May 6, 2008 2:38 PM PDT

EA launches Steven Spielberg's 'Boom Blox'

Posted by Daniel Terdiman

'Boom Blox,' Electronic Arts' first game under its partnership with Steven Spielberg, launched Tuesday. It is a casual, level-based puzzle game.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

The box cover for 'Boom Blox.'

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

Electronic Arts on Tuesday officially launched Boom Blox, the long-awaited first game under its partnership with Steven Spielberg. It is now available in North America, and EA plans to have it on shelves in Europe on May 8, in Asia on May 13, and in Japan on May 22.

The first details about the game, which is from EA's casual games unit, were released in February. Now, the game, which will be available only on Nintendo's Wii and on major carriers' mobile phones, is out and the world can finally see what happens when you put someone like Spielberg together with top-level game designers at a company like EA.

Boom Blox will task players with navigating nearly 400 levels of "strategic destruction."

In addition, players will be able to use the game's editor to craft their own levels. The best part of this sounds like it will be the way the editor lets players take existing levels and elements from the game--props, characters, blocks, etc.--and incorporate them into all-new levels.

Essentially, Boom Blox is a strategy game that confronts players with no end of puzzles and challenges, all of which they can solve in single-player or multiplayer modes.

The game will cost $50.

Steven Spielberg and 'Boom Blox' executive producer Louis Castle play their new game.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

It's smart that the game is coming out on the Wii, because it will give EA a chance to leverage the huge Wii install base, and it's likely that its casual nature will appeal to the many owners of Nintendo's hit console.

But the game also gives EA a chance to see how much value Spielberg's name brings when trying to market a new game. Spielberg, of course, has been behind other video games in the past for many of his films, but this is the first time he has entered into such a close working relationship with a publisher on the creation of all-new titles.

EA has said the partnership arrangement--which was first made public in 2005--is for at least three games, and the next one will be for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.