Guitar Hero 4 , Wiiware, and Boom Blox

I’d been hearing some good things about Boom Blox, enough so that I decided to look up when it would release.  When I did, I found that it hit retail last week!  I headed over to Gamestop after work to pick up a copy and brought it home. 

This is the first game in a while that really executes the Wiimote well.  I don’t think I could imagine playing Boom Blox on any other system, and that’s the first time that’s happened since Wii Sports.   The premise is a series of puzzles or story mode challenges in which you must knock over towers of blocks by throwing balls or bombs at them via the wiimote.  Strength of throw is determined by the speed of your swing.  There are all kind of little tricks and special blocks that I won’t detail in full, but regardless, there’s a ton of variety in gameplay.  Sometimes you’re even pulling blocks out pseudo Jenga style. 

There’s puzzle like challenges in the single player mode, as well as co-op and competitive modes in multiplayer.  In multiplayer there are a ton of various games, from being in opposing castles and trying to bowl over the competition’s structures, to a air hockey/curling mockup game, and pretty much anything else you could imagine.  I had a ton of fun playing it with Rachel last night, and I can’t wait to try it with four players.  She even woke up this morning and started playing it again.

On the news side of things, a poster on the NeoGAF forumsclaims to have gotten their copy of Game Informer early and scooped out all the detail on Gutiar Hero 4.

Guitar Hero 4 (PS3, 360, Wii, PS2)
- Create a song. Although these exclude vocals due to storage and possible copyright issues.
- You’ll be able to name your song as well as creating album art. After you’ve done all that you can upload it to GH Tunes where anyone can download it.
- You’ll be limited to 5 songs at first. But depending on the ratings you get you’ll possibly be able to upload 10 or more.
- The song sharing mode will be in the Wii and PS2 versions also, but GI says it’s unlikely that it’ll be as robust as the PS3 and 360 versions.
- Drums, bass, vocals guitar
- Create a rocker
- Create a guitar and drums
- All songs will be master tracks
- They don’t want to discuss specifics on track listing out of fear of being scooped by the competition. However they confirmed 4 bands: Van Halen, The Eagles, Linkin Park and Sublime.
- A new guitar designed by Red Octane that includes a new input mechanic that’ll “impact the way you play GH in the future”.
- GI saw see through notes while playing that Neversoft said was the new input mechanic and that they were trying to patent.

I’ve been pretty down on Guitar Hero 3, but the ability to create music is something the community has been looking for for a long time.  The thing that could put Guitar Hero back in the limelight is that fact that they have been releasing a new game every year. 

If Guitar Hero 4 launches this Christmas Season with all those features, exclusive band deals, and create-a-song (and it’s executed well), then suddenly there’s a product out there that trumps Rock Band.  And it doesn’t seem like Harmonix wants to do the yearly release–they’d rather keep releasing tracks once a week.  Which has been absolutely awesome and I love them for it, but could cause problems should GH4 come to fruition in this manner. 

All of that should be taken with a big grain of salt though.  Until GI hits newsstands this is all just a rumor.

Finally, Wiiware has arrived in the U.S., and with it the first couple of games for release on the download service.  The most anticipated of these is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, a Sim City meets Actraiser meets final fantasy spin off.  I’d really like to try it, but the 15 dollar price point is stopping me.  Add to this that you only get one race and the others are DLC for 8 additional dollars and it just starts to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

–WG