Bliss Island Review (Xbox 360)

Take a quick look at the titles listed in the Xbox Live Marketplace these days and you’ll find a mix of everything under the sun. You’ve got the good, the bad and the games that just leave you asking, “What the heck were they thinking?” Bliss Island, a minigame compilation from PomPom Software and Codemasters, falls squarely into the latter category.

What some people won’t do for a day off. The inhabitants of Bliss Island, small fuzzy creatures that look like the offspring of Q-Bert and a Furby, spend their days blowing puffs of air into the sky in order to create the clouds of the world. These creatures, called Zwoophs, work hard at their jobs, bored out of their minds and just itching for a day off to relax. In order to help keep things interesting, the Zwoophs come up with a plan to set up weekly competitions. The ultimate winner of the games earns himself not only bragging rights, but the oh-so-precious prize of an extra day off.

If the plot sounds a little weak, don’t worry. It is. The story is little more than an excuse to string together a series of different minigames in a way that tries to make some sort of sense out of everything in the game’s Adventure Mode. The problem is, short of the lengthy text introduction, there’s not any development in the story. Instead, the player jumps from game to game, sometimes playing as the lead character Hoshi and then inexplicably switching to a different character, such as the gem-snatching Gastion. To say the story is lacking in depth is like saying the sky is blue and water is wet. It’s a no-brainer.



As for the minigames themselves, there are more than 25 challenges spread over the game’s nine different levels. In terms of quality, they range from somewhat mediocre to just plain bad. Usually in these types of compilations, players can find at least a few entertaining distractions, even if most of the game falls short of that mark. On Bliss Island, though, you’ll be hard pressed to find any gems in and amongst the junk. One game, Fruit Smoothie, has the player tossing fruits into the mouth of a large creature, avoiding the occasional bug. In another, Block Invaders, the player shoots a spiked ball into oncoming colored blocks, clearing one color before touching any other. The biggest problem with all of these games is that they go on far too long. Firing fruits into a giant mouth might be okay for a minute or two, but it gets repetitive quickly…and that repetition leads to aggravation just as quickly.

Thankfully, if you’re not feeling masochistic enough to trudge through the Adventure Mode, you can pick and choose which games you want to play outside of it. Even better, if you feel the urge to subject others to your torment, Bliss Island also includes a two-player, online multiplayer mode. Players can take on a friend in one of three multiplayer games: Fuzzy Football, Block Invaders and Forest Frenzy. The football game is a basic sort of soccer game, though with fuzzy Zwoophs instead of David Beckham. Block Invaders takes the single-player game and adds a multiplayer twist: instead of taking out a series of colors, one after another, each player must target only the blue or red blocks, depending on which team he is assigned to. And, finally, Forest Frenzy is a mad dash through a forest, zigging and zagging to try and be the first to pick up five fruits scattered around. The multiplayer games play well enough, but feel like they were tacked on as an afterthought.

Bliss Island is one of those games that falls apart right from the start, and never digs itself out of that hole. At its best, it’s a testament to mediocrity. At its worst, it’s a textbook case of what not to throw into a minigame collection. A weak plot, a subpar multiplayer and a relatively boring collection of games all add up make Bliss Island one place from which gamers will be eager to get rescued.

Platform:
Xbox 360
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Publisher:
Codemasters
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Developer:
PomPom Software
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Genre:
Xbox Live Arcade
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Release Date:
3/12/2008
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Game Features:
Offline Players: 1-2
Online Multiplayer
EDTV 480p Support
HDTV 720p Support
HDTV 1080i Support
Dolby 5.1 In-Game

Ratings :: None
Average :: 0
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