Nintendo Switch – Them Bombs #175

Sometimes copycats can be good…. this will hold me over…

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Them Bombs – Nintendo Switch – Released: 5/30/18 – $9.99

Short Review (Review copy provided by Yellow Dot)

This is a fairly short review so check out the full review, I would give this game a 7 out of 10!

Icon is a bit boring but I do wish it had the entire bomb:

Story

You get a phone call that a bomb is nearby and you are the only one that can disable it. With a friends or friends you disable the bomb to save the people!

Gameplay

If you played a game like “Keep Talking” you already know how this game works but it does have some different elements. Your character suffers from multiple issues like batteries dying on the flashlight and to your heart pounding causes the screen to warp. They are nice touches that force you to panic slightly if you don’t know they are coming. Besides those elements your partner will be in charge of telling you how to defuse the bomb. There are multiple types of bombs that require you to cut wires, figure out simple puzzles, or try and guess somethings.

Personal Experience

Being a person that forces my friends to play “Keep Talking” and I do mean force them to play. This game was a bit easier to get them to jump on board with. Them Bombs is a bit easier in many ways as the puzzles are straight forward and none of them interact with each other until higher difficulties. That is not to say this game is very easy all around as some puzzles are too hard for their own good. One part requires you to understand musical notation, something my girlfriend had no idea about. Being explained something that could have multiple ways of showing is a bit rough. This doesn’t help when the manual doesn’t show the all possible notations. My girlfriend and I paused the game to double check on something since things like a Pound Sign and a Hashtag were both present in the game. Any musician would be able to tell the difference due to the “Sharp” sign but Them Bombs has both so explaining has to be spot on or the bomb won’t defuse. This happened multiple times with this type of puzzle… it is also required for people look at both the manual and game since some puzzles don’t make any sense if you only have the guide. We had issues explaining button combinations due to this issue.

Final Thoughts

Not going to sugarcoat it since I’m sure “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes” came out first but I enjoyed Them Bombs. While it isn’t perfect, it is a good time and something that will hold me over until one of my favorite titles to play with friends comes to the Switch. Currently the only option for this style of gameplay is this game so if you want something similar that has some slight changes, go for it. I am not one to judge a company for being a copy cat but when one company pushes their game out before another it is hard to not talk about it. I would give this game a 7 out of 10!

My Gameplay Footage:

Will upload when I get back from vacation!

Trailer: