The ingame graphics of Boombots are pretty good, if sparse. The various Boombots (robots ranging from the quite humanoid to the canine) have solid character models, and the arenas are well laid-out, although the graphics have a certain amount of graininess to them that somewhat detracts from the appearance. The explosions and stuff, however, are plenty neat. The animations for going Mongo are hilarious as well. The true shining point of the graphics in this game is the claymation scenes done by Neverhood. They are absolutely gorgeous (as only claymation can be), and totally hilarious as well. Ahh. Good stuff. The scene with the litter box stands out in my mind as a cut-scene to remember. (Any more information would ruin it for you.)

The sound of the game is more of a mixed bag. The in-game music is almost unnoticeable, with lots of bleeps and bloops. The explosions and such are nice, but not the best. The voice acting, however, is hilarious. Every Boombot has its own personality, and it really shows through when they defeat someone. Chickie Boom’s “Beat by a gu-rrl...” statement just has to be heard. Whatever else this game has, it has a lot of spunky personality.

Boombots is basically an arena fighter, much like Unholy War or the old Star Control games (well, Star Control 3 as well). You’re thrown into an arena with another Boombot, and the last one standing wins. Every Boombot has various kinds of attacks, from missiles to machine guns, all of which are accessible with single button presses. You can deflect missiles to keep them from hitting you, and you can also grab your opponent and do various close-up attacks that do varying amounts of damage. These close-ups have really neat “cut-scenes,” but sometimes the A.I. overuses them and you just get really tired of seeing the same move over and over and over. Ah, well. Most of the time the A.I. is pretty solid, but as with any game like this, the real fun comes from playing with friends.

All the while, you can pick up little glowing power-ups. Any attack uses a little bit of this yellow energy, but if you succeed in filling up three bars worth of energy, you go “Mongo,” which effectively means you can kick the enemy’s ass in a few seconds flat. Part of the game is scrambling to make sure your opponent doesn’t go Mongo.

The arenas range from flat areas to, erm, flat areas with lots of places you can jump. There’s variety, but not all that much. Of special note is O Canada’s ice level, which completely changes the way that movement is done in the game. A lot of the other arenas, however, are pretty much unremarkable. Despite all this, the game is a whole lot of fun.

Once you figure out the controls, you can start beating up the computer A.I. with ease. This, of course, is where the multiplayer aspect comes in -- this type of game is always a lot more fun to play with a friend. And the multiplayer support is tight, clean, and very, very fun.

Once you figure out what you’re doing, beating the A.I. is almost a joke, with the notable exceptions of O Canada and the last boss. It’s much better to just play with a friend, although you need to beat the single player mode to get all of the hidden characters and arenas to play in.

Boombots plays smoothly. You can use either the D-Pad or the analog control, and analog is actually useful, allowing all of the various degrees of motion. The button placement is easy to understand once you get into the game, and the menu/pause system is nice looking, functional, and fast. The between level briefings are absolutely hilarious, and are one of the high points of the game (besides the crazy claymation). The almost humorous ease of the A.I. and grainy graphics make this a less than perfect game, but if you like arena-style fighters, this very well may be the type of game for you.