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One of the more plesant surprises of last year was EA’s Boom Blox. Not only was it made by action-epic movie director Steven Spielburg but it was a puzzle game invovling blocks. Despite all the elements for a disaster being present, Boom Blox was easily the best game of last year to come out on Nintendo’s white box.

Bash Party is the follow up and definitely makes up for any complaints you might have had last time around. For those that should be named and shamed because they didn’t play the original, the concept is simple. You throw at, pick at and shoot at various block based structures to achieve one of a plethora of ever changing objectives. Boom Blox never really had the embellished feature list but it got the fundamentals of game design almost perfect.

That’s where Bash Party comes in. The gameplay is thankfully left untouched and the only thing Bash Party really adds to that side of the game is more objectives and ways of interactive with the blocks. New challenges generally come in the form of new location centric ideas like zero-gravity space themed offerings and something that is essentially underwater Jenga. They all fit into the game seamlessly as each one uses the same perfect control scheme but in new and interesting ways.

Actually the only one that doesn’t slot into the game as smoothly as it should are the cannon based challenges. Here you have to light, then aim a cannon at another ship full of blocks and it just feels to similar to previous modes albeit with gimped cannon controls. Nevertheless the extra variation in game types has taken the game far from a decent version of Jenga.

Another gripe you could have with the original was the limited number of levels despite being able to create and share your own levels with friends. Luckily this time EA have ditched the horrible friend code system that Nintendo have adopted and instead Bash Party comes complete with that ever illusive ‘YouTube of Levels’. Sure EA have to have harsh moderation and first option in place but it’s a small price to pay for what should be endless free content. EA have even done a great job of creating their own levels for this budding community and it’s small things like this that really go along way for the games longevity.

Bash Party’s presentation isn’t great though. Not only does it still have that over-the-top and distracting cartoon vibe done in an even more irritating and overbearing style but it also has intimidating and confusing menus. You’ll be treated to what looks like a theme park with incredibly vague and randomly organized modes. It’s not really necessary and it suddenly becomes incredibly difficult for you to just find a mode to jump into it. It would make sense if from this story mode you could branch out into free play mode that has an easy to access list of all game modes. For something that’s meant to be for everyone they stick a giant barrier to entry from the get-go.

Otherwise this game has been left untouched. The multiplayer is still brilliant and incredibly tense for something that really shouldn’t be. New Co-Op modes along with all the new challenges being available in multiplayer further extend the life of the game. Nintendo’s concept of the whole family playing has again been realised by EA.

Bash Party adds enough new ideas and features to bring you back for more and if you never played the original Bash Party’s controls are still incredibly accessible and instantly enjoyable. Veterans of the series might doubt the need for another Boom Blox game so soon after the original but the inclusion of extra downloadable levels makes this more than worthy. Although you might wonder why the original didn’t include these obvious additions.