Bombastic for the PS2 was developed by Shift (the team that would go on to make Ape Escape Academy titles for the PSP) and released in North America by Capcom back in 2003. Even though the PS2 had seen some impressive looking games by this point, Bombastic isn't the greatest looking thing on the block, but the puzzle-centric design helps the title age well. In fact, this game only makes minimal visual improvements to its predecessor, the PS1 classic Devil Dice. Don't worry if you've never heard of the series before, neither title gained a significant amount of popularity over here. In its home country, the series (known there as Xi) has sold millions of copies, spanning multiple releases on the PS1, PS2, and most recently on the PSP.

Bombastic uses the groundwork of Devil Dice for an odd puzzle-platform adventure game. You play as cute little pixy-like characters called Aqui's that stand on top of a large six-sided die. The player is able to move your Aqui around on the die, but because of the shape of the die, you're only moving up, down, left, and right. As you move with the die, it rotates. By placing multiple dice next each other with the same top facing value, you can set off chain reactions that will clear the die, or make them explode. Making things a little more tricking, in order to active these die, you'll need to place the same number of die next to each other as the top facing value that you're trying to activate. Basically, you'll line up three threes, or four fours, etc. The only exception here is a one, which is treated as a null/undestructable value. Once a set of dice at activated or cleared, you'll only have a few moments to walk onto an unconnected die and the process repeats itself.

The best aspect of Bombastic is that it is able to use this base of gameplay in dramatically fresh ways without new modes feeling tacked on. The largest amount of content you'll find on the disc and a first for the series is the Quest Mode. This linear adventure has players run through collections of sequential puzzles that usually involved moving your Aqui from point A to point B. Like any other great puzzle game, the rules or simple: don't blow yourself up or fall off the dice. The puzzles seen here are extremely clever and thankfully feature one of the most finely tuned difficulty curves to date. Nothing too hard, nothing too easy, it's just right. The quest mode tells a story, but let's not fool ourselves. No one plays this type of game for an evocative narrative experience. It's not a knock on the title to say that the story is forgettable because I wouldn't have wanted a memorable story there to begin with.

While the Quest Mode is highly replayable, the Endless mode is where I wound up spending most of my repeated plays. This is basically what PS1 games purchased the last time around, and puts your Aqui in a small area with reviving die popping up over time. If the board becomes full of die it's game over. Again, the setup and rules are extremely simple, but the gameplay, pacing and emergent rhythm build into something irresistibly addictive. There's a bunch of variants of this mode that allow players to compete for scores and times to keep things fresh.

It's a shame that Devil Dice/Bombastic/Xi never got the love that it really deserved over here. Originally created out of Sony's bizarro Yaroze platform (something way too ahead of it's time), these basic mechanics are simple, but remain as fresh as they were on initial unveiling. While the PS1 visuals may be too old for some nit-picky gamers to enjoy, there isn't anything holding me back from recommending Bombastic to anyone with a PS2.