man those guys can't catch a break! pouring thier hearts out into their respective industries, creating nothing but unique products, and truely progressing their arts. not just finding a niche and pounding it like houston in the final leg of a 500 man gangbang. no sir, not at all.

god the sarcasm is getting thick. but in all honesty, after reading the positive reviews of Boom Blox followed by the less than stellar sales numbers, i figured i'd do my part and pick the game up. turns out, the reviews were right, and if you own a wii and passed on boom blox, i recommend you reconsider.

the game does what good games should. has a premise that's so simple you can figure it out immediately with little or no instruction. it controls well, the characters are cute, there's tons of included levels as well as multiplayer, and when you finally finish all they have to offer, there's a level creator which packs in hours and hours of more fun for you creative types.

the music in this game is ridiculously good, as well it should be, its been created by a man who wears a flowerpot for a hat. it was lovingly crafted by Mark Mothersbaugh.

he's got an uncontrollable urge!

the music goes great with the colorful images. though not about to drop any jaws for advancement in visuals, the presentation is fun, with colorful blocks and quirky characters. most important, is that the blocks are easily distinguishable from one another, which is important in a puzzle-ish game of this nature. nothings worse than having too many blocks that look similar but perform different functions, it can really hinder the experience.

as for the gameplay, its pretty varried. you have a couple of different weapons, ranging from baseballs, to rubber balls, to cannon balls, to the sticky hands you get out of twenty-five cent machines after you go grocery shopping (minus the hairballs), and the different 'weapons' are well suited for a variety of challenges. at times you are collecting gem blocks by knocking them off a pedastal. the difficulty is upped when several of the items on the structure penalize you for removing them from the pedastal, making shot placement very important. other times, you are defending blocks from enemies, and keeping them at bay, it almost feels like a waggle rts where your defending your base from incoming enemies. some times your taking enemies out to reclaim gems. sometimes your playing jenga with the sticky hand, and trying to remove blocks from the structure without disturbing its form. what i'm getting at, is that although it may appear shallow on the surface, there's no shortage of things to do, and the gameplay stays diverse enough to keep you coming back.

the game also packs a multiplayer mode, which is pretty standard mini-game fare. meaning your not gonna get the depth of the main experience, but there's plenty of fun to be had. if you're bored of mario kart and brawl, but still want a reason to fire up your little white waggle machine, pick it up. if your on the fence, give it a rental, it's worth taking a look at.