Boom Boom Rocket (X360)

EA arrives on Live Arcade

Posted: 17 January 07

When Microsoft brought the original Xbox online in November 2002 with its Xbox Live service, there was one glaring omission from the list of publishers supporting online play in the form of Electronic Arts. It was not until May of 2004 that Microsoft announced it had brought the publisher on board its original online initiative during its Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference. At the same conference, Microsoft introduced the world to Xbox Live Arcade, a new service that would allow Xbox owners to download casual and classic games to the original Xbox, with a slate of initial offerings from Namco, PopCap Games, and Garage Games. The service picked up steam with the November 2005 release of the Xbox 360, and quickly saw publishers like Konami, Capcom, and Midway sign up to digitally distribute their games, but EA again waited on the sidelines. The world's largest third-party publisher is waiting no longer, as EA today announced its first foray onto the Xbox Live Arcade downloadable game service, a rhythm-based called Boom Boom Rocket. The game is being developed by a team at Bizarre Creations (Project Gotham Racing 3, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved) and designed by EA's casual game community Pogo. Boom Boom Rocket takes players through a 3D cityscape, requiring them to blow off fireworks in time with the beat of 10 original songs. The better players keep the beat, the more spectacular the fireworks displays become. If they can perfect the game's songs, players will be rewarded with new fireworks designs. Each song will have three different difficulty settings, and players can play normal, speed, or multiplayer head-to-head games on one console. While the game won't include online multiplayer, it will feature Live Arcade standard leaderboards. While Boom Boom Rocket is the first EA game for Live Arcade, it won't be the last. The publisher stated that it has additional games currently in development for the service. Boom Boom Rocket is set to arrive on Live Arcade this spring.