Bombfest is a couch multiplayer game for up to four players.  You play as little Fisher-Price looking block figures and throw bombs at each other to try and knock them off the arena.  But since you are little block people, the 3-D isometric arenas are locations around a house.  So you’ll fight on a dinner table, tree stump, kitchen sink, bedroom nightstand, and more!  It’s available to download on nearly all current game consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

The first thing you’ll do is pick your character.  All the characters look pretty much the same, just with different colors.  You’ll then have a chance to practice before entering the doggie door into the house.  Play control is easy.  Move around with the left stick, pick up and throw bombs with one button, and dive out of the way with another.  Bombs will explode after a while, and can even cause chain reactions with nearby bombs.  If you are caught in the explosion, you’ll get sent flying, and if you fall off the arena, you’ll lose.  But even if you get thrown off the stage, you’ll come back as a controllable bomb to mess up the other players!  Whoever is the last one standing wins the most points, but you can get points by doing other things, too.  Whoever has the most points after a certain number of rounds, wins.

By playing the game a certain number of rounds, you’ll unlock things like new block people to play as, stages, and bombs.  Some of these bombs include ice bombs that freeze others, sticky bombs to slow you down, and more.  In the options menu you can also toggle things like what bombs will appear, what stages you’ll tackle, different rules, among other things.  I only had a couple of small problems with the game.  While you can play single player with three other computer opponents, the game is much more fun with other human players.  And the game is a bit pricey at 20 bucks.  But other than that, this is a pretty fun little couch multiplayer game that anyone can pick up and play.

Kid Factor:

Bombfest is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.  You pick up and throw exploding bombs at others, but explosions just send block figures flying with no indication that they are in pain or anything, so it’s not bad at all.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, but not necessary just to play.  Great for family get-togethers.

Tags: Game Reviews