Boom Blox Comments by Ellie Gibson

Typical spielberg's way: made to make money. The man has no talent but he turns everything he does into someting very very good. (i worked with him in a movie in budapest btw).

I dunno, that sounds like the description of talent to me, just at a lack of effort maybe?

There's something a little bland and corporate about the whole thing. It's more obvious in some areas than others, like in the puzzle where you have to knock down a wall which has the letters EA spelled out in gems. Companies with pedigree like Nintendo and SEGA can get away with this sort of nonsense; sorry, EA, but you can't.

!!!

"The man has no talent but he turns everything he does into someting very very good. "

Haven't you just, in trying to say he's got no talent, said he's got talent? I reckon Spielberg would see your comment and raise you an Oscar, one of the most successful movie franchises of all time, a great artistic vision and a whole pile of cash!

Wish I hadn't sold the Wii now, this actially does look like a lot of fun!

and didnt Ellie review Mario Galaxy?

i thought she liked it?, it got a 10

Not that I haven't posted on this enough yet, but I'd also like to chime in among those who don't understand the problem with the price tag. I suppose the perceived value of this, when a game like GTA 4 just came out for the same price, might be a touch low. This might look a little lightweight in comparison. But nowhere in the review does it suggest that the experience is shallow, even if it plays to a 'casual' market.

It seems like people just don't want to pay full price 'on principle'. On exactly -what- principle I'm unsure, though. Not the principle of 'it's not a great game,' obviously. There seems to be some vague and meaningless principle of 'it's a puzzle game, so it should be cheaper, uh, for some reason' floating around, too.

Oh, and someone mentioned wanting the price lower because it cost less to make than a big budget game, which seems like a strange argument to me. It's not as if we expect this price model to translate particularly to other types of product. You go to see a film and you pay exactly the same high cinema ticket price plus 100% popcorn tax whether you see John Rambo or Son of Rambow. In fact, with a few exceptions, it's very rare to see a game released at budget price unless it's exactly the sort of shovelware release that this is -not-.

Buy.

People don't want to pay £40 because it's a Wii game.

Buy this, and more games like it will get made.

Ignore it, and the shovelware will continue.

We are constantly told games are expensive because they cost a hell of a lot to make. So why is it unreasonable to assume a game which costs a lot less should be cheaper?

By some folks arguments, a mini cooper should cost the same as a ferrari, as it's the same driving experience and there's no perception of value.

CDs/MP3s often cost the same no matter the cost of production. Cinema tickets/DVDs generally cost the same no matter how much the film cost to make.

Why should games be any different?

A bit harsh on the Wii's software library I think! This game sounds great however.

"We are constantly told games are expensive because they cost a hell of a lot to make. So why is it unreasonable to assume a game which costs a lot less should be cheaper?"

1) Because that's a completely faulty argument as to why games cost so much in the first place. The price of games hasn't changed much in 15 years but the cost of making them has skyrocketed. Sure, demand has increased too which might be a factor in keeping price down, but the real reason games cost what they do is because that's what people have been willing to pay for them. Otherwise people would go the other way and start charging £60 for games with huge budgets.

2) Because, again, this doesn't happen in other walks of life. People charge based on what they think they can get for something, not what it costs to make. Obviously production costs enter into it, in that you have to sell for more than it costs to make a profit, but if you can make something for £1 and charge £50 for it then as a businessperson you will - and businesspeople frequently do! Why should you expect -otherwise-? I'm not disagreeing that it would be lovely if things were priced in a way that is closely linked to production costs... I just don't know why you'd -assume- it should be that way, because except in cases of non-profit organisations, it never happens!

You can enjoy a little Boom Blox taste with the Boom Blox Flashgame on the german page of EA: http://boomblox.electronic-arts.de/ Quite entertaining. Beat my highscore of 567! :-)

NickD7: That's weird...that message you posted there in an attempt to not derail the thread read strangely like an attempt to derail the thread. Funny how that happens.

I want it.

