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Lame Title, Rad Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 15
Date: June 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is freakin' rad.

There are two elements to this game that make is incredibly fun to play.

One - you can build and design your own ship to use in combat. This isn't like a cut and paste job, you can literally make shapes/guns/wings ANYTHING and put them anywhere on the ship. It's like the drawings that you made when you were a little kid on scratch paper brought to life. You can literally spend HOURS designing ships and not even realize the time has gone by. It's awesome.

Second - as you rip through enemies, blowing them up with your sick, self designed ship, you can grab the defeated enemies and add them to your core fighter as extra weaponry/defense. Essentially, whatever you kill makes you stronger. And it depends what angle you grab the enemies at. They fire their weapons corresponding to that angle. It's like Galaga on steroids.

You can upload your fighter designs to other people and share/swap them.
This sharing process is ridiculously easy. You literally just push "Send"

Not only that, you can design your own levels, enemies, and other random parts of the game. You don't have to share this with only your friends though, there is a website where they post everyones uploads. You can just grab those, or share your designs there.
I can't tell you how great this is. You can basically invent an impossible level and share it with your friends and laugh about how hard it is. Or you can design a ridiculous enemy and see how your brother tries to deal with him. When you do a particularly good job, you can post it on the website and see how total strangers deal with your creations. I am so excited to keep playing this game I can't contain myself. It's like Lego's + your backyard x video games except the lego's are whatever shape you want, your backyard is the entire internet, and then, turn that all into a video game. This game is MIND BOGGLINGLY AWESOME.

When I was a kid we used to play "picture wars" where you'd draw stuff like this, and then imagine the battle. Well, that game has been modernized like a mo-fo.

I just want to say, after you design your own cool ship, you start grabbing dead enemies and the entire screen is filled with firing weapons and approaching enemies, and the action gets ramped up and it's just fun. Sometimes it gets so intense you just start laughing at the devastation.
This is a great game for anyone who has ever played a side scrolling shooter game (like defender or xevious) or anyone who ever drew spaceships when they were a little kid, or anyone who likes video games - diversionary games that you play just to play. No overwhelming story here.

[...]

I'm giving this a 5 out of 5 personally, but I know there are some people who just want to watch their games like movies, or throw balls with the wii-remote. This isn't the game for you if you don't like to *play*.

I'd say this game reminds you or rekindles the true spirit of play. If this had come out in 1982 the world might have imploded. It still might.

There is also no end to this game. You can design, redesign, share, compete and laugh. to me, the more people who buy this game the better. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. I think this one is a sure classic. In what has been an incredible year for video games, Blast Works is currently the far and away favorite in my house. (Dethroning Boom Blox and GTA 1V).
Originality A
Fun A+
Replayability A+ * 10,000

Buy a Wii just so you can own this game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is by far one of the most unique and intelligent games I've played in some time. The ability to share your creations online at blastworksdepot.com provides amazing replayability. For a better review read the post above me but believe me, EVERYONE who owns a Wii should get this game!!!

If It Ain't Broke... Don't Fix It

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Blast Works is a game that, well, works. It's got high intense action like the arcade games of the 80's with a few extra twists thrown in there for good measure. It's a game that's simple to pick up and play but it actually manages to be challenging enough as well. The simplicity itself is probably why it's so good.

There's no real story to Blast Works but the concept is good. Take a simple arcade stylized game and vamp it up. You fly from one end of the level to the other, blowing up all the enemies that get in your way. Enemy ships usually clutter the screen, firing at you from almost everywhere. Precise movements are a must. As you destroy enemy ships, though, you can collect debris and fallen enemies to add to your ship. To the point where it takes up the whole screen. It can feel extremely cramped as a result, but you can retract it whenever you need to. Enemies can also destroy whatever it is you've collected and attached to your ship.

As you can imagine, the game isn't exactly long. It's very short as a matter of fact. That can make its price a little hard to swallow. However, you can create your own levels, enemies and even upload them online and share them. This means, of course, you can also download other creations.

