Shoot-‘em-up videogames, or shmups as they’re known in hardcore gaming circles, are those old-school titles where firing and dodging hundreds of small bullets across vertical or horizontal scrolling screens is the norm.  While first-person shooters clutter the shelves at most retailers these days, the shmup genre peaked in the 1990s and it has been on life support ever since. 

Apparently, nobody told Majesco and Budcat Creations because the companies recently teamed up to release Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy, a two-dimensional shmup for the Wii.  Based on a freeware PC game called Tumiki Fighters, Blast Works combines simple graphics with some of the freshest gameplay the Wii has seen in months.  By shooting enemy ships and attaching the debris that falls off them to your craft, you can stay alive throughout the levels. 

While the attaching feature seems gimmicky at first, it adds a challenge as you figure out how to arrange the parts in order to protect your craft.  Collecting parts is especially necessary in the arcade mode where one hit from an enemy bullet results in a quick death.

The creation mode makes the game infinitely replayable. 

By creating your own levels, ships, bullets and enemies, you can make your own shmups when you get tired of playing the game’s challenge and arcade modes.  You can even trade your levels with other gamers via WiiConnect24 wi-fi connection. 

While Blast Works supports the remote and nunchuck control scheme, be warned that this game plays much more smoothly with a classic controller.  Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy is available for $39.99 MSRP.

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