Boom Blox, for Ages 60 and Up

Boom Blox was an unexpected Christmas miracle. It brought the whole family together—as its members fought for control of one of the household’s two remotes.

As seen on TV, guided demos and on paper, Boom Blox is a stupid idea. You could be cruising around Liberty City shacking up with ladies of the night or slinking past giant mechs as a geriatric soldier of fortune. Why would a game player waste her precious hours smashing up virtual Jenga towers?

Most would choose not to. The game sold a mere 60,000 copies at its debut (although anecdotally it performed well in the long tail). Blox was a victim of marketing: How do you convey this game to the masses via cheesy video? You can’t. Because you have to play Boom Blox to grasp its appeal, the game is easily dismissed.

I dismissed it. I only gave it a second glance because Steven Spielberg was attached to the project.

And because my parents got a Wii for Christmas.

They don’t really play games. In fact, they did their best to run a videogame-free household. Beyond one parental unit’s obsession with Goldeneye and Civilization, and the other’s obsession with electronic Bridge, they abstain. So I raided my library for games that might get them hooked on their new system:

Mario Galaxy: No
Wii Sports: Yes
Raving Rabbids TV Party:: No
Tiger Woods All-Play: No
Boom Blox: A resounding yes.

It was amazing. My brother, bored, tossed Boom Blox in the Wii. Within minutes, my father was practically leaping from his seat to snatch the controller away. My mom was content to observe—at first. Soon she was offering unsolicited advice—commanding he pluck a particular block from the tower or blow up a certain bomb. Soon she too could no longer stand couch-side quarterbacking.

The kids relinquished the controls and sat back to watch the pair bicker as they attempted to solve the game’s puzzles.

When they found out they could play against each other, it was practically all they did for two days. Then they discovered they could instead work together—they’d be awake long past the hour the kids had retreated to their rooms, laughter and cursing ringing throughout the home.

Word is they still play it. You might even call it love.

So why isn’t there more software aimed at older players? Much of the drivel rolled out onto the Wii may be age agnostic, but that makes it neither accessible nor appealing to my parents. They both golf, but Tiger Woods is too complicated—despite the All-Play moniker. They don’t understand Raving Rabbids. And a games like Wii Music and Zelda hold no appeal.

I don’t know what Boom Blox’s secret is, but I’m glad that it has some legs. I do not the rents to give up gaming, but right now there’s nothing else to give.

Hooked on Sonics

That 16-bit speed freak Sonic the Hedgehog has an identity crisis. He used to be cool. Now that he’s all grown up, he’s turned into an asshole. He’s got a bad attitude, he’s always crashing into stuff (three dimensions doesn’t agree with him) and he continually disappoints his loyal friends.

Some might say he can’t stop reliving his glory days.

Simon Jeffrey, president of Sega of America, says it’s the other way around.

“Every Sonic game sells to the same audience, Jeffrey explained to me at the annual videogame industry confab, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. (I was, of course, on official duty at the time). “It’s mostly kids and a few insane fanboys who then spend the next three months of their lives writing us letters and complaining about it.” [Emphasis added]

That’s why he’s so excited for BioWare’s take on the Sonic franchise with Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Jeffrey’s hope is that the game will introduce the blue hedgehog to new audiences and help rebuild his street cred. It’s a pet project.

“Sonic has always been a recruitment mechanism for the Sega brand,” he says. “I guess back in the Genesis days Sonic was the mascot, but I don’t really believe in mascots in the business today. Sonic is absolutely a recruitment mechanism.”

With Sonic Chronicles Jeffrey predicts a mess of folks who would never dream of buying a Sonic game will pick it up because it’s a “cool role-playing game.” “They’re going to realize that, ‘Hey, Sonic is not so bad after-all.” He has high hopes for the title and is expecting sales of around 1.5 million units in the United States. The typical Sonic game, he says, sells about 600,000 copies.

But it’s the kids who wind up falling in love with Sonic. “They love the character set, and the whole attitude and speed thing. Once we’ve got them hooked on Sonic (not in a bad way, but a good way),” jokes Jeffrey, “then hopefully we can hook them and their families on other Sega products and Sega lines.”

Getting hooked on Sonic worked for me.

With that said, I couldn’t resist asking Jeffrey about Smilebit.

Jeffrey says the developer was responsible for some of the company’s most successful games, but noted that Sega has had “mixed success” revitalizing its classic franchises. Nights comes to mind.

Nevertheless, “pretty much everything is on the table,” he says. “We’re looking at our arcade portfolio from the golden days and, absolutely, at Smilebit.” He says there’s nothing (well “probably nothing”) in development, but they’re “on paper.”

“Jet Set Radio is the most requested [franchise] update we get,” he confides. “I’d love to see another one too. If Samba de Amigo works for us, Jet Set Radio has a pretty good chance of coming back too.”

Also see:

Sega’s Quest for Cool
Sega Q&A:’We don’t want to be Activision’