It’s something I talk about a lot, but systems like the DS and Wii are at their finest when a developer takes that extra effort to make full and imaginative use of their unique control systems. Boom Blox takes this concept to a new level of mastery – making the Wii-mote more essential in this game than most any that came before it. The sheer simplicity, backed-up by a nigh-on flawless game mechanic once again proves why the Wii was always destined to win the console war.

If you’d asked me last week whether or not an experienced film director could bring anything to a game development – particularly a puzzle-based one that contains little in the way of story or characters – I’d likely have suggested their input would be minimal. And perhaps it is. Maybe Boom Blox was always going to be a brilliant, pseudo-physical gaming experience. But there’s every bit as much chance that Spielberg’s latent, hard earned understanding of how to casually entertain the world is the ingredient X that makes this game so phenomenally playable.

In a press release, the director (who’s also an avid gamer) explains that the concept struck him when he first played the Wii, so bearing in mind that he undoubtedly saw one of the first units off Nintendo’s production line, Boom Blox has been a long time in design, if not development. And it shows. Finding a crack in the unerringly simple, yet unbelievably addictive gameplay is hard – not a graphical glitch or inequitable difficulty level can be seen, and the immediacy of its addictive nature is quite astounding.

Essentially this is a combination of Jenga, Ker-Plunk, dominoes and bar skittles all rolled into one giant wreaking system on happy pills. Vast combinations of bricks are constructed, with the simple objective of knocking them down at the core of the gameplay. Holding down the A button on the Wii-mote, then releasing as you swing (either carefully of powerfully, depending on the target) launches a ball at the loose constructions. It’s at this point that the advanced mathematics infused into Boom Blox’ coding becomes apparent. The physics engine that controls the movement of the tumbling, swaying, exploding, dissolving, flying blocks is utterly remarkable. A huge tower with enough blocks crumbles like liquid, while individual pieces bounce and ricochet about the screen; crashing into other blocks and destabilising neighbouring towers with a well placed shot.

But it’s not all about destruction. The Jenga and Ker-Plunk mechanics come into play on the levels that require you to surgically remove blox from a precarious construction without bringing the whole thing tumbling down. Again, the movement of these bricks is awe-inspiringly accurate, with an unsteady hand quickly striking the foundations of these imaginative, impossible edifices. With a variety of shooting elements, physical puzzle levels and over 300 other challenges, Boom Blox luminously returns to the raw entertainment value that first made us fall in love with videogames.

Up to four players can get involved to tamper with the precarious bricks in either co-op or versus mode, while a ‘create’ option gives addicts the chance to create their own impressive structures – then blast them into orbit. Spielberg’s first collaboration with EA presents a game that’s as close to a physical board (or puzzle) game as we’ve ever seen – although it’s certainly one that couldn’t realistically exist outside the digital domain. Setting up the game pieces would be the work of a week, and knocking them all back down probably wouldn’t be much more satisfying that it already is on the Wii. Even a trailer as ostentatious as this one only just does the game justice, and isn’t relying on clever, er… well, direction to make the action look entertaining – playing Boom Blox is just like it is in the video.

While this might all sound as though it’s aimed at the younger player, and although I hate to use this phrase, it really is ‘one for the whole family’. I can lend Boom Blox no higher praise than the fact that during its review test, my household forewent the evening movie (something that almost never happens – ever!) and threw balls at blox late into the night instead. After a gaming debut like this, Spielberg could confidently retire from movies.