Boingz
Score: 78% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: RealNetworks Developer: NinjaBee Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Arcade/ Family/ Platformer
Graphics & Sound: We've played enough games set in Bikini Bottom to know an homage to SpongeBob when we see it. Okay, we understand that Boingz has nothing to do with SpongeBob or his world, but if the shoe fits... Bright and colorful settings with loads of character and mirth don't make Boingz a derivative game, unless you consider most casual games as derivative. You do? Okay, we'll take another approach on this, then. Boingz has a lot going for it in many departments, including its visual style. A better comparison would be to Worms or Lemmings, where you are always navigating only a small part of the larger game environment. Boingz makes it simple to draw out from the action, with two settings that show you some or all of the level. It's a shame there isn't a free-move option to let you scan through all parts of the level at a close level of detail. What you can do that is impossible in a game like Worms is explore freely without fear of getting stuck. These are some mobile, springy little creatures. Very little music features in the busy environments, so you can tune into the sound of Boingz constantly snapping and bouncing. Each time you trigger one of the creature's wild flights through the air, you're rewarded with a satisfying thump; the setup sounds much like drawing back a fat rubber band or balloon in preparation for launch. The creatures themselves will occasionally utter a funny sound or exclamation, but Boingz doesn't do much in the world of sound and music. This is actually a shame, since a good audio setting might have added quite a bit to the formula. Simplicity rules the day, which at least in the world of visual design, is a real boon.
Gameplay: Simple controls translate to grab-and-play dynamics, a nice thing for any Wii gamer. Boingz makes it simple to grasp the gameplay mechanics through the first third of the game, using diagrams and simple puzzles. The point of the game initially is to learn how you move characters and interact with your world. The progression toward harder, more intricate puzzles happens in the latter 2/3 of Boingz, especially in the higher levels. The stretchy character design is aiming for more than just cuteness. Turns out that each Boingz has the ability to bend and stretch in one direction, only to fly off in the opposite direction once released. Think of those rubber band "guns" you made as a kid by wrapping one end around your finger and letting go once the band was fully taught. Each area in the game features a series of puzzles that depend on the stretching abilities of the Boingz, and require coordinated effort. Working solo is only good for the first few levels, unofficially the game's tutorial. Hitting the middle third of Boingz means you'll have to think hard about the way you'll use each Boingz in the level to solve some hard puzzles. The goal of every level is to move Boingz in a level to their color-coded exit point. In this way, Boingz reminds us of another game with bold visual design, Exit. Standing between your Boingz and their exits are many environmental hazards and limitations imposed by the Boingz's unique means of transportation. The little guys have limited power to jump, so longer gaps require that you master stretching your Boingz to send him flying to his destination, or use some environmental "assist." Executing the launches becomes challenging in places due to the game's design, and doesn't control as well as we'd like on the Wii-mote and Nunchuk. Using the resources of the Wii to execute an idea like this is a great, creative stroke by the developer, but too often the controls feel clunky and in the way. Boingz makes good use of its concept in the design and execution of each level, but with only 30 levels available, this isn't a long-lived trend.
Difficulty: You'd like to spend time playing a puzzle game with complete focus on the intellectual challenge. Controllers and game consoles are just windows into the creative minds that cooked up these crafty puzzles in the first place, so we don't like to spend much time grappling with the hardware. The Wii has successfully created a revolution in gaming that unfortunately carries with it some baggage. Any core gamer had become the master years ago of a standard console controller. Trace it back to the PlayStation's Double Shock or perhaps the inspired design of older console hardware like the Dreamcast and N64, but it quickly becomes clear that the last decade in gaming controllers was defined by the joystick (previously dominant) being subordinated to one or two little analog sticks. The surrounding mass of buttons heralded an approach to gaming that favored trained experts, the kids of the '70s that grew up on successively better and better hardware. What Nintendo did a few years back was completely disruptive; they upended the notion that to play games required some type of hardware apriori, and introduced a control scheme so simple a child or grandparent could master it. And master it they did... in droves. The net result of this revolution is mostly positive, but we are probably still in the early days of developers mastering this hardware and squeezing out its full potential. Boingz contains some masterful attempts to model the physics of a stretching object that conveys its accumulated force in the opposite direction when released or "unstretched." One problem is that there are physical limitations on the screen and control nuances that prevent consistent stretching. We would have done better to have fixed increments of stretch than the open-ended scheme of grabbing with the Wii-mote and pulling. Ninjabee hedged its bets by allowing players to use the stick on the Nunchuk to correct the midair flight of a Boingz. At times, this is a help, at others a hindrance. Too often, you'll pull back the Boingz and release it, then jog the Nunchuk stick and totally blow your trajectory. Other times, you'll pull off a perfect flight, but fail to stick the landing or overshoot, and be forced to redo. The idea of a redo is fine in gaming as long as it involves you learning or increasing your skill. The Boingz version of redo unfortunately has more to do with the shifty controls and design idiosyncrasies, making it a source of great frustration.
Game Mechanics: Playing a game with minimal instruction or menu-clutter is always a gift, and the layout of everything in Boingz is intuitive. Partly because of its status as a download game, Boingz can't rely on a printed manual. There is one available, but not tied directly to the game. Players quickly find that learning their way around the game's control scheme is as simple as looking around each level. Initially, cryptic little symbols and signs resolve down to instructions on how to play the game. You'll see diagrams for what to do with your Boingz, arrows pointing the way to some important object or puzzle element, and even some explicit helper-text that pops up from time-to-time. In each case, you'll be pointed back to the Wii-mote or Nunchuk, with instructions on how to do something that helps move you through the level. The basics of control involve grabbing a Boingz by its head with the (A) button and moving the Wii-mote in some direction to stretch the little thing. Releasing the (A) button launches the Boingz. Levels will contain several Boingz, and you can click to control any of them (one at a time) during gameplay. A neat mechanic that pops up in many early puzzles is "pinning" your Boingz to an object or the floor. Later puzzles involve heavy coordination of multiple Boingz, but the early levels teach you how to do things that will be important later, like pinning your Boingz to a rock so it can sink through water and navigate to otherwise inaccessible parts of the level. It's hard to sing the praises of Boingz over our disappointment with the marginal control scheme and dodgy physics. It also feels wrong to pan the game since it introduces such a neat and well thought out concept. Perhaps with Boingz 2.0, we'll see more fine-tuning of the control scheme and refinement of the physics behind stretching and launching the little Boingz. Until then, we'd classify Boingz as a curiosity, fun for adventurous souls that have Wii-Ware credits to burn or patient gamers willing to forgive some rough edges for a unique gaming experience. The challenge in recommending Boingz over some of its competition on the Wii download service is that there are a host of better realized games available for a player's dollar, such as World of Goo, the Art Style games, or something like Lost Winds. If you've played all those and still need more, you could do worse than invest in Boingz and give these stretchy little creatures a whirl. Or a spin. Or a launch...
-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock
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