Buying a game and cinemagoing are not comparable. Cinema visits are one-off events, games are revisitable whenever you like. A much closer analogy would therefore be video/DVD releases, which do in fact vary in price a lot, with high-budget, high-gloss releases analogous to big games like GTA costing more on first release than low-budget straight-to-video films analogous to this.

Plus, if a product costs £1 to make and they sell it for £50, their competitor (if they had any sense) would sell a competing product for £30 and sell more - like Wiis and PS3s, in fact. What people are willing to pay is defined by the price range they observe, and I for one have seen some damn cheap games, which is why I shop around very carefully for stuff like games and often delay my purchases until something comes down in price. I think looking at other responses I'm not the only one with this attitude.

This habit of selling a game for £lots and later dropping the price is also a contributing factor. If people percieve that a game sells for less money later than it does at launch, it's only natural to wonder at that. Why pay more? It's not going to go off if you leave it on the shelf for a month or two, after all; if games launched at a lower price and stayed at that price, maybe you'd see better initial sales.

I for one also expected this to be crap (still not convinced. Physics puzzles? A bit 2004, no? Oh, but it's on a Wii!), given that I'd trust a film director to make a good game as much as I'd trust a game developer to direct a film, and given that nothing Spielberg's done would translate well into a game without a revolution in game design. I'd love to hear from the devs quite what this game would have been if they'd not had any involvement with Spielberg.

1st game that's actually made me want a Wii !

THIS GAME SOUNDS FOOKIN MARVELLOUS

sorry about that, but when i first heard about it, i laughed like a fool.

now i feel like a fool, because i MUST own this game.

YourMessageHere.

If you want to stretch your analogy then this game is like a low-budget indie smash. When those come out - such as Little Miss Sunshine or Sideways - on DVD they cost the same as Spider-Man or Pirates of the Caribbean.

Anyway, what the fuck does it matter? As the review says;

"Boom Blox has novelty and depth in spades. Along with instant accessibility, long-term challenge, immense scope for creativity and monkeys wearing cowboy hats."

If that doesn't appeal, don't buy it!

Pac-man ate my wife:

Again not really comparable; EA's hardly an indie studio, and the involvement of Spielberg is much more like a film trading on the involvement of a popular actor than using a hardly-known cast as most indies do. That analogy applies more to stuff like Audiosurf which, by comparison, does cost a lot less. This game is more like a film the studio funds because it's only modestly expensive but isn't really sure it'll be good, gives it a punt anyway on the offchance, and when it turns out popular and successful, they milk it for all it's worth.

£25 and I'm sold, until then, I'll practice with the wifes' ornaments.


And practice balancing stuff.

I dont believe this..

Surely you need a super duper powerful console to do physics properly?

The wii is just 2 gamecubes stuck together - it's not powerful enuf..

etce etc.

"given that I'd trust a film director to make a good game as much as I'd trust a game developer to direct a film"


I personally liked the wing commander movie...

As for the price of this game.

Yes it's obviously going to be cheaper to make a game like this than a majorly huge fps/gta extravaganza.

But yet a puzzle game isnt going to sell 5 million copies in it's release week either.

I'd imagine that a game like this would struggle to sell 1 million in it's whole life time (regardless of how good it is), so the price is to offset the lack of sales.

Also there's the price vs quality argument. A lot of people look at cheaper products as being inferior and wont buy them. On the other hand a lot of people (especially europeans) seem to prefer to buy the more expensive things regardless of how good they are (look at how well the ps3 sold at launch in europe - way before it got any games worth buying).

So in this case the price IS probably justified.. But (like you) i'll wait to buy it cheap second hand (same as i'm doing with gta 4 in fact as there's going to be thousands of those available very soon!)

lol @ "Speilberg has no talent", thread delivers.

oooh.. i'm at #8 in the highscore table!

http://boomblox.electronic-arts.de/

It's an enjoyable game but I'd like to add that the shooting puzzles are a tad tedious. Plus there's a couple of levels where you have to defend kittens from hordes of undead using only baseballs, in which the camera is less than helpful and the difficulty seems to stacked against you leading to a bit of frustration as it follows after several levels of the same sort which had been boringly easy.

