Boom Blox

When we compiled our ‘Five games we’d like to see ported to N-Gage’ at the tail end of 2008, Boom Blox may well have made it onto the list if the game hadn’t been imminent at the time. Put simply: we love the game, both on Wii and (more pertinently) on mobile.

This much anticipated N-Gage version is structurally identical to the mobile version, with a slight lick of 3D paint and music taken from the Wii original. So it must be an absolute must-have, right? Well, not exactly.

But first let’s run through exactly what Boom Blox does, for those who’ve managed to avoid it in its previous guises. You have to remove a selection of blocks from each level using a limited number of weighted balls. Everything responds to rudimentary physics, so hit a block low on the left hand side and it will ping up and to the right, clattering into anything in its path with predictable knock-on results.

Also there to help (and hinder) you is an array of blocks with various attributes, including explosive (watch the blocks fly), movement (which will set off in a pre-defined straight line upon contact) and the dreaded skulls (which will lose you points if they drop off the screen).

Through careful consideration, you can set off a domino rally style chain reaction that racks up the points with only one or two moves.

It remains compelling stuff, as you stare intensely at the screen in search of the most efficient way to reach your points target. Mess up and you’re only a few key clicks away from resetting the level, which positively encourages casual experimentation.

It’s the perfect mobile distraction, adept at swallowing either seconds or hours of your time depending on how much of it you can spare.

So what’s the snag? Well, we couldn’t shake the feeling throughout that the N-Gage version is a slightly lazy effort. As mentioned, it really is just the Java version with improved presentation. And I’m not entirely sure that improved is the correct word to use there.

The 3D visuals tend to distract slightly from the source material’s precise gameplay. Your perspective pans slightly as you move the cursor, showing that each object is a fully realised object. It’s attractive, but completely pointless and (worse still) a bit off-putting in places. The blocks lack the sharp lines of the original, which isn’t ideal when trying to line up a precise edge-shot.

Further to this, the previously boldly defined aiming cursor through which you interact with the world has mystifyingly been drawn in plain red here, rendering the central point almost invisible in places. Again, such graphical sloppiness affects the gameplay, and I found myself miscuing a few more moves than I did in the mobile version.

Probably the worst aspect of this conversion, though, is that it has failed to take a blatantly obvious step that could have returned the game to must-have status. As with the mobile version, you can design your own levels here using a flexible and intuitive level editor.

You would imagine that the N-Gage Arena would soon be alive with hundreds of weird and wonderful user-created levels. Except there’s no provision to do this. You can upload your high score to an online leaderboard, and that’s it.

Unforgivable is an over-used word, particularly in the realm of video game reviews, but I can’t think of a more apt description for this oversight. It effectively sealed our opinion of N-Gage Boom Blox as a lazy, cynical port of a classic.

Which, upon reflection, is more than a little unfair. Despite the unrealised potential on show here, Boom Blox remains an excellent game. The presentation, if nothing else, brings the game closer to the Wii orginal’s cheerful art-style, as does the chirpy music. Playing the game in landscape, too, is a pleasant (if slight) improvement.

But as we move into 2009, with the N-Gage platform under threat from the mighty iPhone, and with expectations raised by the recent releases of Metal Gear Solid Mobile and Resident Evil: Degeneration, an ill-optimised port of an eight month-old mobile game no longer seems like enough.