Kombo’s Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don’t waste your time. This is why we’ve split our reviews into four sections: What the Game’s About, What’s Hot, What’s Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game’s About
Ask anyone in the video game industry: What is one of the most fun and memorable games that both hardcore and casual players adore on the Wii? The answer is Boom Blox, a critically acclaimed game that failed to pick up mainstream success for some unknown and mysterious reason. It had gameplay that captivated all types of gamers and Steven Spielberg lent his name to the game. EA was wise not to give up on such a great concept and franchise and gave another chance at wide spread success to Boom Blox. Boom Blox Bash Party is very similar to the first game. You interact with stacked blocks by throwing, shooting grabbing or tossing objects to complete different objectives.
What’s Hot
As you immediately dive into the gameplay of Bash Party, you’ll recognize this isn’t just another mini-game compilation. The core of the game always involves stacked blocks and you have to dismantle theses stacks different ways. You can toss bowling balls or skillfully extract blocks from a tightly packed group, Jenga style, to reach specific goals. The tension in the room will start to rise as the blocks react to your actions. There are going to be some breath holding moments as stacks of blocks gently sway perilously. With those terror inducing moments, Bash Party is nothing less than hyper addictive because those adrenaline rushes are like a drug called gravity physics.
The key to Bash Party’s success is it captures a moment of fun and it replicates that moment over and over again. Much like Wii Bowling, once you pick up the game, you’ll remember exactly why you like the game. The challenges get progressively harder and put your block “booming” skills to the test. If you become a master at all the levels, Bash Party gives you access to a fully featured level creator that allows you to concoct all sorts of precariously perched stacks.
You can go online and download more levels after you had your fill creating your own levels. The downloadable longevity Bash Party provides is something that is rarely seen on the Wii. You can effectively keep going back to the game each time and play brand new levels that expand the life of the game indefinitely. There are a bunch of maps created by the developers of the game, which will provide some top notch additions right away while the rest of the Bash Party populous gets familiar with the creation tools.
What helps bridge the gap between the casual and hardcore crowd is the difficulty. There are some insanely easy levels that you can ace with one try and there are insanely difficult levels that require surgeon precision. There is really something for everybody and you can dial in the challenge just right.
What’s Not
With all the different methods of gameplay, there was bound to be a clunker. The only mode that you’ll find contrived or gimmicky is when you use your Wii-mote as a laser gun shooting all the blocks on the screen. It appears that the developers knew this and minimized the exposure of this “Blasty McGee” mode by only offering it a few times during the course of the game.
A name like Bash Party would imply that there are some wild moments but the game is more subdued and cerebral than you might expect. It’s not a bad thing just something to note as you round up some troops and sit in front of the Wii hoping for more constant and consistent action.
Final Word
There isn’t any question that Bash Party is one of the best games on the Wii. It is that simple. Give this unique gem a try and you’ll immediately get hooked to the gameplay. For a sequel, the best parts of the first game were accentuated while the parts that didn’t work were eliminated or minimized as to not upset a few fans. This is the complete package Wii gamers have been looking for and a perfect reason to fire up the system for hardcore gamers that have been disenchanted.
