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Video Game Review: Boom Blox

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DOUG BUEL

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 6, 2008

System: Nintendo Wii

Publisher: EA

Reviewer's rating: **½

ESRB rating: Everyone

Game type: Puzzle

Kind of like: "Collapse" meets "Breakout"

Best feature: Some of the puzzles have really fun chain reactions.

Worst feature: The adventure mode of the game is totally linear.

The bottom line: "Boom Blox" is a wacky puzzle game from EA and Steven Spielberg, in which you throw a ball at towers of blocks in order to smash them to the ground.

This is a Wii game all the way. You aim at the screen with the Wiimote, press a button to confirm where you're aiming, and then wind up and swing the Wiimote with your arm as though you were throwing a ball.

The game knows whether you're moving your arm slowly or quickly, so don't hold back if you want to throw a fast ball. Just make sure you're using the strap with your Wiimote.

The object is to knock down towers of blocks with as few throws as possible. At first, it's just a matter of hitting the towers in their most precarious spots.

Soon, however, special blocks come into play. Red blocks blow up if you hit them with the ball. Purple blocks evaporate, letting whatever was above them come crashing down. Green blocks are only special if you knock them into one another, in which case they explode with tremendous force.

Terrific chain reactions are possible by dropping towers onto other towers. Some setups can be destroyed in a lot fewer throws than it seems at first.

There's an adventure mode with crazy missions, but it's totally linear. You have to do them in a precise order, which is a little annoying. We wish we could skip around.

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