If you care about games as games, then you should be as disappointed as I am to see that Boom Blox sold only 60,000 copies, even with pantheonized director Stephen Spielberg at the helm. Was his own critically panned addition to the Indy series a harbinger of the move away from well-executed formula in both games and films? Or have the formulas simply become more surreptitious about invading our pop psyche?
Boom Blox is a great game. It accomplishes what many party games want but can't do- elicit laughter, name-calling, and a group agony of suspense over an individual's gameplay, all within ten minutes. The physics are so well done that smashing blocks is the Wii equivalent to popping shipping bubbles. But each ball toss, nothing we haven't done a million times in our lives, causes a whole room to hush, tense up, and then explode along with the shower of blocks in the game.
I think the game takes advantage our primal instinct, that need to dash apart hours of construction a castle made of blocks represents, but gives it to us without the need to clean up the mess. There's no guilt, just the enjoyment of aftermath. Cause, reaction, cause, reaction… and at the same time we know exactly what will happen, but not what happens exactly.
It's a time-tested formula. It's proven. It usually works. And yet it failed on the same platform Nintendo made it work. I don't want to believe there is some kind of Nintendo magic that they apply to their first-party games. There were too many mistakes in how Boom Blox was marketed, how its art was directed, how it was priced, etc. blah blah. However, at the end of the day, I can't help but feel that its simplistic fun, like the taste of a fine Italian pasta with nothing but EVOO and a shred of cheese, is not what epic thrill-seekers with a taste for more "refined" fare are willing to give a sliver of chance…
…unless of course they're giving it to Nintendo.
Zack Hiwiller writes:
What was wrong in your opinion with the art direction?
Nothing actually, the art direction was great! I was channeling critics who complained of it being too kiddy and simplistic, which I find as irrelevant an argument as complaints against the cel-shaded Zeldas.
However, I have to wonder for every bit it resonated with kids, what did it lose in sales to older gamers? The characters were properly iconic, the world was visually elemental, and yet there is a "feeling" lacking, as if the Boom Blox look design wasn't hammered home hard enough. Personally, I'd like to have seen much more polish and fun in the environments, but all in all it didn't detract from the fun.
Good day! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this site? I’m getting tired of WordPress because I’ve had problems with hackers and I’m looking at options for another platform. I would be great if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.|
278297 766691I also recommend HubPages itself, and Squidoo, which is related. 667732
798016 260754I see something actually particular in this internet web site . 738170
Pingback: penerimaan kemenkumham 2022
Pingback: Waynesville plumbing contractor
You are so awesome! I don’t think I’ve truly read
anything like this before. So good to discover somebody with some
genuine thoughts on this subject. Seriously.. thank you for starting
this up. This web site is one thing that is required on the web, someone with a little originality!
Pingback: swiss rolex day date replica 228349rbr stainless steel 410l bracelet automatic 40mm
971094 531183I just added this webpage to my feed reader, great stuff. Cannot get enough! 783384
339732 273910Woh I like your blog posts, saved to fav! . 592924
https://afsgsdsdbfdshdfhdfncvngcjgfjghvghcgvv.com
286984 888474Thanks so a lot for one more post. I be able to get that kind of information info. friend, and exactly. 571178
Pingback: ดูบอลสด
Pingback: diamond painting kits