When a new console launches, people
expect there to be a few games from each genre: puzzle, racing, role playing,
and many others. Since the PlayStation Portable has launched, players have
gotten their fair share of puzzle games. Not to be outdone, the developers at
Core Design Unlimited wanted to get a piece of the puzzle genre with their
latest game entitled Smart Bomb. Read on to find out more about this game.
The world is at the mercy of a
madman who is creating highly sophisticated bombs. In response to this threat a
specialized bomb task force, lead by Colonel Cage and newbie Michelle Grace has
been created with the purpose of finding and defusing these bombs. They were so
successful because they were using a new VR technology for disarming these
bombs. One day Colonel Cage disappeared and so did all of the bombs. Suddenly
the bombs started showing back up so it is up to Michelle and you, a new
recruit, to defuse these bombs. Are you up to this challenge?
The premise of the game is simple
enough – in each level there will be one bomb. In each of the “bombs,” players
will have to diffuse several different components. Each component is different
puzzle that will have to be solved before the time goes out. There are several
different puzzles that players will have to solve throughout the game. One is
getting a laser beam to bounce off mirrors to get to the other side. Another
involves moving balls around the level trying to hit switches, similar to
another PSP puzzle game: Mercury. Another is moving around gears throughout the
level to get a certain item to start, such as a fan. The easiest one is flipping
around tiles to the same color circuits to reroute the power. All of these
puzzles are pretty easy in premise, but the very short timers and controls make
this game much harder and frustrating than it ever should have been.
Someone forgot to send this game
through quality testing because the controls are horrid. Many times you will be
wasting valuable seconds trying to get one piece to move to a specific place in
the puzzle and you will be fighting the controls to get it there. This should
not happen in a game of this nature where you only have a few valuable seconds
to get the job done.
Smart Bomb is not the most
graphically intense game; it doesn’t even manage to come anywhere close to that.
I say this because I am extremely puzzled why there are so many graphical
problems in this game, including framerate issues. Moving objects around in the
puzzle seems to make the game slow to a crawl, which is very agitating when you
have only thirty seconds on the clock before you go “boom.” Also some of the
movable pieces in the puzzle are not clearly defined so you could risk the
chance of making a bomb explode just because you were not aware that a certain
piece could be moved or rotated.
Whoever chose techno music for this
game didn’t think this all the way through. If you were in a bomb squad, the
last thing you would want to be listening to as you try to diffuse a deadly bomb
that could wipe out thousands of people would be techno music blaring in your
ears. If that wasn’t bad enough, the music is very generic as well and seems to
be randomly cut in each level. The sound effects are also terribly generic as
well.
If the bad level designs, quirky
controls, extremely short bomb timers, and framerate issues weren’t bad enough,
there is one thing that will make you have the desire to throw your PSP out the
window. Smart Bomb does not contain any manner in which to save games. So that
means that if you diffuse five of the eight or so components but screw up on
this one, you will have to start all over from the beginning. Then you will have
to wait through the extremely long loading screen to start all over from the
beginning. This will frustrate the tar out of you. There is no excuse for this,
at least give a save for every three to five components you diffuse. The same is
true even for the training mode. You are learning the mechanics of the game, and
you run out of time, so bam, you have to redo all that you have already done.
This is not very fun in my books.
Smart Bomb is rated E 10+ for
Everyone 10+. It also supports four-person wireless multiplayer.
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Gameplay: 4.3
Unresponsive controls make this game a “blast to play!” – pun and
sarcasm very much intended.
Graphics: 4.5
Framerate issues and bland backgrounds really make the score go down.
Sound: 4.2
Techno music for a game about bombs about to explode, who made this
choice?
Difficulty: Hard
All of the game’s technical issues that should have been fixed during
QA testing make this game extremely hard to play.
Concept: 7.4
I like the concept of the game, when I first saw the game it reminded
me of a game I played many years ago on the PC. The concept for the game is the
only thing it has going for it.
Multiplayer: N/A
Smart Bomb supports up to four-person wireless multiplayer.
Overall: 4.2
Smart Bomb has too many things going against it, including bombs
timers that are way too short, especially on harder puzzles, which turns off the
casual player. The biggest thing that make this game get such a low score is
non-responsive controls and framerate issues will make you want to slam your
precious PlayStation Portable against a brick wall. Avoid this game at all costs
if you value your sanity.
