Review by: Danielle Riendeau

Boom Blox was my hands-down favorite Wii title of 2008 – and my party game of choice in any and all situations (put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mario Kart Wii). I once played this game for something like 16 straight hours, requiring three battery changes for two Wii-motes, so I think it’s safe to say that I know my Blox. Which qualifies me to say this: Bash Party absolutely blows its predecessor out of the water.

If you’ve never played the original, the game is all about destruction and construction, using blocks (er... blox). It’s one part hardcore puzzler, one part childhood physics experiment and one part crazy party game, blended to smooth, cartoony perfection. There are several game types, including setups where you throw baseballs and bombs at structures (trying to create maximum destruction); Jenga-like games where you use a “grab” tool to carefully deconstruct towers, and laser levels where you shoot blocks down.

It sounds very simple, but the game’s genius is in how it mixes and matches objectives and play mechanics, ensuring that later levels are genuinely devious. You may be challenged with setting up pitch-perfect chain reactions in just two or three throws, or tasked with taking apart an insanely complex tower without letting a few little sheep on the top block fall to their deaths.

From this blueprint, Bash Party has come onto the scene, ditched the “story” mode, and truly upped the ante in terms of content. Whereas the original game pretty much consisted of iterations of the three aforementioned game types, the sequel mixes in several new game types and environmental factors, including gravity.

All levels are organized as part of an amusement park, and themed appropriately. In the pirate zone, you’ll dig up buried treasure (with special underwater physics!) and battle ship to ship with cannons. In the space zone, you’re working with some crazy gravity. The “show time” area introduces new color-changing game types (which play out like a mix of Planet Puzzle League and traditional Boom Blox), and so on. Thematically, everything works – and the eclectic assortment of game modes is seriously meaty. I’ve logged countless hours in the solo game, looking to hunt down each and every gold medal.