Boom Boom Rocket
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Bizarre Creations
MS Points: 800 points ($10.00 USD)
I really tried to get more out of Boom Boom Rocket after I played through the game's ten songs, saw lots of pretty fireworks and earned some achievement points. Hooking up a Guitar Hero II controller didn't help much, and it's a bit too fast for me to handle with a dance pad. If you're anything like me, you enjoy rhythm games, but you also need to enjoy the music behind them. I just wasn't enamored with the remixed versions of classics like Hall of the Mountain King and the William Tell Overture. The originals are great pieces of music but your enjoyment of this game will hinge entirely upon your stomach for the composer's reinterpretations of pieces like Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. The ten songs currently available don't leave room for much variety, though.
The game itself is an easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master rhythm game that will challenge both your ability to keep a beat and your ability to precisely time your button presses. This isn't like Guitar Hero where you get a simple hit or miss for each note. You can nail a note precisely for more points, but if you're off by a fraction of a second you may get a good or ok ranking instead, giving you fewer total points. The only way to nail those A rankings on medium or higher difficulty songs is to get the perfect timings down, as well as knowing when to activate your bonus meter. It's definitely challenging, even if the visuals are pretty much the same cityscape across every song, save for some unique fireworks.
You may want to play Boom Boom Rocket once or twice to see what it's all about, but at ten dollars, we're giving this a thumbs down. Stick to the trial.
3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures
Publisher: Sierra Online
Developer: Wanako Games
MS Points: 800 points ($10.00 USD)
What a great title. I'm already looking forward to the sequel, Super Mega Awesome Virtual Golf Quest, supposedly due out sometime next year. The name alone would have earned the thumbs up from us, but this is actually a really fun little game of putt-putt. There are multiple control schemes, but the default hold-and-release method works just great for making all of the difficult trick shots you'll need to master to get a hole-in-one on every stage.
It's not all perfect, though. There are only two courses to speak of, Traveler and Explorer, with a final 36-hole course being the previous two stacked back-to-back. The online play is a blast, though, basically boiling down to how well players remember how to approach each hole's secret strategies. The addition of fun power-ups to the multiplayer game is a nice touch as well, particularly when you get to blow up an opponent's ball. The achievements come quickly and easily, and our only gripe is that the single-player game can be saved and reloaded at will, which totally throws the leaderboards out of whack. Ignore them.
This would be a much better deal if there were more than 36 holes, but we'll still recommend it, even if it's a bit pricy at 800 points. The online play is too much fun to pass up on. Thumbs up.
Gyruss
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Digital Eclipse
MS Points: 400 points ($5.00 USD)
Konami's classic 3D shooter will have you spinning around and around doing your best impression of The Last Starfighter. Fighting off waves of enemy ships in a cylindrical version of space is more fun than it sounds, and the gameplay holds up after all these years, as many shooters do. The enhanced visuals are a nice touch, but the classic version of the game is equally playable. Getting past Mars is one heck of a challenge, but if you're having trouble you can try playing Co-op instead.
Gyruss is fun. The online play, though sometimes laggy, generally works well. Good enough for us. Thumbs up.
