Boom Blox is about as strange of a video game as they come. Five years ago, this game would have never seen the light of day, but in today’s market for casual gaming, and with the name Steven Spielberg behind the title, Boom Blox manages to not only make it to market, but deliver an experience completely fresh and unique.

At its heart, Boom Blox is simply a collection physics-based puzzle games, where the player is tasked with knocking down certain blox while keeping others standing. Tossing a variety of balls or bombs is genuinely fun on its own, if for no other reason than to see massive towers of stacked blox come crumbling down, but what really gives the game legs is its delicate use of the Wii Remote. Projectiles can be thrown at one of three speeds, depending on the movement of the player’s arm, and each speed affects the towers differently, much like one would expect in a real life scenario. This gives a surprising depth to the gameplay, with throws of different speeds required for certain objectives. The player can also grab blox, which adds a layer of Jenga-like puzzles to explore.

None of this would be fun were the physics not up to the task of handling all of the falling objects. Thankfully, by using the Havok engine, the developers have cut down the awkward physics to almost none. There will still be some moments of “why didn’t that fall?!”, but for the most part you feel fully in control of the action.

The game mixes in blox with special features (such as vanishing or exploding) along with a plethora of different challenges in its adventure mode. The challenges are either hit-or-miss, and, due to the required dexterity with the Wii Remote, it’s generally the timed ones that involve throwing projectiles which are of the miss variety. Rather annoyingly, Boom Blox takes a linear path, requiring the player to beat one puzzle before advancing to the next. This makes frustrating puzzles doubly so, as it is easy at times to get stuck.

Those problems are easily washed over, though, by the intensely fun multiplayer. While essentially just variations of single player modes, the multiplayer is surprisingly addictive. It may not sound it, but grabbing, throwing, and shooting rectangular prisms is capable of generating more screams of delight than any other game this year. Another neat feature that will further extend the game’s life is its editor. While I didn’t have the patience to create entire levels on my own, it’s cool to know that there is a robust mode for those that enjoy that sort of thing. Even cooler, the rest of us can mooch off of those people’s hard work by simply downloading their levels and playing them ourselves — definitely one of the better uses of the Wii’s online functionality.

While it may not be Game of the Year quality, Boom Blox can still give us a fun time. The single player will keep you busy for a while, and the multiplayer and level editor will extend the game’s replayability immensely. If you have a Wii and are looking for an experience that feels more new than some of the console’s recent outings, this game offers some great blox to fill that void.