Still that criticism and the awful "Dr Seuss light" storytelling aside (it's not like I bought the game to be told a wonderful tale) Boom Blox is a well crafted game and great to play with friends and on your own; it has certainly made good use of the Wii remote and I'm glad it has finally given poor Ellie something fun to play after all the horrible mini game compilations that she gets forced to endure when all sane people wouldn't touch them with a bargepole!

As for price - you can easily buy it for 30 quid from the usual internet shopping sites. Personally I wouldn't have paid 40 quid for it (there's not many games I would considering I'm used to paying 30 quid max for PC titles) but 30 while initially seeming a bit steep is perfectly acceptable considering the amount of hours I can see myself playing it. Considering back in the day I paid 30 quid for 8 hours of Max Payne and had no qualms I'm definitely happy enough. Although if any game ever beats either Audiosurf, Puzzle Quest or good old Deus Ex for value for money I'll eat my hat.

DickN7 wrote:not buying until it's in teh bargain bin, which won't take l;ong as most Wii owners are only interested in first party shit like Wii fit.

Surprisingly shit like Metroid Prime, Mario Galaxy, PES 2008, Mario Strikers, Zack & Wiki, Battalion Wars, Mario & Sonic, and Zelda etc. All seem to retain a high asking price.

I won't pay any more than £20 for a game that has last generation graphics; my Wii isn't only gathering dust, I can't see it for dust as I only have Wii Sports which I got free.

^ i agree with the shooting puzzles, the bright side to them is that they dont take very long to do, otherwise its a fantastic game! Its a budget price in AUS too, well worth it imo!

"Its a budget price in AUS too, well worth it imo!"

So it IS a budget title in some zones... interesting. Shaft the dopey euro gamers a bloody gain eh?

"Surprisingly shit like Metroid Prime, Mario Galaxy, PES 2008, Mario Strikers, Zack & Wiki, Battalion Wars, Mario & Sonic, and Zelda etc. All seem to retain a high asking price."


I rate your trolling 8/10.. As everyone knows none (with exception of mario & sonic) of those games are shit.. But well done for trying.


"my Wii isn't only gathering dust, I can't see it for dust as I only have Wii Sports which I got free."

So you dont buy games (because they're "too expensive").. and then complain about the machine (which i doubt you even own) allegedly gathering dust... Surely if you're THAT tight the machine was therefor a waste of money?

As for the games being "shit" with "last gen graphics" as you've never played any of them, how could you possibly know?

Brilliant trolling.. 10/10

I do love the way the trolls have gone from "all wii games are shit" to now saying "all wii games are too expensive"

Talk about desperately scrapping the barrel...

MrZ - try your local JB.

It's there in mine - at $64

$64?!?!

What's the Aus/Us exchange rate like? that sounds like a hell of a lot?

Come on smelly; you know as well as I do that the Wii is just a gimmick; fair play to Nintendo for brainwashing the general public into buying their console, but Nintendo knew that there would be a gap in the market to exploit with only a small percentage of the populous owning HDTV's. Nintendo have cleaned up on the casual gamer market; taking over from the PS2, sadly the success of the Wii could have an adverse effect on us hardcore gamers if developers start shovelling shovel-ware at the 360 and PS3 to make a fast buck.

In all honesty Boom Blox is nothing more than an Xbox live Arcade game; a mediocre one at that, the game should retail around the £5 bracket not 40 quid.

IRT Sid Nice

You're living in a fantasy world if you think that it's just the Wii that gets shitty titles. While I definitely agree that it has got more than its fair share when compared to the other consoles when I look at the shelf in any games store for any format; whether console or PC, at least half the games are utter shite and another quarter mediocre at best.

However personally I'd rather just enjoy the 25% that are good fun, quality titles and get on with it. Most games are pretty poor or mediocre it has always been that way and always will be; fortunately there's a shit load of games out there and so there's always enough to go on.

