Smart Bomb - PSP Home, Your #1 PSP Stop For All Things Sony PSP

psphome · 10-10-2006, 12:09 PM

Version needed: 1.50
Players: 1-4
Wi-Fi Compatible: Ad Hoc

After playing the game for a short while, you can see that this isn’t a puzzler that’ll have you scratching your head. The plot is very basic and straightforward too: you’re an agent for a Bomb Disposal Unit who is trying to find out who the person is that is planting the bombs, whilst diffusing the bombs that have been placed all around the world.

Each bomb is made up of a series of puzzles that you’ll need to solve before actually disarming the bomb. There is a timer that’s counting down even when you’re choosing which one to start with so you need to choose quickly otherwise the bomb will explode. When you first start tackling the puzzles, a tutorial explains how to complete the task and solve the puzzle. This comes in quite handy, as there are quite a few new puzzles that appear as you diffuse each bomb. There isn’t very much time to solve the puzzles so they need to be done as quickly as possible so you can move onto the next and then finally onto the bomb itself.

The graphics aren’t exactly going to take your breath away. Some of the visuals will look as great as Playstation One graphics, which isn’t bad, but we’ve come a long way in gaming since then, so it’s hardly anything to be impressed with. There isn’t anything really striking about its quality: it’s not something you would say is aesthetically pleasing, but it’s not something that hinders the gameplay.

There is some variety in the puzzles. One will have you trying to match the symbols that are moving across the screen where you need to press the right buttons at the right time. Another will see you taking control of a toy car by working out which way it needs to go to collect all the energy cells, moving the directions around so they’re in the correct order and pressing play to activate the car. These levels seem to appear very frequently in the game but each time they reappear they are progressively more difficult. Its repetitiveness isn’t something that’ll leave you wanting to diffuse the bombs all over again, but new puzzles do appear quite often so you’re more likely to play those in challenge mode where you can aim for a high score.

The controls can be a little cumbersome sometimes, especially if you’re on levels like the one where you need to move the cogs around and turn the handle at the end, or the level where you need to get the marbles to the right places; they are fiddly and messing around with them means you’re wasting the little time you have. Apart from that, it makes good use of almost all the buttons and for the majority of the time you’re playing it is fairly easy to control.

One of the major problems with Smart Bomb is the loading times. When you first load the game it takes a while before you get to the title screen, then you have to wait even longer while it loads the bomb. This wait is only something you have to do when you first begin the level, but if you lose there’s yet another loading screen just after the bomb explodes, which takes a while before you’re finally allowed to restart the level. This becomes very annoying if you’re stuck on a particular level and have to keep restarting, and if you’re spending as much time playing as you are waiting for it to load, you may lose interest in it fairly quickly.

Because there isn’t that much variety within Single Player mode, there’s not a lot that can be done with multiplayer. Ad Hoc allows you to compete against up to three other players to win points or to be the first to disarm a bomb, which can be fun, but there are very few modes to choose from so it gets dull after a while.

Smart Bomb doesn’t have a lot of great qualities about it but the puzzles are quite entertaining, even if the storyline isn’t. The difficulty is about average so while it is quite challenging to some, it may not reach the standards for puzzle fans. And if the loading times weren’t an issue, then it might be a bit more enjoyable. It might be worth picking up if you can buy the game in a sale, but otherwise there are better puzzlers out there with more depth that are more worthy of your hard-earned cash.

Overall: 57%

Posted on 10/10/06 by Steph