On rare occasions I receive a game through the post that I have no previous knowledge of, Blast Works is one of those title's, but should we take notice? Well to be blunt, yes, get this game now. 

 

Blast Works pays homage to Kento Cho's TUMIKI Fighters, mean anything to you? Don't worry I was the same but after a little researching I can tell you that TUMIKI Fighters is PC game that came out a few years ago and has quite a cult following for it's design and playability, that and it's free to download.

 

 

So what is Blast Works then, in it's simplest form it is a 2D scrolling shooter, yes that's right those games that us oldies always bang on about and get excited when a reissue of R-Type or Ikurgua pops up. The screen will scroll from right to left with your ship flying around dodging bullets and enemy ships. The game supports all Wii control types and is nice and basic with a shoot button and movement via the stick or d-pad. Like any other shooter you will have a large amount of enemies coming at you, each with different attack patterns and of course you have the ability to upgrade your ship, but not in the classic pick up an orb sense. For every ship you shoot down you just fly into them and they attach themselves to you. Your ship only has a weak machine gun firing little blue bullets and a one hit/one kill shield so with each enemy you shoot and attach it acts as an additional shield. Taking control of a ship you have gunned down also allows you to take over their weapons which can become crazy as your fire power and ship can increase to such a size that the screen is full of a hideous chimera of ships firing blue bullets all over the place.

 

In the story mode there are a few campaigns to play through. Each level will pit you against waves of small fighters, medium ships, environmental hazards and the final boss. The design of each boss is impressive with some of the latter ones filling up the whole screen and causing the game to zoom out to fit them in. Bosses are slightly different to the smaller baddies as they have separate parts to take out before destroying them. If a specific weapon is giving you trouble then just shoot it off and use it yourself.

 

The look of the game takes a bit of getting used to, each item is made from simple geometric shapes put together to make ships, just like I used to doodle around the edges of my maths book all those years ago. Helicopters, planes, battleships, monsters and backgrounds are all shown in this unique way. Though seemingly simple at first, after the first few levels the complexity of the enemies increases and creates some truly stunning ships.

 

 

Ok so it’s a little different from the norm but the level of customisation is what makes this possibly the best Wii game out there. In theory you can make a whole game to your imaginations limits. There are five main areas that you can create. Shape is the main area where you can make ships, backgrounds and any shape you can think of. Bullet editor allows you to design the way a bullet fires and reacts in the open, from swirly lasers to cluster projectiles it's up to you. The ship editor is like the shape editor but you can apply weapons to your creations. Enemy and advanced enemy allows creation of whatever baddies you like. The advanced editor gives you options to combine ships and create larger boss like ships with multiple weapons. Finally you have the level editor where you can create from the simplest of levels to huge cities. The amount of customization here is staggering with screen zooms, triggers for incoming enemies and music and water effects to but name a few. The editing program is very easy to navigate around, with the Wii-mote perfectly suited to drag and manipulate objects on the screen.

 

Of course there would not be much point making all this without the ability to brag about your creation and thankfully you can share your creations online. It is very easy to share between friends plus you can register on www.blastworksdepot.com and link your Wii to the site allowing you to download user items and upload your own. There is already loads on the site of a really high quality including some cool Star Wars models and a giant Kirby.

 

With so much on offer here I am amazed I hadn’t heard of this game, do you remember the hype around LittleBigPlanet? Why has this not had the same amount is beyond me, it has even more customizing options than the PS3 game. This is a great purchase and is sure to be one of those all time classics.