Like many Wii games, Blast Works graphics are good because of the style more so than being cutting edge technology. The polygons help to bring out the best in the games style. And despite how much clutter gets on screen it almost never slows down. It's certainly not cutting edge technology and you can even find several Wii games that look better, but at the very least it doesn't look generic. The style is actually quite pleasing and attractive. It's another Wii game that shows that style is just as important as looking good. And Blast Works definitely has style and it's style definitely makes it look good.

Blast Works old school charm and simple gameplay make it a good game. However, another thing that helps it out is that it's actually reasonably challenging. There will be some gamers who will have a reasonably easy time getting through the game, but on the higher difficulty levels, even some of the most experienced gamers might have some trouble. It may be short but there's a lot of replay here as well.

Blast Works is simple and fun. If you've got a Wii and are looking for some rather addictive action, then Blast Works is the perfect game.

Katamari Juggling in Space!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Blast Works is a simple shooter (aim right, blast everything, dodge bullets) but with a strategic twist. Enemy weapons, missiles, even enemy ships can be added to your ship on the fly. As your fighter shoots them down, you can swoop in and touch those same ships and they stick like glue to your ship. Their weapons keep on firing, often in random directions, but some have homing missiles or simply shoot forward. And as such, your ship gets bigger and bigger with more and more firepower.

At the core is your very small fighter, but when you pick up debris a shield is built around your ship. Meanwhile, bullets from enemies can blast off newly aquired parts, so you're constantly juggling your ever changing inventory of shields and weapons. All this with just one controller button. No inventory screens to sift through, no pausing to make changes, it just sticks and shoots.

It's very satisfying blowing a giant cannon off of an enemy boss ship, only to mount it on the front of your ship and finish them off with it.

The gameplay is very simple, but fun. As with many space shooters, the difficulty ramps up quickly as you find yourself facing a screen full of bullets by only the second level, as such inexperienced gamers beware.

Easy to play, but with lots of depth for ongoing play value. And you can trade ships with friends via a massive create mode! Great budget game, but I find the $40 price tag a bit much for casual gamers.

Not for the casual crowd.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The first reviewer highlighted all the good aspects of the game, and I agree with that review. Now take some time to consider the bad.

You better be a seasoned side scrolling shooter vet before picking this one up because even on the easiest setting, this game is hard. The dead enemies you collect and add to your ship will soon get in your way since they rarely land where they are any use to you. You will die with just a few blows to your fragile contraption and once your lives are exhausted, it's all the way back to the beginning of the level since there are no checkpoints. I like a challenging game but they should have toned down the difficulty for the rookie setting to make this game fun for beginners. My 10 year old cousin played it for over an hour and could not get past the first level. Yes, he fully understood the controls and he plays lots of video games. So if your a hardcore side scrolling shooter fan, this one is for you. If not, you've been warned.

My son loves this game but...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My son loves this game, but it locks up periodically. Does anyone else have this problem? Or perhaps we received a defective one?

Only if you plan to build your own levels ...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I didn't know much about this game going in, but I'd heard good things about it and decided to pick it up because Best Buy was practically giving it away. As of this writing (7/30/08), they're selling it in stores for half the price that Amazon has it listed.

I will say this about the game.. it has a pretty extensive level editor where you can design everything from the ships to the bullets to the enemies, and everything in between. Not only can you design your own levels, but you can also trade with people or download from others.

The problem is, that's about the only thing this game has going for it, because the gameply is pretty sub-par. The horizontal shooting genre has been done to death, and the ability to collect fallen enemies and add them to your ship is a novelty that wears off pretty quickly. But hey, don't take my word for it... do a search for this game on Youtube and see if the videos do anything for you.

My recommendation: if you like the idea of building your own stuff, you're probably going to get a lot of mileage out of it. Otherwise, I wouldn't pay more than 10 dollars for this. As for me, I am a casual gamer who doesn't play a lot, so even if I didn't have games on the shelf I haven't finished yet that are a lot more fun than this, it is doubtful I would take the time required in the editor to actually build something interesting.

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