Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Big Bang Mini is a strange game to attempt to explain. The goal is to shoot fireworks to blast through waves of enemies while you attempt to avoid their attacks and firework debris, all using the stylus. With 90 levels to play and a budget price point of $19.99, you get a lot of game, innovation and all.

What's Hot
Big Bang Mini catches your eye right from the shelves. With a movable boxart cover, you'll know that you're playing something special right away. The gameplay opens up with a tutorial of how to play the game and you are off on a special journey. To ease you into the top down shump style of playing, you start off slowly and the difficulty ramps up evenly as you blast through levels. Big Bang Mini will add more gameplay changes to keep building on the innovative gameplay.

The 2D art direction is simply spot on. The 90 levels are broken into nine sections of 10 stages each. Each section has a special theme associated with it. You'll play through a kaleidoscope of stages each makes a different impression than the last. Just like real fireworks, the explosion of color and imagination is something you'll "Oooo" and "Ahhhh" over. Combine that with the all original soundtrack and more sparks will fly.

Trying to imagine this game on anything but a DS is hard. Big Bang Mini has innovation stamped all over it from the way it turned the shump action on its side with all kinds of special twists that will be nothing short of a delight for hardcore DS gamers looking for a challenge. This is a game made by gamers for hardcore gamers. It is rare treat to find a game that is so fitting of the system it is on.

What's Not
There is an inherent difficulty of these types of shooting games is evident in Big Bang Mini. Dodging endless streams of attacks while keeping an eye on two screens is a challenge to keep up on no matter how good you are at multitasking. The slightest mistake and it will undoubtedly end up another retry of the stage. Patience is a requirement if you want to unlock more material.

Not aiding that cause is the sometimes troublesome control mechanic to shoot fireworks at the waves of enemies. The basic shot involves striking the touchpad like a match to launch your ammo into the air. Sounds easy enough until you try slightly adjusting your angle. Subtlety is somewhat lost in the process until you get homing rockets to shoot. In the thick of some difficult levels, you'll be looking at the bottom screen blindly firing fireworks and hope they connect a few times.

Final Word
Big Bang Mini comes together nicely with a great combination of simple yet addicting gameplay, innovative design, catchy music, great production value and unbelievable price point. The difficulty is an issue because there is so much going on at once that it will leave many players confounded on how to advance in the later stages even after the careful ramp in the beginning. Still, for $20, you can't really go wrong if you are a DS gamer looking for a challenge. Don't be a fool and make sure you attend this fireworks show.