In Bash Party those crazy block animals return again asking for your help to topple ever increasingly hard puzzles around loads of different environments like alien planets, pirate coves, space, the deep sea and theme parks using numerous skills and the blocks themselves to your advantage. Each level is graded at the end by how many moves you had taken to complete, rewarding with gold, silver or bronze medals and if you’re good enough one of the many built in achievements on offer.

 

 

The controls in Bash Party are very simple as you use only the Wii-mote to aim and control your chosen item. You also have a basic throw where you hold the A button to lock on and flick the Wii-mote, a sling-shot where you lock-on, pull back and then release and the grab which you slide items out of the way. Each of the moves you can do with the controls are relevant to the level you are playing, the grab for example is mainly used in the Jenga like block removal game, therefore you need to make sure you go for the right block and have a steady hand otherwise it could all topple over, while the sling-shot allows you to use blocks and even the little critters that surround the level as ammo to ricochet off other blocks. There is also a rather cool paint gun which allows you to shoot and change the colour of blocks, getting three of them in a row will cause the row to disappear, kind of like the puzzle game Bejewelled.

 

To complicate matters there is a wide range of blocks that can either help or hinder you. The blocks from the first game have returned and there are a few new blocks to master, the virus block will spread out and destroy blocks close to it, allowing for huge chain reactions if played right, the change block will flip through each block type and the boom bux block earns you cash to spend in game on later levels if you get stuck. Alongside the blocks you also have a varied range of ammo to hurl including a new virus ball, baseballs, bowling balls and a cannon ball to fire.

 

With over 400 puzzles to play through you would think that would be enough, but not so as the level creator has returned and this time it is even easier to either alter or create from scratch with the guidance of a good tutorial and even more tools at your disposal. From here you can upload your puzzles and share online with your friends or anyone else and whilst at the moment most of them are created by EA it will only be a matter of time before the user created levels start to appear.

 

 

The Bash Party element of this title refers to the multiplayer modes available, you can play with others in co-op mode where you work together to solve puzzles and there is also a competitive mode and a team based mode. The multiplayer mode is certainly good fun once you get going and the experience is generally a good one.

 

Graphically the game looks just as good, if not better than the original, there is certainly plenty of colour on the screen and the various characters and creatures that make an appearance are all lovingly created. 

 

Boom Blox Bash Party builds on the solid title from last year, correcting a few of the problems like the twitchy physics and offering loads more levels, items and a superb level creator. Well worth you hard earned cash.