Be Excellent To Each Other

Anyone else bought this?

I picked it up a couple of weeks ago on the basis of the Eurogamer Review purely because I had a £40 Game voucher burning a hole in my pocket. It has since proven a corking copper bottomed hit in our house on the basis that whilst a large percentage of it is down to skill and and planning you can just as easily rack up a good score with a spawny hit knocking a block away into a stack miles away and bringing it down for a points bonanza.

I'm talking multiplayer mainly here but for those that don't know you basically get a Jenga-esque tower with blocks of varying sizes worth a variety of points. You then take it in turns throwing a ball at the tower from whichever angle you choose and whatever velocity you choose (hard as possible is best normally). You determine where you want to throw the ball with the pointer then press A and literally lob the ball using the Wii Remote letting go of "A" when you would let go of the ball. This is clearly entirely accurate based on the fact that the wife manages to do "girly" throws on occasion where the ball will simply arc forward at 3 mph and bounce harmlessly off the blocks. You can risk going for blocks at the bottom and bring the whole stack down but that could result in you merely pushing the block into the exact position for the next player to knock it out and subsequently claim those points. There's various bomb and vanishing blocks in the mix that can alter the strategy but are sometimes there as red herrings for the impatient player.

As I said in an earlier post it reminds me of Peggle in some respects in that the random physics can be a deciding factor but that means games against a 9 year old and the wife are much closer than our split screen CoD4 matches.

So does anyone else have it or am I some kind of Pariah (well more than normal anyway)?

I bought it.

It's pretty good. Initially it seemed great, but there are too many rubbish levels and too much slowdown and too many glitches to be really, really good.

When it's good, it's fucking great, but a lot of the time it's a bit average and boring.

And single player mode gets way, way too hard a few hours in.

I have been considering it.

I'm about 80% in. Some of them are down to blind luck but a lot you can work out with some planning and some you can find an alternate solution by using secondary bounces of the balls.

We're mainly having fun with the multiplayer though, dare I say it moreso than Mario Kart purely because everyone gets a fair crack of the whip.

I really want this, but I'm trying to buy less games. Especially as I've quite a back log.

FEWER

Mi rule is if am being payed 4 the righting then I care.

(whoops)

But yeah, I'm glad people are liking it. I'll be sure not to forget about it.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this game, I've only done a handfull (probably about 20) of the single player levels and haven't even attempted any multiplayer yet but I'm finding it a great game to chill to when I'm not in the mood for trying to push forward a bit more in GTA4

I admit this is a strange question, but to those who bought it how are the menus?

'Cos it has 300 levels right? And do they get graded or are they just ticked off?

I ask because a good menu system can make me completely addicted to a game like this (Rhythm Tengoku's little grid being a perfect example) - or the way Picross DS show little icons of the puzzles.

I hope I don't sound mad...

There's 2 options for the single player - Explore and Adventure

Explore takes you through each element of gameplay and you can choose one of 5 types i.e. throw / grab / etc then have a go at each of the levels in that section. Unlocking one level opens the next. You get graded bronze / silver / gold depending on certain criteria. Completing one gameplay element then unlocks some harder levels.

In Adventure mode you follow a spurious story mode (skippable intros thank fuck) which can have any number of gameplay elements and again completing one unlocks the next with bronze / silver / gold ratings.

The biggest problem for me in the structure is that the unlockables are all a load of stuff that get used in the create mode which I doubt I will ever venture near.

Got this today, think it is a really really good short burst game and my 'demo of the season' for visitors to meet the Wii though.

One major major failing, which will see me turning it off before anything else - as soon as I am aware of the fact that I might as well return to the start of the puzzle, one button press should see me do so, straight back in with another crack at a good start. Not a 'pause, retry, reload, read instructions, and go' system like thoe one there is. I want to try again nownownow, and it is only a puzzle game. why the instructions again... and why can't I check those in-game, either? If only to shake off that feeling that I didn't read them right the first time, though I usually find I did.

Craig and I have bought this but it has not yet arrived. Someone said you can make and then send each other levels? if anyone makes any interesting ones, please do bung them our way

For that, someone would need to add my pissing friend code, which never happens.

To be honest fun as this transfers thing is, it is another stunted child of Nintendo's online toe-dipping and as such somewhat less fun than it might be due to glaring omissions... what if none of my friends are good designers? Why can't I have the best designs from anywhere? Is it because I won't then need Boom Blox 2?

To be fair, Goatboy, you haven't actually added your Wii code to The List, otherwise I would have added you by now as I keep mine up to date.

Posted it elsewhere, mind. Sorted now.