I miss the days when bombs, explosions and wanton collateral damage were the realm of super villains rather than terrorists. Super villains could still be portrayed as cute, bumbling or entertaining, whereas we're not allowed to make light of terrorism anymore (which is a little unfair, considering Britain has been putting up with it a lot longer than some countries, but anyway).
Bombtek! makes a small move toward the lighter side of playing with Semtex, however, so the old days aren't gone entirely thanks to Traction Games. The nefarious super villain, Bomblord, has a plan to destroy mankind by blowing it up (the impish little rascal) but first he's got to rid himself of the world's foremost bomb disposal expert and his arch nemesis, Bombtek.
To do this, he's kidnapped him and – instead of strapping a bomb to him there and then and turning him into a vertical pizza (which would have been the sensible thing for a villain to do to his arch nemesis) – imprisoned him at the top of Blast Tower. Taking on the role of the stranded Bombtek, it's up to you to get him down from the lofty heights of said edifice in time to thwart Bomblord; then it's home in time for tea and medals.
The levels of Blast Tower are formed by different kinds of squares, and a lot of stray bombs that must all be detonated before descending to the next floor. To set off a bomb, you're required to stand on it, hit the '5' button then get to a safe square before it detonates after three seconds. During the last two seconds of the countdown, however, Bombtek rather inadvisably becomes immobile as he puts his fingers in his ears, so there's only really time to get to the next safe square immediately adjacent to the bomb.
This is the crux of Bombtek!'s puzzle mechanics, as the bomb's square is blown up when the device goes off, while other squares crumble as soon as you walk off them, meaning you've to plan a cunning route around the explosives to ensure you can blow them all up and still have a square to stand on at the end. Ice squares add to the problems (you glide across them in the direction you set off), while larger bombs appear that blow up a varying range of surrounding squares when they explode.
The large number of levels coupled with the simple, yet highly enjoyable puzzle mechanics makes Bombtek! a surprisingly addictive game, although it doesn't offer anything particularly new to the bloated mobile puzzle game genre. The difficulty level is superbly balanced, mind you, which adds a great deal to any game's longevity and ensures you'll be still chucking bombs about the place after a great many gaming hours.
If you're in the market for an entertaining and easily forgettable little brain teaser, you definitely won't go far wrong with Bombtek!
Bombtek!
Nothing extraordinary, but one of the more enjoyable and addictive mobile puzzle games we've seen in a while
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.