Introducing Boom Blox Bash Party

Boom Blox Bash Party is the sequel to the innovative Boom Blox for the Wii.  Boom Blox Bash Party is a very unique game.  While it is mainly a puzzle game, it has its action aspects as well.  This game has a lengthy single player, a substantial two player cooperative campaign, a robust four player multiplayer, and a fantastic level creator.  Players can even share their custom built levels online through EA’s server; no friend codes involved!  I hadn’t played my Wii for over a year before this gem came out, but boy was it worth dusting that hunk of plastic off!  Did I mention it costs a mere $40?

There isn’t really a common goal in each Boom Blox Bash Party level.  One level will have you sling pucks into designated areas to score points, and the next will have you knock gems off of towers in as few of throws as possible.  Various tools are given to you to complete tasks including baseballs, bowling balls, a slingshot, bombs, a sticky hand, a laser, cannons, and more!  There is no way to describe Boom Blox Bash Party’s gameplay as a whole because each series of levels is like a brand new game with unique objectives.  You will love some levels so much that you will create your own variations, while you will hate other levels so much you will only play them once.  There is something for everyone, hardcore and casual gamers alike.

The single player in Boom Blox Bash Party is worth the small price tag alone.  There are five hub worlds filled with mini worlds, four of the hub worlds are similar in layout.  In each of these four hub worlds are six mini worlds, and each mini world has about six levels.  The other hub world has eight mini worlds with six to eight levels in each.  One special mini world has 24 levels, but that is for advanced players only!  The levels within a mini world are similar and progressively get harder.  For example, one mini world contains six mini golf holes, while another has six Bejeweled-esque levels.  Each mini world is surprisingly unique compared to the last and forces you to use new strategies, tools, and blocks to complete the various challenges.  The variety is great, the length is wonderful (230+ levels!), and the wide range of difficulty will please any gamer.

The cooperative mode is shorter than the single player, but just as fun.  In this mode there are four hub worlds with three mini worlds within each one.  Each mini world contains six to eight levels.  Most of these levels require just one controller for two players, with just a few exceptions.  One of my favorite modes was similar to Jenga, but co-op style!  Some levels give each player different tools, while others make them work together simultaneously in a race against time.  There may not be as many levels as the single player (still a solid 80+ levels), but the quality is just as good.

There is a bronze, silver, and gold medal standard for each cooperative and single player level.  Getting any of these medals will unlock the next level, but don’t fret if you can’t get any medal at all.  Throughout the game you earn Boom Bux by completing different levels and knocking down the Boom Bux Blocks on each level.  With these Boom Bux you can purchase new levels, mini worlds, or even hub worlds if you get stuck!  The inability to move to the next level without beating the previous one was a major complaint in the last game, Boom Blox, so this is a wonderful new feature.

The four player versus mode in Boom Blox Bash Party is unlike anything I have ever played before.  Some modes take chess-like strategic planning, while others push your Wiimote reflexes to the max.  A lot of the modes only require one Wiimote too!  There are four hub worlds with about five mini worlds in each.  Within the mini worlds are six levels.  Some of these levels are similar to co-op and single player levels (like the Jenga game mode), and others are tailor made for versus mode.  Casual gamers and hardcore gamers can easily pick up and play almost every level with ease.  In one of my favorite modes, players take turns flinging their pucks at each other to knock their opponent’s pucks off of the arena.  Last puck standing wins!  Overall, versus mode is very solid.  With a variety of levels (120+), this mode with keep you and your friends coming back for more.

But what happens when you have mastered every single player level, beat each cooperative world, and played every versus level to death?  Boom Blox Bash Party has you covered, don’t worry.  There is a wonderful, easy to use, and robust level creator that allows players to build anything they can dream of!  Want to build your own Jenga level?  You can do it with ease!  Want to make a mini golf course to challenge your friends on?  No problem!  The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

When you start up the level creator you can choose any of the areas you can play on in the single player, versus, and cooperative modes (15 areas total, from outer space to skyscrapers).  Each setting is gigantic with PLENTY of room to build on.  Before your start placing blox like crazy, make sure to plug your, otherwise unneeded, Nunchuck in.  There is a limit to how many blox you can place, but you will rarely hit it.  There are a wide variety of blox available to place including: regular blox, immovable blox, vanish blox, chemical blox, bomb blox, virus blox, point blox, cloud blox, breakable blox, and more.  Any block can be scaled to the size of your choice, which makes building things very easy.  Blox can be rectangular, triangular, or circular.  You can place conveyor belts, see through blox pushers, and blox that keep spawning as well.  Plus, you can place various characters that interact with the blox and each other like cows, UFOs, robots, squids, and more!  After you make a level, you can choose any of the game modes that are already in the game for single player, co-op, and versus mode to be used with your level.  You can change the tool players use for each mode, what scores are needed for medals, and a few other things depending on the mode you use.

When you finish creating, naming, and describing your level, you can upload it to EA’s server.  It has to first be approved, which takes about 24 hours, before it can be played by the public.  You can, however, show your levels to friends before they are approved if you wish.  Once you level is on the server, users can play, rate, and download your levels.  There are four different types of levels to browse through: solo, versus, co-op, and freestyle.  Freestyle is for levels with no particular objective like a Rube Goldberg Machine or a drawing of Mario using blox.  Within each category you can sort levels by highest rated, most downloaded, and most recent.  Also, you can search levels via keyword, creator, or level ID.  The level sharing system as a whole works very well, which is unusual for a Wii game.   Jaw dropping levels are made daily, and the community is currently very active.

Overall, Boom Blox Bash Party is an enjoyable experience for any gamer.  Casual gamers will enjoy playing Jenga with some friends, and hardcore gamers will strive to get gold medals on the most difficult levels.  The level creator is fantastic, and paired with a fully functional and easy to use level sharing system, this game is a must buy for any user created content lover.