuff over, to "painting" things and causing chain reactions by matching colors.

It's hard to describe just how great this whole experience is, but it mixes perfectly natural motion control with great gameplay, to the point where the Wiimote (something I often find myself hating) becomes an extension of your hand and you sort of get immersed in the experience.

Just like the first one, the games themselves focus around puzzles, towers, explosions, etc. They're simple (knock something over, match a color, pull a block out of a tower like Jenga, etc)...but the simplicity is what makes them incredibly addictive and fun. If I wanted to introduce the Wii to someone who had never played it before....my two flagship titles would have to be Wii Sports (maybe Wii Sports Resort) and this game. It's just that good.

I've only spent about an hour playing so far, and all I've beaten is the tutorial. I'm only 24% of the way through the first world (with several more worlds to go)....but I don't plan on quitting anytime soon. I'm going to play some more before I come back and score this one.

Edited later Saturday afternoon...

So now I've gotten through three of the worlds (they each contain TONS of levels), and I feel like I have a much better feel for the game. It's still very addicting, and I found myself playing levels over and over again to improve my scores.

Overall Score? 9/10. This is one of my favorite Wii games so far. I really like it, and I think I'll be playing it quite a bit in the future, especially if someone comes over and wants to try the Wii. It's flat-out awesome.