Coming soon to an Xbox Live Arcade near you, a game that blends a recent gaming trend with one of the oldest and most venerable gaming conventions. It's Boom Boom Rocket, and this spring it will have you tapping buttons to the rhythm and causing lots of explosions. If you ask us, it sounds like lovely synthesis of the old and the new, but that's not to imply that explosions get old. 'Cause they don't.

In Boom Boom Rocket, your basic objective is to launch fireworks, making the game not unlike first few days of July. By triggering launches in sync with the game's music, you'll be able to effect bigger and more spectacular explosions. As you move through a three-dimensional cityscape, you'll set off increasingly marvelous pyrotechnics, rack up points, and, undoubtedly, gain Achievements.

With the requisite different skill levels, unlockable content, and different game modes (including multiplayer head-to-head), Boom Boom Rocket sounds like an intriguing arcade venture. If you're still a bit skeptical, consider this: it's being developed by Bizarre Creations, the same studio who brought you the crazy awesome Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Now picture the stunning neon insanity of that game translated into firework form, and maybe it's time to give that seizure warning another glance.

January 17, 2007