At first glance, a game about fireworks doesn’t sound like it would be very fun. The concept itself makes you curious, and that is enough to snare you into the addictive world of Boom Boom Rocket: a game that enhances on the proven gameplay of Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. Instead of distracting background videos, this game is set against a city in the black of night. The camera moves around and in-between buildings while fireworks shoot up from the bottom of the screen and rewards your timeliness with elaborate spark showers.
Typically, these types of games require that you use a special controller, like a dance pad or an overly expensive guitar controller. Mastering these new controllers is what transforms gameplay into an artform… because just pressing arrow keys on your keyboard or D-pad would be too easy, right?
Boom Boom Rocket changes the gameplay dynamics so that it can be played on a standard Xbox 360 controller, but still manages to be challenging. Gameplay is similar to other “rhythm” games in that you must press a button in sync with colored arrows, and there is a threshold on how accurately the arrows are triggered. Perfect timing is rewarded with more points rather than barely catching an explosion.
The arrows in Boom Boom Rocket correspond to the A, B, X and Y buttons on the Xbox 360 contoller. A yellow arrow always points up, which corresponds with the Y button (which happens to be yellow, and is the top-most button). The mapping is easy to remember and is down-right intuitive, which makes this game easy to pick up for the beginner… there’s even a “freestyle” mode were you can just bash on the controller any way you want just to see what fireworks you can make.
The regular modes have the arrows moving up towards the threshold bar in pace with the addictive dance music, and is very satisfying for a beginniner. Where things start to get really challenging is in the harder modes, where the arrows behave like bottle rockets… some arrows move slow, but then there will be one little guy that zooms to the top, usually so that you must press two buttons at the same time.
Pressing two buttons at once with one thumb is just impossible, so good players will realize that they must use two thumbs (which turns into an insane game of thumb-Twister). Just when you get comfortable is when the game decides to throw a combination that you can’t comprehend, which can end the game very quickly.
You are also graded on your performance with a letter grade (A, through F), so you can peruse the leaderboards to see how you compare against your friends (or bitter enemies). You’ll probably be playing this by yourself, and there is a great two-player split-screen mode. Unfortunately there is no Live play modes.
The soundtrack is catchy and upbeat, and are crafted to be stuck in your head for a long time. There are dance, electronica, and ska versions of classical (and even some metal) tunes, which are all completely instrumental. The gameplay isn’t a completely original idea, but Boom Boom Rocket evolves the gameplay to be fun and addictive, all without requiring a special controller.
Boom Boom Rocket is a treat for spectators as well as the player, and everyone in my family loves to watch me play this game. Who doesn’t like to watch fireworks while being bombarded with techno?
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