Boom Boom shake the Rachmaninov?

By Tom Bramwell Published 14 February, 2007

Classic music in Bizarre's latest.

Bizarre Creations has updated its studio blog with more information on Boom Boom Rocket, its Xbox Live Arcade rhythm action collaboration with EA.

The idea, as you may remember, is to trigger rockets in time to music as you progress at high speed through a 3D cityscape. Today's update offers more on the scoring system, and reveals that accompaniment - courtesy of composer Ian Livingstone - is actually based on existing classical music.

Bizarre insists that the game's very easy to pick up, but with the sort of depth that characterised Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. The combo bar, for example, which fills up as you match beats, doubles, triples and quadruples your points as it grows in strength, eventually allowing you to unleash a "Bonus Run".

When you do this, the graphics go mental and you get 20 seconds' worth of an 8x multiplier, suggesting that you'll need to be aware of the song structure to pick sections appropriate for mass points-accumulation. "There's nothing worse than activating your bonus run, only for the fireworks to naturally slow down and valuable points to be lost," the developer laments.

As for the music, "Boom Boom Rocket features classical tunes, but they've all been remixed to more contemporary themes. Ian Livingstone has been hammering away on the music for months now, and it's all coming together nicely. All of the songs will be recognisable to most people, and the classical compositions really suit the gameplay better than most modern pop and rock."

Boom Boom Rocket is due out this spring, and will also offer two-player support on one console and the usual online leaderboards that helped make Geometry Wars so compelling. Bizarre also notes that while GW was largely the work of Stephen Cakebread, Boom Boom has been put together by a core team of seven people, along with Livingstone and help from various people at EA's Pogo department.

For more on that, and other goings-on at Bizarre, check out the studio update. Be sure to check out our screenshot gallery too, for a pair of new visuals.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (7) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bezzy #1 5 years ago

    "The combo bar, for example, which fills up as you match beats, doubles, triples and quadruples your points as it grows in strength, eventually allowing you to unleash a "Bonus Run".

    When you do this, the graphics go mental and you get 20 seconds' worth of an 8x multiplier,"

    This doesn't sound exactly like Guitar Hero AT ALL.

    You're lucky I like Guitar Hero. And Amplitude. And Frequency.

    Meh. I shouldn't moan. the 2^N multiplier approach is pretty standard game design canon by now.

  • skillian #2 5 years ago

    Guitar Hero without the posing or plastic peripherals. Might draw me closer to a first rhythm game purchase...

  • enzima #3 5 years ago

    so, Stephen Cakebread is the guy responsible for making me lose a ridiculous amount of time, just to reach that damn million in GW? DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    eventually, though i did it....and it was well worth it!

  • MysteriousJeff #4 5 years ago

    See, now Rachmaninov's Romantic not Classical. Just to be anal

  • Lov3 #5 5 years ago

    God, I thought this was a sequal to Chu Chu Rocket for a minute. That would be awesome, someone should put that on arcade instead.

  • numptyboymatt #6 5 years ago

    Awwww, I read the title and was hoping it was a sequel to Chu Chu Rocket, but alas, no :o(

  • NegativeZero #7 5 years ago

    So I guess it'll be out around November or so then, once MS has released another fifty billion shitty 'retro' games that should have been left in their decades-old graves.