Electronic Arts releases the first of three games from Spielberg.

If you heard that director Steven Spielberg was coming out with a video game, chances are you wouldn't have pictured Boom Blox, the Wii game released recently with his name on it.

That's because the game, from the guy who pretty much invented the summer blockbuster flick, doesn't have any of the usual Hollywood-ish features, such as famous actors or a rock soundtrack featuring major acts, that signify that video games have become a big bucks industry.

Boom Blox is the first of three games from Spielberg to be published by Electronic Arts under a deal he signed with the company in 2005. The game publisher has not revealed many details about the other two titles.

This isn't the first time Spielberg has showed an interest in video games. DreamWorks SKG, the studio he launched with fellow moguls Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994, once had a video-game-developing subsidiary. The studio did not generate many hits and was acquired by EA in 2000.

Spielberg's new title is a family-friendly game centered on the low-key destructive kicks that come from knocking down toy fortresses and towers made out of toy blocks. To play, a user points the Wii's controller at the screen and makes flinging motions with his arm to wreak some G-rated havoc with the game's virtual baseballs or other projectiles.

It's a slender-sounding premise for a game, but my 7-year-old stepson and I are already fans because it's one of the not-enough titles we can enjoy together.

While many video game fans are still obsessed this week with the recent release of the new Grand Theft Auto title, Boom Blox is significant for a different crowd, said Mike Hickey, a game industry analyst with Janco Partners.

Hickey said that many game publishers have been dissatisfied and disappointed with how their titles have sold on Nintendo's system. Despite its ongoing popularity, many of the system's biggest hits were developed by Nintendo and not by outside publishers like EA.

"The Wii has become critically important (to the game industry) and has tapped the artery of the mainstream consumer," he said.

Boom Blox, he notes, is already a top-seller among Wii titles at Amazon.com.

Spielberg is said to be a fan of action games such as an epic sci-fi adventure game called Crysis. But he says that he felt like there was an abyss between him and his kids when it came to video games and wanted a game he could play with them, said Amir Rahimi, senior producer at EA.