GameCyte: "This morning, at the second day of Nintendo's media event in San Francisco, there were a few new announcements for the future of WiiWare. World of Goo received a release date; we'll be seeing it the week after next on October 13th. After that, however, came an announcement of something new: RealNetworks, the digital services company behind RealPlayer, Rhapsody, and other PC-based applications, has decided to enter the console market, by way of WiiWare. Beginning with Boingz, a physics-based puzzle-platformer developed by NinjaBee, RealNetworks has plans to release a whole new product line for gamers."
Game Vortex writes:
"It's hard to sing the praises of Boingz over our disappointment with the marginal control scheme and dodgy physics. It also feels wrong to pan the game since it introduces such a neat and well thought out concept. Perhaps with Boingz 2.0, we'll see more fine-tuning of the control scheme and refinement of the physics behind stretching and launching the little Boingz. Until then, we'd classify Boingz as a curiosity, fun for adventurous souls that have Wii-Ware credits to burn or patient gamers willing to forgive some rough edges for a unique gaming experience. The challenge in recommending Boingz over some of its competition on the Wii download service is that there are a host of better realized games available for a player's dollar, such as World of Goo, the Art Style games, or something like Lost Winds. If you've played all those and still need more, you could do worse than invest in Boingz and give these stretchy little creatures a whirl. Or a spin. Or a launch."
Boingz does provide a moderate amount of challenge (especially if you aim for a gold-medal ranking in each stage), and the springy little creatures kinda get under your skin with their attentive oval eyes and adorable aimless humming. The experience just seems better suited to a browser-based Flash game than a standalone WiiWare title. No matter how you stretch it, your 1,000 Wii Points won't go very far with this one.
Boingz is a fun WiiWare game with an interesting concept and satisfyingly clever mechanics. The style, a 2D viewpoint with polygonal platforms and environments, probably won't dazzle you, especially since it comes after the gorgeous World of Goo. But stretching and shooting off the Boingz through 30 stages of platforming challenges, most of them filled with head-scratching puzzles, is reason enough to consider the project. It's certainly one of the better WiiWare games to date so if you've got the money to spare, pick it up.
Presentation - 5.0
Graphics - 6.5
Sound - 6.5
Gameplay - 8.0
Lasting Appeal - 7.0
Overall -