Most PS3 and Xbox 360 titles are mutton done up as lamb.

@smelly $64 AUS is the equivalent of £31 GB Pound sterling.

'$64 AUS is the equivalent of £31 GB Pound sterling.'

$100 normally for the pleasure.

GTAIV - $120

Person Who Has Never Played Boom Blox: "In all honesty Boom Blox is nothing more than an Xbox live Arcade game; a mediocre one at that."

Person Who Has Played Boom Blox: "Boom Blox is brilliant alone, fantastic with friends, a superb addition to the puzzle genre and a game that will make you glad you own a Wii."

Hmmm, whose opinion shall I trust? Honest to God, Sid Nice, how can you still pretend you have an argument? You've already said yourself that you don't own any of the games that you're criticising.

Sid Nice: Welcome to my ignore list!

Someone who states blindly a game is crap without even having played it = troll


As for the aussie games prices.. just checked.. $64 australian is $60 american?!?? And you consider that to be "budget"? Sheesh.. and i thought europeans got ripped off!

(I dont pay more than $40 for a brand new full priced game!)

This game sounds great. One of the reasons I bought the Wii was to get games like this. There is only so much FPS "UBER GRAFIX!!!" and seriousness that I can take.

Better graphics has never automatically meant 'better game'. Besides, I can actually play this and many other Wii games with my girlfriend, so its a buy for me.

Aussie games prices have always been pretty steep at release. It usually doesn't take long for prices to fall though.

Indeed our AU pricing is a joke, when you can import games from play-asia, especially region free 360 games for 55+ delivery charges, which is $70 AU at most. Its painful how expensive games are here, even boom bloxes discounted price, between 70-80 retail is still steep compared to overseas. Games that cost $120 Au almost puts me off buying a game. Its good to see that most chain stores have an introductory offer though. I bought Wii fit for $120 at Kmart last week, RRP is $150 after the introductory offer.

Sid Nice, I can never tell if you're being serious. In the forums, you seem to like Nintendo, but on the comments section, it's the other way round. Do you enter through some portal to a parallel universe every time you switch between forum and comments? I mean, all your top wanted games are for the Wii!

Think Sid was in mocking mode


Hello, Aussies;

Waz Up my Diggers?

You know the original idea had to come from Steven, to get a deal on a pack pack of games.

Otherwise something like this would've NEVER been done in todays world. And much less by EA.

Come on. On a market focused on impressing the young gangsta ... a game with cute bricks.

I'm sure it'll be ace, but sell 10 copies, therefore sending the confirmation to EA that they should stick to impressing the young gansta.

We all loose.

@Sid Nice: if you really are a "hard core gamer", why do you give 2 figs about the graphics being "last gen"? Its all about the GAME-PLAY if you are a "hard core gamer", if its only about the gfx then you are not a gamer - go join the cinema or camera buffs instead.

Or did you refuse to play games like Tetris cos they had crap gfx too?

Can't really understand the desperation of people wanting the wii to fail. 'The wii has no good games' then 'the wii has no good 3rd party games' now 'wii games are too expensive' ... What next ?

I have always had a soft spot for quirky cartoony games - and for a long time it felt like these would die out cos of Fps and driving games - but I really can't recall the desire to go and shit all over every single fucking thread discussing them still the melodramatic hissy fits are quite amusing.

Gta - £40
boom bloc - £30
Enjoying them both - priceless
great time to be a gamer - especially if you want variety !

My arm hurts from playing it last night. It's like Wii Sports injuries all over again.

It's a great game, am worried about its length though as it already says 40% on my save.

@charliemouse

Mm, I dunno, i'm at 40% too but it seems there's plenty there... I've hardly delved into the advanced challenges yet - regular explore mode seemed largely like a tutorial to me. I've still gote half the 'story' mode to go too, and there's an advanced version of that, too, so it seems just right to me.

I think sooner or later I'm going to have most fun on multiplayer (which I'm yet to try) and create mode (which I've dabbled in and is incredibly well-designed) - and I suspect those two things are going to be the real mark of longevity.