Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Bombastic

Written by Adam Woolcott on September 19, 2003

Full Review: Geez, what was the budget for Bombastic's cover art? A dollar?

They always say to never judge a book (or game) by its cover. After all, many games have spectacular cover art, only for the game inside to be poor, or even the other way around Ц not the way to go about your game buying habits. Hopefully, this proverb will be remembered when it comes to Bombastic, a highly addictive and enjoyable puzzle game that is stricken with horrific boxart that reminds some of the glory days of the game industry. Not only is the game much better than you might expect, it's also very inexpensive, at $30, making it a great bargain for puzzle fans. It might not be Tetris, but Bombastic is still plenty fun, especially for more than one player.

Bombastic is actually the sequel to the PlayStation game known as Devil Dice, which was published by THQ (which is why the renaming is so stupid since people won't know especially with the lame boxart). The game wasn't a huge hit as it wasn't easy to find, but it was well-known as the most successful project that stemmed from the Net Yaroze programming system Sony released in 1996. It boasted simple graphics, but far from simple puzzle action that was very addictive if you caught on to the method of the game's madness. Bombastic is no different Ц the game boasts simple graphics, but the same spastic, addictive gameplay that made the first one so good. Plus, you control little devil things. What can be wrong with controlling little devil things?

The game contains a couple gameplay types Ц trial and quest. The trial is the traditional puzzle game progression, as you level up with successful moves, until things get so fast that you're heads spinning and the board is like a landmine. Quest is the УstoryФ mode, believe it or not Ц you control 5 of the devil things in a quest to find their grandpa, beating enemies by using the tactics from the trial mode. It's kind ofЕwellЕlame for a puzzle game to have this, but extra stuff is never a bad thing, and the quest is very strategic. The trial can be played with 2 players, on the same board clearing it cooperatively, which is a Сblast', to be sure.

The rules of Bombastic are fairly simple. The board is covered with traditional die, and its your job as the little devil thing to roll the dice around, line them up properly, and get the hell out of dodge when they blow up. It takes a couple seconds, but once you adjust its very easy. Essentially, the higher the number, the more die need to be used to trigger an explosion Ц if you have a 5 rolled, you have to get 5 die with 5 rolled to trigger the explosion, same with the other 5 numbers (obviously 1 doesn't work). The catch is, if you have numbers that are one lower next to each other or nearby (like 5,4,3Еetc), it will trigger a chain reaction and blow those up as well. If you're on a die set to blow, and you don't get off, youЕwellЕdie. The idea is to clear the board as best you can, and get as high a level as possible. If you're really good, and learn the tricks to lining up the dice properly (by rolling it around until you get the right numbers), you can rig about 3/4ths of the board to explode in a very quick fashion. It's a lot harder than it sounds, and at first it will seem just spastic and without much thought, but with time it becomes a fast-paced strategic puzzle game in the vein of Tetris Ц though again, not as good.

The quest mode is very fun, and requires a different breed of strategy. Beating the enemies requires a great bit of strategy, as each has a different pattern to figure out. Typically, instead of just working a way around enemies, you have to actually blow them up by triggering the die they're standing on to explode. Thankfully, there is a great training mode that you must pass to progress that shows you the ropes better than I could describe in a review. It's obviously not a very long quest, but it's still a lot of fun, and a nice change of pace from the trial mode. There's a ton of strategy and thinking required before each move to figure out the best way to stay out of trouble, and later on it gets mind-bendingly tough. But this is a puzzle game, so it's a good thing.

Visually, there's not much to discuss. It's a puzzle game, in the 3/4ths perspective, and it's colorful. That's about it. At least for the trial anyway Ц the quest has some highly colorful, cartoony levels that aren't anything spectacular, but very serviceable and definitely not ugly. It doesn't look leagues better than Devil Dice, but this kind of game really doesn't have intense graphical tricks or anything like that. I must say though, they did a bang-up job with character designs Ц most of them not only look good, but they also look downright weird as well Ц which is never, ever a bad thing. Weird looking characters rock. Sounds are nice Ц the music is goofy yet fitting, and the explosions are pretty nice as well. But, again, that's really all there is to it. For a puzzle game, it's fine, but since this is a puzzle game, there's very little to discuss besides what's been mentioned. It won't hurt your ears, but then again, you'll be caught up in making stuff go boom that you won't care.