CES 2007: Bust-A-Move Bash! Hands-On

January 11th, 2007, 23:23 Posted By: wraggster

via ign

Majesco brought Bust-A-Move to the DS in fine form, and now they hope to do the same thing on the Wii. But this isn't quite the Bust-A-Move you know and love. Majesco has tweaked the multiplayer game in a way that drastically changes the gameplay from previous versions.

Bust-A-Move Bash! uses the Wiimote to aim your bubble launcher. You can either use the controller as a pointer, or you can hold it upright and rotate it left and right like the launcher works. Either way, you have an aiming guide to help you out.

Bash! is multiplayer-centric like the DS version was. But instead of playing on your own area and trying to force your opponent's bubbles down to the bottom of their screen, Bash! is a timed game where everyone plays on the same field. Up to eight players can line up at the bottom and race to collect as many jewels as they can before time runs out. Jewels are scattered throughout the mess of bubbles, and you can grab them by popping bubbles adjacent to them.

UFOs have been added to Bash!'s gameplay, as well. The saucers will fly around the screen, sometimes getting in your way and sometimes giving you a useful power-up like the S bubble, which slides to the closest same-colored bubble. Items from previous Moves make a return, as well: the bowling ball which plows through bubbles, the flame ball which explodes on contact and takes adjacent bubbles with it, and the star bubble which clears the screen of all the colors equal to whichever bubble you hit.

If the game ends in a tie and you've collected the same amount of jewels as one or more of your opponents, the chains you made during play will act as a tie breaker. So there is still motivation to go for the big drops.

Single-player modes include the familiar Puzzle and Endless modes, and Majesco is toying with including a Shooting mode as well. The demonstration they gave was a little simplistic: as bubbles float across the screen you aim and shoot. But you'll have to change the color of your aiming reticule to match the color of the bubbles, so it could get pretty hectic as you're trying to pop everything on screen while constantly switching colors. The colors are mapped to directions on the D-pad, so you press the direction of the color you need to switch to, then fire. Majesco said this mode may end up being a mini-game if it doesn't turn out to be substantial enough to warrant its own mode.

Familiar characters like Bub, Bob, and Nin will be making a comeback, but we noticed some new faces on the character-selection screen that we didn't recognize like a Tiger and a Sorceress. It looks like there will be 8-10 characters to choose from.

Bust-A-Move Bash! is a frantic, fast-paced take on the classic Bobble franchise. It may take too many liberties with the formula for some, but we definitely had fun during our session today. It reminds us of Puzzle Bobble 4 in the amount of zany activity going on. Bash! will be available in April or May for $39.99, and we're excited to play more.

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