Blow It Up Xbox Series X Review 7.5/10 "A bomb-based physics title that certainly isn’t a dud!" 💣💥@brainseal #IndieGame #GameDev

Having been a fan of Brain Seal Ltd since I was introduced to them via the wonderful Dark Quest 3, I was intrigued as to what their take on a bomb-centric physics title would be, and would it be enough to take my mind off the hope of a further Dark Quest sequel?

Yes, yes it could!

Blow It Up takes place in Bombtopia, a world populated by voxel bombs that is suddenly taken over by invaders. Your friends are captured, and you must travel the overworld, collecting enough coins to free your friends – all of whom have a special power that can aid you – all the while completing stages by hurling one (or more!)  of your explosive team members into the various structures that hide the fiendish enemies in each level.

A 2.5D game created through the often-impressive magic of voxels, Blow It Up is set in two parts, each very simple and arcade-like to pick up, but fun to explore. In the initial overworld, you wander around rescuing your friends from cages by paying off enemies with coins, before finding one of the many scattered stages in each area that needs to be cleared.

If you are lucky, you’ll also spot a few hidden coins in the bushes and mines etc. This part of the game is pretty straightforward and acts as a mostly linear level select phase; and curiously plays a looping, jaunty version of ‘Pop Goes The Weasel’, and as much as I enjoy the tune - and my young son singing along with it - it did get a little tiring after a while, and I found myself yearning for a change in tune. Whilst the track adds to the slightly Lemmings-esque vibe of the game, a handful of catchy public domain tunes would have mixed things up considerably and made the experience feel slightly less repetitive on the sonic side of things.

In the main ‘meat ‘n potatoes’ part of Blow It Up, you begin the stage on the left-hand side and must choose your team member – all of which have specific abilities – and try to take out all of the invading enemies that are hidden in the simple, towering structures on the right-hand side of the screen. Do you use Jetty, who can drop bombs from his biplane-like form, before the inevitable kamikaze crash? Perhaps Gunny would be handier? Peppering his bullets through buildings to hit that hidden box of TNT to rock the foundations, bringing the whole shebang down in one fell swoop?

The fewer rounds you use to complete the level, the higher your ranking will be, netting you a bronze, silver, or gold trophy. It’s a simple and compulsive game that lends itself to short sessions of arcade fun.

Whilst the music is upbeat and the voxel visuals are perfect for this kind of mini destruction, there are a few areas that could do with a touch of tweaking:

• Aside from the repetitive overworld music, whilst the game is mostly smooth, there’s an odd, slight judder to the aiming that feels like it could be a touch smoother. It’s not a big deal, but the rest of the game is so smooth that it does stand out. Luckily, this is not a game that relies on absolute perfect trajectory and nuance.
• The other thing is that the enemies are often the same colour as the grassy areas the buildings are built on, so it can be hard to see that final slightly hidden enemy or two, if they stood out a little more in terms of their colour palette, it would be a slightly breezier experience.
• The final thing is the slight delay in failing a round and restarting it, if you are unsuccessful at a stage, there’s no way of instantly trying again, instead you are taken back to the overworld and must re-select the level. It’s only a space of a few seconds, but I’d really prefer a ‘try again or return to the level select’ option after failing, as each stage only takes a minute or two anyway, and you’ll often need multiple attempts at each one.

SUMMARY

Blow It Up is a game that is great fun for all the family that can teach youngsters all about physics whilst being explosive fun at the same time, just be prepared to yearn for How Much is that Doggie in the Window after a while.

7.5/10

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