February 14, 2008 11:59 AM PST

Hands-on with EA and Spielberg's Boom Blox

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(Credit: EA)

EA was showing off its slate of upcoming releases to NY-based press last night. In addition to a peek at Spore, we were treated to a one on one with the Steven Spielberg and EA collaboration known as Boom Blox.

The game is primarily a puzzle-based physics simulator in which you partake in a variety of "blox" maneuvering modes. We learned how to play the game in a stage where you throw a baseball at different pieces, relying on real-world physics to knock over and blow up blox while accomplishing goals. While most of our time was spent understanding the basic fundamentals of the game, we learned that the original concept spawned mostly from Spielberg.

His idea was centered on the fact that children love to use building blocks to construct large structures, only destroy them. Boom Blox is essentially this but without the mess. The game is definitely the most physics-intense experience we've seen on the Wii. It looks a lot more accurate and complex than games that have tried to tackle physics simulation before, such as Elebits. Boom Blox may have a cartoony style, but its effects are much more in the vein of technical achievements, such as Crysis.

In the different gameplay modes in Boom Blox, we were able to try out a Jenga-like mission in which we had to carefully remove a number of pieces from a large construction, making certain not to harm the little cow creatures balancing at the top. Remove the wrong block and it all comes tumbling down. This mode was able to show us some of the most convincing Wii controls we've seen in a while. It seems that Boom Blox really takes advantage of everything the Wii has to offer as distance detection really shined here. It's clear the game was developed from the ground up specifically with the Wii's capabilities in mind.

The game will also feature a "build-your-own" mode in which players can redesign Boom Blox stages and share them with friends over the WiiConnect24 network--ultimately adding a virtually infinite gameplay experience.

Boom Blox will be a Wii exclusive title and is scheduled to ship in May.

Before covering games and gear for CNET Reviews, Jeff Bakalar dabbled in film and video production. An avid writer, reader, and gamer, Jeff is also an obsessive New Jersey Devils hockey fan. Catch him live every day as the co-host of CNET's infamous podcast, The 404.