Boom Boom Rocket is about exploding big fireworks. So it stands to reason that the fireworks should be varied and kickass, right? Good, I'm glad you're coming with me on this one. Luckily, the Boom Boom Rocket team think the same thing... so lots of effort has been put into exactly that: making them varied and kickass.

There are 9 distinctive regular firework types in Boom Boom Rocket. By "regular" fireworks, I mean the ones which aren't modelled in 3d, or in bonus run. All of these fireworks are the same from a gameplay perspective; you don't need to do anything special to make them appear or anything like that. This is pure eye candy.

Peony

The peony is your traditional spherical firework. When you think "big badda boom", you think peony. The explosion itself is caused by a large number of particles firing outward from the centre in a single explosion. Peonys really form the backbone of BBR's regular firework explosions... they're simple and effective, and are used in most songs. The peonys come in both big and fast variants, meaning that they can be scripted to fit most sections of music.

Ring

These ones are also used quite a bit throughout many of the music tracks. They're fast, and fairly inexpensive to render compared to some of the big ones! This makes rings useful in really fast sections of the music, or just to add a bit of visual complexity to a bunch of peonys. Rings come in two variants: regular, or fast.

Comet

Comets are usually fast to reach the point of explosion, and when they do they shoot outward in a medium size irregular pattern. The colours fade between various different shades; in the above example the rocket begins as yellow, and finally fades to purple as it dissipates.

Palm

Palms are similar to comets, but slightly larger. They also have slightly more sparkle in them, and a longer lifespan. This gives a nice palm tree style effect as they drop back down to Earth. The trails the Palms leave are thicker and shorter than the Comets, and the animation focus is on end of its life (whilst the Comet focus is on the explosion). Also the Palms have more initial velocity when they launch.

Spider

Spiders are my personal favourite. They have really heavy trails, a long lifespan, and plenty of colour cycling. The larger variant, big spider, is used to punctuate key points in a song, like the end of a chorus or a lull in the storm. Having several big spiders on screen at once is a sight to behold!

Willow

The willows are huge explosives, with a massive radius. The big willows are even larger. The explosion is mainly focused outward along the horizontal, making an umbrella style explosion as the particles rain down. Again, willows are used in key moments in a song for an extra bit of impact.

Croisette

Croisettes are the favourite firework at EA Pogo... and I can see why! The initial explosion is fairly slow, but the particles gain speed as they move outward in random directions. The result is a large, tangled area of multi coloured trails. The croisette also comes in a big version too, for extra prettiness.

Bees

Bees are large fireworks which have multiple delayed explosions. The first stage explodes like a normal rocket, shooting particles in all directions. The second stage then kicks in, splitting the trails into two and spreading over an even larger area. The long visibility time and multiple colours of the Bees make these a really pretty firework type.

Sparkle

This firework operates over a large area of effect, setting off multiple explosions across a wide section of the screen. The sparkles are very, errrmmm, sparkly, and are used in key areas of a music track such as the end of a chorus, or the beginning of a quiet section. Sparkles are also available in big variants.

We can also flag individual fireworks with extra attributes. For example, some of the bigger explosions might have a camera shake associated with them. We can also trigger extra crowd response (more cheers and whooping) on particular fireworks. We might use this after a really long combo, or in particularly difficult parts of the song.

In addition to the regular fireworks, you'll also see special 3d modelled explosions every so often. These are unlockable, so you'll get more added to the mix the more you play the game. You actually unlock the models by exploding specific "spirally" fireworks... one per level. Obviously the harder ones are tougher to catch, so some practice will be required to unlock them all.

Model fireworks are also used in bonus run. There are 8 different types in bonus run, and 30 unlockable models in regular play. Here are some examples: