I was basically sold on this game after seing it demoed at the Oracle shopping mall in Reading. It seemed really simple to play, which is very important for a party game, but also had the sort of infinite depth of something like Jenga. The physics engine is really quite impressive as shown in the Youtube clip. As an engineer how could I resist!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqnnXqVMlFg&feature=related
A mate is bringing a copy back from America for me (hopefully) so I should have this in my grubby little mits in a couple of weeks.
I'm really glad to see they've included a level editor too. 
I perceive this as more as a PD PC game than anything... but that YouTube raises an interesting observation around objects actually having different weights and so on.
Can't see it as an actual game though, just a toy box... an idea similar to Elebits I guess.
Its one on my short list, has been for a while... but I've gone ultra high quality on my purchases of late. Needs to be 98% quality for me to invest at the moment.
Yeah I know what you mean. I'm such a sucker for a neat idea though and this looks like it falls into that category. That combined with decent reviews really got me interested. It's the party potential too. Most of my social gaming (outside of you lot natch) involves predominately non-gamers.
In my experience Mario and Sonic at the Olympics is about as far as you can go with complexity with these types and honestly that's bordering on too complex if you include nunchucks.
I can imagine that this game will also give the perception of a level playing field. That is a newbie will probably think that they stand a good chance of winning even if they're up against someone who has put the hours in. I doubt this is the case, but the perception of possible victory is pretty much a prerequisite for a party game.
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We're all dinos here. Everyone drifts, all the time: it's impossible to drive straight. DUKE OUT!
Got this now and gave it a mini-rinse last night.
Initial impressions are that this rocks as a multiplayer game. The wife has given it the thumbs up, which is amazing! The game modes that play a bit like Jenga are actually a bit better I think than the modes where you have to knock stuff out of the stack. The tension is palpable as you try to coax a block loose without disturbing the balance of the structure as a whole. Engine wise it's everything I'd hoped for. The blocks behave as you would expect them to, with realistic friction, momentum and weight. One genius addition is a 'sampler' mode which lets you play all of the different multiplayer modes in series with minimal setup time
The quality of the single player at the moment is too early to call. All of the ingredients are there for a decent challenge, but the difficulty curve is pretty shallow. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the single player isn't turn based, which was a surprise. Everything runs in real time and based on the training it looks like there will be some puzzles that will require some well timed shots (to hit a moving target) as well as well placed shots.
Control wise it's incredibly simple. Hold down B and move the remote to shift the camera view. Point at the screen to aim. Press and hold A to lock then throw and release A to hurl a ball in.
Oh and the level editor is beautifully intuitive and simple to use.
Overall I'm really impressed, the only thing that lets it down slightly is the character design, which feels like it's trying too hard. They're simply not cute enough and don't really fit with the colourful and fun nature of the game. Hardly a deal breaker though.
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We're all dinos here. Everyone drifts, all the time: it's impossible to drive straight. DUKE OUT!
Some more impressions...
One of the multiplayer modes (I think it's called intersection) is quality. A bit like curling meets Monkey Target. Each player has 4 blocks. You take it in turns to lob a baseball at one of your blocks and slide it over the ice into the scoring zones. At the end of your turn if any of your blocks are cutting one or more scoring zones these are added to your overall score. The first player to 100 wins. Brilliant fun.
Also in the Jenga-like levels I've now realised that your turn continues until you have successfully removed a block and it hits the floor. This means you can (with skill and practice) cock around with the arrangement of the tower, remove blocks and restack them and generally be a cock. Probably not the safest of strategies, but certainly a lot of fun.
The single player game looks like it is split up into different disciplines. I'm playing through some levels now that are a bit like defender in concept. Some critters come in and try to steal gem blocks. You have to defend your stash by throwing bombs and cutting off their assault by toppling towers etc. Not too convinced by this mode, but it's quite funny.
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We're all dinos here. Everyone drifts, all the time: it's impossible to drive straight. DUKE OUT!
Based on the razz I had at yours Mads, I picked it up.
Its very entertaining, it seems to bypass the game centre of my brain and just tickles a creative / desctructive part. The controls are so well done that its not annoying and because it has this fixed pivot thing, it had a finite amount of angles to work with, making it feel less frightening than if it had the ability to strafe the camera about.
Presentation is a little too naff though... I've had enough of that font they use, the "zany game" font. Annoyging.
Think I pulled a muscle in my arm though.
Glad you're enjoying it. Some of the single player is a bit hit and miss, but the good levels make it worthwhile.
Have you tried golding all the single player... its kinda tough / impossible.
I have this on the way too, thanks to Mads' enthusiasm for it. That and Tronix putting it on offer (normally so expensive!).
Its the Beetle Adventure Racing font... wonder if it was the same guys who made it? No wait.. thats crap that was made by Pilotwings 64 people?
Anyways... umm... I've not actually started the "Adventure" mode I can't imagine what that might be.
I started out going for gold on everything, but eventually I gave up and I'm now just bronzing and silvering the really difficult levels with a view to going back and goldin' them up later.
Jib adventure mode is very very odd. The first levels are quite normal, but then it goes all wibbly with odd objectives e.g. throwing bombs at marauding gem thieves to stop them from nicking the gems from the Baas of Woolington.
Essentially the little characters start to play some part in the action as they have different attributes and abilities. It's sort of like the developers either didn't have enough faith that the core puzzle concept could carry the game or they went a bit wild with the green one night and chucked all their ideas at the game hoping at least some of them would stick.
In summary it's 'diverting'
woot sequel with DLC!
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE50S0P120090129?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews
(yes I did get this link via kotaku)
woot sequel bought and paid for (yeah been swapping out a dearth of sepia HD games for some Wii akshun recently).
So Bash Party is exactly what you think, everything is tidied up a bit, new ideas, new blox, all pretty tidy. Call it a 1.5
Not played enough (phrase of the week) but its pretty cool, the DLC integration is totally fine by the looks... no idea on the quality yet.