For as much fun as Boom Blox is alone, it’s even better with friends. The game offers both competitive and cooperative modes, so you can attack the puzzles in any way you wish. While some of the shooting gallery events put all the players on the same screen at once, most of the other modes are turn-based, with each person trying to successfully knock out a block or remove a piece of the tower without sending the whole thing over. These modes make for great opportunities to trash talk other players (or offer reassurance in co-op) as they intently pour every facet of their concentration into making sure all of their on-screen movements are just right. Of course, you could just quickly yank their Wiimote as they try and remove a block, but that’s cheating, and cheaters get beatdowns.

Boom Blox even has something for aspiring game designers, as the Create mode allows you to create and finagle puzzles to your heart’s content. In the creator, you have the option of either importing an existing level to tweak and modify, or you can start with a blank canvas and create you dream level from the ground up. The creator gives you a full compliment of blox, balls, and backdrops, and playing through the single-player levels unlock even more tools. Best of all, when you finally create your masterpiece, you can share it with friends online and let them see if they can best your fiendish challenge. The only thing missing is the ability to put levels on WiiWare and let everyone share their creations with everyone else, but if you have enough creative friends with this game, they can likely keep you entertained for days anyway.

The only area where the game suffers any real setbacks is in its presentation, with frame rate chugs and blasé music ruling the roost. From a graphical standpoint, the game isn’t all that amazing to look at, but then how many Wii games are? The real hang-up comes during particularly intense explosions, as the game struggles to crunch the numbers needed for the physics calculations it brings things grinding almost to a halt. It becomes pretty obvious that while the Havok engine does a great job determining everything from the velocity of a falling block to the spin imparted on objects tagged in the corner, it is simply too much for the Wii to keep up with in this instance. Some would say that if such a case exists, then the developers should have dialed back on details in other areas of the visuals, but the truth is that they already have; the backgrounds and characters adorning the levels really can’t get much simpler than they already are.

The sound is equally unimpressive, with peppy-but-boring music making up the majority of the soundtrack. The sound effects provided by the animal characters that pervade the game are good for a chuckle (listening to a cow or sheep freak out when hit by a ball is priceless), but there just isn’t really much here. While I wasn’t expecting a John Williams score, I was hoping for something a bit more lively and interesting.

In spite of these minor gripes, however, Boom Blox stands head and shoulders above its competition in the casual market, offering one of the most fun and challenging experiences I’ve ever seen on the Wii. The sheer number of levels, along with their constantly varying objectives, makes sure the game never bogs down, and the multiplayer is just as fun and addictive as anything you’ll find in bigger name titles like Super Smash Bros. Brawl. So while we wait for the next Metroid or Mario title, I sure wouldn’t mind another helping of Boom Blox, as well as a whole lot less of the other drivel that’s out there.