Steven Spielberg moves to the next video game level

Better known for his work on "Indiana Jones," Steven Spielberg has never been a big name as far as bits and bytes are concerned. Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, David Jaffe, Will Wright — those are the names that are associated with video game blockbusters.

As for Spielberg, he falls down the list, somewhere around the guy who created "Tetris" (Alexey Pajitnov) and the makers of "Myst" (Robyn and Rand Miller). These developers are known for their creations rather than their celebrity.

Meanwhile, Spielberg is the opposite. His name has been attached, for better or worse, to a mixed bag of projects. Some of them, such as "The Dig," are forgettable, while franchises like "Medal of Honor" have achieved retail success.

With "BOOM BLOX," his latest foray into gaming, Spielberg worked with Electronic Arts Los Angeles to create a title different from his plot-driven games. With this project, he steers away from parks full of dinosaurs or extraterrestrials, and instead, he seems to find inspiration in the versatile yet simple Lego set.

Think of the "BOOM BLOX" as a modern-day version of that childhood toy. Using the motion-sensing Wii remote, fans play with these blocks in dozens of ways. They can throw baseballs to make them collapse. Players can carefully push and pull the blocks from a teetering tower "Jenga"-style. Elsewhere, players use the remote as a zapper to blast enemies trying to knock down their

This is casual gaming at its finest. It's sandbox play that lets players feel like they're, well, in a sandbox. There's room to experiment and create; the game excels with more people. It's a fine family game. But the place where most people start is in the Tutorial, which teaches the mechanics of throwing, pulling, pushing and blasting.

Later, in the Explore levels, players will learn about the different blocks and how to take advantage of their abilities. Bomb blocks explode. Chemical ones detonate when they're near each other. Meanwhile, items such as gem and point blocks are used to keep score.

In the Adventure mode, players are introduced to the Blox characters and four different stories. For the most part, these tales are bland, but they do a decent job setting up the characters' behaviors and incorporating new rules for each world.

In one set of stages, players will be helping the Woolingtons by tossing bombs at thieves trying to steal their gems. In another level, they'll have to manipulate a maze of blocks to help Gorilda get her children back.

In many ways, playing "BOOM BLOX" reminds me of "Peggle." There's a similar undercurrent running through both games: They present a deceptively simple concept, but over the course of hours, players discover the difficulty in mastering them.

Throwing a baseball at monkey Blox may seem easy, but if you take that element and put it in a mission, where you have to defend Mitten Kittens from a horde of zombies and reapers, then that twist gives the game a fresh perspective.

That's what "BOOM BLOX" is good at. EA Los Angeles did an amazing job at developing four accessible moves and building a toy world around them. The progression never gets too difficult; each level builds on the concepts of the others.

Many stages are puzzles forcing players to think about the game's realistic physics when dealing with a teeter-totter or a fort they must knock down. Later, the title adds more diversity to the gameplay with a visceral scenario, in which players blast outlaws attacking their cows.

The level design in "BOOM BLOX" seemed as unlimited as the developers' imagination. But even the best stages grow stale if one plays them enough, and that's where the create mode comes into play.

Capitalizing on that Lego comparison, EA Los Angeles added a robust creation mode. Players can make their own levels using prizes they win for completing the Explore and Adventure scenarios. They can also riff off of other stages they played, and add their own rules. When they're done, they can share it with friends via the Internet. Children can also set up levels for their parents or siblings, and parents can do the same for their kids. What would have made this game perfect is a dedicated channel where players can download and judge one another's levels.

Can a great movie director have as much success with video games? Spielberg may be a maestro with celluloid, but working with polygons, he's shown that he still has something to learn about gameplay.

"BOOM BLOX" marks an understanding of that. It's the biggest departure from his film-inspired projects, and at the same time, it's the best "game" game in his handful of collaborations. It's a title that shows that the film director may be moving to the next level in the game world.

Reach Gieson Cacho at 510-735-7076 or gcacho@bayareanews group.com. Read his blog at www.ibabuzz.com/videogames.