Annoyingly addictive game alert.

[Eric]

http://www.bored.com/boomshine/

[SineSwiper]

Sounds like a much lamer version of Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4).

Trust me. Just go to XBox Live Arcade, buy the fucking game, and play it. It's the same guy who did Rez.

EDIT: BTW, I got 255 points. Just makes me want to play E4, though.

[Zeus]

Sounds like a much lamer version of Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4).

Trust me. Just go to XBox Live Arcade, buy the fucking game, and play it. It's the same guy who did Rez.

EDIT: BTW, I got 255 points. Just makes me want to play E4, though.

I grabbed the Trial version of it. Somehow I got a trillion points, not sure how. I honestly had very little idea what I was doing.

And I prefer the regular game over the Geometry Wars clone. Still haven't decided if I want to buy it yet, though. BTW, what's the "Extreme" part? What does it have over the PSP version?

[SineSwiper]

Not sure. Never played the PSP version. Though, the Wiz Yer Muzak thing is fun. You get to feed it your own song, and it beat-matches, etc. I got 121 (or so) trillion with one song, which put me #21 place in the weeklys, and around #156 in the all-time. (Word of advice: You will get bored of your song rather quickly, no matter which song it is.)

Playing the game is fairly simple. You basically hit the bomb and let it explode out. The location isn't very important later on, though if you do it in a complete open space, you're likely not going to get anywhere. The key factor of the entire game is DO NOT DIE. Your goal is to collect the power ups before your shield runs out, and then just immediately hit the bomb anywhere. It is better to hit the bomb prematurely than to let your shield run out and you die. When you die, ALL of your multipliers that you spent many minutes building go down the drain.

As far as power-ups, I prefer white ones first (shield up), then yellow (time up), and then the red/blue ones (quicken and multiplier). Remember not to get greedy (again, dying blows), especially if you don't have any whites to collect (maybe 3-4 seconds), and learn to stop your explosions. If you're trying to get more time (the clock is getting too low), just wait for a few yellows to pop out, stop the explosion, and continue doing that for a while. In fact, when you're getting good, just keep doing that for a while except when you happen to beat match, since the multipliers do give out a good score.

On that super long game, I reached the max 100x multiplier, but my song was out of sync somehow, so it was hard to beat-match. But, basically, that's the key to getting the real high scores: 100x and the 5x max you can get on beat match earns you about 10 trillion on a good explosion. Don't worry about the beat match early on, though, since you can really screw up and die waiting for the next beat.

[SineSwiper]

Speaking of puzzle games, Shellie and I managed to get about 221K in Hexic. Somebody try to beat that :)

Also, the music soundtrack is available for free download. It's a really neat ambient soundtrack.

[Zeus]

Speaking of puzzle games, Shellie and I managed to get about 221K in Hexic. Somebody try to beat that

Also, the music soundtrack is available for free download. It's a really neat ambient soundtrack.

Hexic bored me after a while. I played it one night for a few hours then a couple of times here and there after that. That's about it. I'm not a fan of random puzzlers, hence my dislike for Bejeweled (and, by extension, Puzzle Quest).

Puzzlers should be something you have control over at all times with a very minor random element that increases difficulty and NEVER makes it so you can't get out of it unless you trap yourself (like Tetris). Tetris Attack, the puzzle game all puzzle games are judged against, had the perfect mixture. Hexic and Bejeweled? Not so much.

[SineSwiper]

Yeah, that's the only thing I don't like about the game: bomb placement. There should be some level of logic put in place to make sure that the bombs are at least solvable.

[Zeus]

Yeah, that's the only thing I don't like about the game: bomb placement. There should be some level of logic put in place to make sure that the bombs are at least solvable.

Not just that, why can't I essentially move pieces across the board? I can only twist them to create the three set or better in that exact spot. That's stupid, if we could move them it would take the game from being random to being strategic.

