Bombastic

"A game that really lights up in multiplayer"

Puzzle games haven't received a great deal of innovation in recent times, and many games involve using puzzles at some point during the game, so is there any attraction for pure puzzle games any more? Bombastic combines the puzzle element with a pretty fast paced game meaning that the action very rarely slows down. It's cute and cuddly exterior may put off more mature gamers, but they serve the game well in that they'll attract younger gamers, but older gamers can easily find the gameplay challenging enough to spend a lot of time playing it.

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Storyline (5/10)
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The storyline has no real function in the game than to give you a reason to go from area to area and fight a boss along the way. The five Aquis are on a quest to go visit their grandfather, going through a series of levels that involve rolling the dice to blow up enemies.

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Gameplay (8/10)
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This is where the game excels; while the single player mode can get a little dull and is rather short, the multiplayer modes are a lot of fun, especially when you get to player against someone of similar ability. Despite it's simple premise, there's a lot of strategy required and also needs quick thinking. There aren't a lot of decent multiplayer games around nowadays, which is why this game is a real gem. It's something people of any ability can pick up and play without needing to learn overly complicated rules, and thus anyone can have fun playing it. As well as this, even though the story mode isn't the greatest, the single player mode of trying to get the highest score possible is pretty addictive, and also trying to see if you can survive 100 levels.

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Graphics (5/10)
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The cel shaded graphics aren't my personal taste, but I can look past them as they accomplish their job well enough. They work very well on some stages, but on others kind of look bland, although the bosses are pretty well designed. Also, without decent graphics it would have been a lot harder to see which number the dice you're on is, but they're done well and thus even with lots of dice on screen, it rarely gets too confusing.

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Sounds (6/10)
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As with the graphics, the sound effects are nothing overly special, the sounds the Aqui's make aren't awful but they can get annoying after a while. The explosions are well done, and don't get annoying, which is important as the game has a lot of them, and it's a sound your going to hear a lot of.

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Summary (7/10)
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Even though it might not be the greatest game ever made, it's very original and highly addictive. Considering the current market for games is full of clones, this is something that has no equal, and thus is worth getting simply for it's originality. You could play a lot of games and never find something that plays similar to this in any way. Also, as mentioned, it has one of the best multiplayer modes I've seen in any game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/26/07