Electronic Arts' Casual Entertainment Label announced the release of Boom Blox today, the first video game created in collaboration between EA and director/producer Steven Spielberg. Though the game is really designed for kids in the eight to 12 year old range, Boom Blox has also excited the interest of the adult gamer crowd and critics. That isn't just because Spielberg is one of the names behind the game's creation, though there is no doubt that helped, but because it begins to deliver some of the promise behind the Wii's intuitive controls – a new way to play.

In Boom Blox , players make their way through nearly four hundred levels of block destruction, filled with strategic challenges in single player, cooperative or versus multiplayer. The game even includes a cast of lovable little block characters, each with their own unique personalities and behaviours, like a bomb blox-laying chicken. The team doesn't bother with trying to make a story for the game though, it just lets you pick up and play, making your way through Tiki, Medieval, Frontier and Haunted theme worlds. Plus, players with the urge to create can use the intuitive in-game level creator by reinventing any of the existing levels in the game using any props, blocks or characters they have unlocked while playing, or makes their own completely original stages. They can even share their designs with friends or download other user created stages using WiiConnect24.

Create Mode

"As we developed Boom Blox , we realized that the possibilities with the puzzles were endless,” explains Louis Castle, Executive Producer. “We wanted to extend that element of wonder and discovery to players and even give them the chance to share those puzzles with their friends. We feel we’ve reached a new level of creative and immersive game play with the uniqueness of the Wii system and are looking forward to seeing what kids create.”

More Create Mode

Boom Blox is available now at retailers across North America for Wii for $49.99 USD and CAD and is rated E for Everyone. The game will be releasing in Europe on May 8 ^th , across Asia on May 13 ^th and on May 22 ^nd in Japan. There is also a mobile platform version of the game available from www.eamobile.com.