[SineSwiper]

Not just that, why can't I essentially move pieces across the board? I can only twist them to create the three set or better in that exact spot. That's stupid, if we could move them it would take the game from being random to being strategic.

After playing it a bit more and getting some mad scores, I'm convinced that they give you a way to clear out the bombs, and it's not random. There's always some pathway to get your bomb cleared, but you can't just rush in and try to destroy it. As soon as you get it, don't do anything until you figure out how to remove it.

Also, the game is more in depth than just moving jewels in a three set. However, in order to get that depth, you have to make stars and pearls. You have to make this your goal throughout the game. Hell, even the hints tell you that it's easier to get one in the beginning levels. (Once you get to the harder levels, it's easier to make others as long as you have a few stars already.)

[Zeus]

Not just that, why can't I essentially move pieces across the board? I can only twist them to create the three set or better in that exact spot. That's stupid, if we could move them it would take the game from being random to being strategic.

After playing it a bit more and getting some mad scores, I'm convinced that they give you a way to clear out the bombs, and it's not random. There's always some pathway to get your bomb cleared, but you can't just rush in and try to destroy it. As soon as you get it, don't do anything until you figure out how to remove it.

Also, the game is more in depth than just moving jewels in a three set. However, in order to get that depth, you have to make stars and pearls. You have to make this your goal throughout the game. Hell, even the hints tell you that it's easier to get one in the beginning levels. (Once you get to the harder levels, it's easier to make others as long as you have a few stars already.)

I did that. I had 7 star pieces on the board once. But the problem is, I can't move them together to create a pearl. So they just sat there as I wait for the right combination of pieces to come together so I can move the star pieces together. It's not like I had any control over it, it's a great deal of luck, hoping things line up. Sure you have SOME control over which which pieces to clear, but it's not like you can set anything up. You just clear things - the ONLY thing you can do in the game is clear things, even Tetris had more (move and stack, 50% more gameplay options) - and try to do so in a way that you increase your chances of getting what you need.

I'm not a fan of luck-based puzzle games. That's why I didn't like Puzzle Quest or Bejewel before it. Puzzle games should be based on you been given a puzzle to solve and the tools to solve it and should not require luck. Tetris got it, Tetris Attack got it, Super Puzzle Fighter got it (with a little more luck thrown in), Portal gets it very well (first decent action puzzler since Blast Corps), but Bejeweled and Hexic just don't. I can only play those types of puzzle games for so long.

[SineSwiper]

You can move stars around just fine. You just have to get two of them together, and you can move them anywhere in the board. I do that all the time to get stars out of the bottom of the board, or just to get them to a good position to do something else.

You can also get them in a gear formation to create a six-piece star easily. Just move all of one color on one star and rotate it around to replace the trash with the same color. When you create a six-piece around a star, it creates the star at the top, so it's both the best way to create a star, and ideal as it doesn't start the star in the middle or near the bottom of the board.

Sure you have SOME control over which which pieces to clear, but it's not like you can set anything up. You just clear things - the ONLY thing you can do in the game is clear things, even Tetris had more (move and stack, 50% more gameplay options) - and try to do so in a way that you increase your chances of getting what you need.

Again, you're just not playing the game right. When you have stars, you have a whole new side of depth besides "clearing stuff". Now, you can move stuff around anywhere you want, and rotate things without having to clear something out.

I'm not a fan of luck-based puzzle games. That's why I didn't like Puzzle Quest or Bejewel before it. Puzzle games should be based on you been given a puzzle to solve and the tools to solve it and should not require luck. Tetris got it, Tetris Attack got it, Super Puzzle Fighter got it (with a little more luck thrown in), Portal gets it very well (first decent action puzzler since Blast Corps), but Bejeweled and Hexic just don't. I can only play those types of puzzle games for so long.

Ummm...Tetris is based on the same amount of luck as Hexic. You don't choose what piece comes next. Everything else is under your control. If it was based on luck, why do I have a score that is 10x better than yours? Is it because I was lucky?