Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy

Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy, known in Europe as Blast Works: Build, Fuse & Destroy, is a side-scrolling shooter video game for the Wii based on the Microsoft Windows game Tumiki Fighters created by Kenta Cho.

Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy
North American box art
Developer(s)Budcat Creations
Publisher(s)Majesco Entertainment
Platform(s)Wii
Release
  • NA: June 10, 2008[1]
  • EU: April 3, 2009
  • AU: May 2009
Genre(s)Scrolling shooter
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Majesco Entertainment and Budcat Creations released the game on June 10, 2008 in North America. Blast Works' release date in Europe was delayed to April 3, 2009, and the Australian release date was said to be around May 2009.

The game features 3D graphics, with enemies and obstacles represented in the form of polygonal toy blocks and propellers. The game also introduces extensive editing tools for the player to make custom content such as entire levels from scratch.

Gameplay

The player controls an aircraft on a two-dimensional plane. As the player destroys enemies, their debris fall off the screen below. If the player manages to touch these pieces of debris with their ship before they disappear from the screen, these pieces affix themselves to the player's plane in the positions they were caught, providing extra mass and firepower.

The extra parts, which reanimate and continue to fire their own unique weapons, can serve as shields against enemy projectiles (each part breaks into pieces and falls off upon hit), and all of the augmentations can be retracted into the original ship.

There are a wide variety of different enemies, which provide varying patterns of fire and numbers of points.

TUMIKI Fighters
Main article: ABA Games

TUMIKI Fighters was first released in 2004. It is written in the D programming language, with graphics drawn with OpenGL. Unlike the rest of Kenta Cho's shooters, TUMIKI Fighters has specific levels, non-random enemy placement, and a definite ending. The game was released as free software.

The game's name is derived from the Japanese word tsumiki (積み木), meaning "building blocks"; this word may also be romanized as tumiki.

Blast Works

On June 27, 2007, Majesco Entertainment issued a press release announcing a Wii version of TUMIKI Fighters, titled Blast Works: Build, Trade & Destroy.

Added to the game is a 2-4 player cooperative mode, ship and level editors, and a "Hangar," which allows players (while inside) to purchase various ship upgrades; the building itself can be defended from attackers, via the motion controls of the Wii Remote. WiiConnect24 elements are also featured in the game, including online leaderboards and the swapping of custom ships and levels among friends.[2]

The game disc, in addition to Blast Works, also contains playable versions of rRootage, Gunroar, and Torus Trooper (other games made by Kenta Cho) as unlockables, in addition to the original TUMIKI Fighters itself.

Editor

Blast Works comes with a powerful editing tool that allows extensive customization to the game. Players can construct their own ships, enemies and bosses with the editor, as well create their own backgrounds.

When designing enemies, the player can manipulate projectile patterns, sound effects, movement patterns, hit boxes, and more in the Ship Editor portion of the Blast Works Editor. The player also has the option of fully customizing the ship that they play as. For example, the ship builder lets the player view their ship from many different angles, allowing them to add new pieces, such as wings or weapons, simply by adding shapes to their ship. The basic shapes can be combined to create even more complex constructs, and there are a few moving shapes the player can add to give their ship a bit more life. The player is also given full control over the size, shape, and color of any object they create. This ranges from their main ship to buildings created for custom levels and even enemy craft.

The level designer (the same tool the game's developers used to create the built-in levels that come with the game) also features powerful capabilities. The player can set the basics, such as color scheme or background, then drag and drop enemies into their custom level from either a list of pre-built enemies or custom ships previously created. The player can also set trigger events that can change the orientation of your ship, the behavior of enemy ships, or the movement of the game camera. The player can also add a number of different special effects to their level such as a Virtual Boy-like effect, which turns everything in the level to red and black, or a water effect, to make background oceans or the level itself appear underwater. After constructing a level, the player can preview it before importing it into the game.

Sharing content

Majesco set up a website (www.blastworksdepot.com) specifically for players to upload (after registering) and download user-created levels, shapes, objects, and enemies from the website to their Wii. Users could browse by levels, enemies, or shapes, with all content including a thumbnail preview and a rating. That website has now since been defunct.

Reception

Blast Works received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[3]

It received multiple nominations from IGN in its 2008 video game awards, including Best Shooting Game[14] and Most Innovative Design.[15]

References
  1. "MAJESCO ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES 'BLAST WORKS: BUILD, TRADE, DESTROY' HAS GONE GOLD". Majesco Entertainment. Majesco Entertainment Company. May 15, 2008. Archived from the original on June 25, 2008.
  2. Boyer, Brandon (June 27, 2007). "Majesco Announces New Wii Exclusive Blast Works". Gamasutra. UBM plc.
  3. "Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy Critic Reviews for Wii". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  4. Holmes, Jonathan (June 23, 2008). "Destructoid Review: Blast Works". Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  5. Edge staff (September 2008). "Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy". Edge. No. 192. Future plc. p. 88.
  6. Pearson, Dan (April 17, 2009). "Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  7. Helgeson, Matt (July 2008). "Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy". Game Informer. No. 183. GameStop. Archived from the original on July 1, 2008. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  8. McShea, Tom (June 23, 2008). "Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  9. Theobald, Phil (June 30, 2008). "GameSpy: Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  10. "Blast Works Review". GameTrailers. Viacom. July 3, 2008. Archived from the original on March 5, 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  11. Bedigian, Louis (June 19, 2008). "Blast Works: Build, Trade & Destroy [sic] - WII - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  12. Hatfield, Daemon (June 6, 2008). "BlastWorks [sic] Review". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  13. "Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy". Nintendo Power. Vol. 229. Future US. June 2008. p. 90.
  14. "Best of 2008: Best Shooting Game (Wii)". IGN. IGN Entertainment. December 18, 2008. Archived from the original on December 22, 2008. Retrieved December 19, 2008.
  15. "Best of 2008: Most Innovative Design (Wii)". IGN. IGN Entertainment. December 18, 2008. Archived from the original on December 22, 2008. Retrieved December 19, 2008.
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