Last week we announced the release of Boom Blox for Wii, a collaboration of Steven Spielberg in conjunction to create a family-friendly interactive strategy game for Wii. Over the weekend I had a chance to check out the gameplay and controller scheme and it’s really fantastic.

There are basically three main kinds of games within Boom Blox:

• One is where you throw a ball to hit point blocks and even try to ricochet the blocks off of targets in the background to get points.
• Next you can play a Jenga like game either with friends or against them.
• Lastly there’s a shooting gallery where you shoot blocks for points.

You can play these games solo or with others and they have both collaborative and competitive multiplayer modes. When you throw the ball, you have to aim with the Wiimote and then pitch the ball using a flick of your wrist. The ball and the blocks have amazingly realistic physics behind them.

The Jenga game is probably one of the most challenging to play. It takes a degree of finesses to pull a block out of the tower without upsetting the others around it. The flexible and easy camera angle change allows you to pull it from virtually any angle.

The shooting game is relatively rudimentary but still fun. The amazingly smooth tracking in Boom Blox keeps it fun and enjoyable. Overall the controls, multiplayer options and ease of play make this easily among the most playable games yet released for the Wii!

• Play Spielberg’s Boom Blox On Your Mobile
• Hands on with the Wii Zapper
• Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox for Wii