BOOMco. Burstwave Review (5/10)

Range? What the hell is that?

Yeah I know, I've been reviewing dart blasters with less and less frequency lately but no I'm not dropping Nerf and whatnot any time soon. The new stuff just hasn't hit the shelf yet and I'm not seeing any vintages worth grabbing on eBay yet. So today I picked up one of Mattel's more oddball blasters. This is the Burstwave, one of few remaining air powered blasters on the market and unfortunately, it's a bit of that one word we like to call terrible.

Size compared to an Alpha Trooper.

The Burstwave can almost be seen as the BoomCo. counterpart to the Sledgefire since both are true shotguns in that they fire multiple rounds at once. The Burstwave is noticeably more compact than the Sledgefire and it's still rather comfortable. The trigger is very smooth although the free spinning pump is a little annoying, especially considering the handle isn't symmetrical on all sides. The accessory rail can hold Nerf attachments, you know, if you care.

Shotgun barrels galore!

The biggest difference between the Sledgefire and the Burstwave is how they load. Instead of three-round shells, the Burstwave uses a manually rotating turret with three sets of four-round shotgun barrels for a total of 12 darts and the rotation is damn solid. Spinning through the turret may be faster than manually loading shell after shell on the Sledgefire but bear in mind that the Burstwave is air powered, requiring you to pump and that you can carry more shells in your pocket with the Sledgefire, thereby increasing how much ammo you have. That's not possible with the Burstwave because the turret is fixed to the blaster.

Simple internals with lots of potential.

The performance figures make the Burstwave look even worse against the Sledgefire. After you get through pumping the thing up, in which the overpressure valve sounds like it kicks in too early, you pull the trigger and watch as some of your darts just barely hit 30 feet flat. Keyword: some. The Burstwave is the most hilariously inconsistent blaster I've ever used. Two darts may hit 30 feet while the other two just fall out of the barrel or the blaster will fire all the darts about 15 feet, the possibilities are endless. It's mindbogglingly shitty, especially considering after you open it up and find that it has a push pin tank a bit bigger than Airtech 3000 tank and no mechanical air restrictors. I diagnosed it's lack of power to the spring loaded overpressure valve on the tank and glued it shut. Now I never got an accurate range test in for this mod but it fires violently hard with 6 pumps, probably well in excess of 50 to 60 feet with a nice spread. It destroys the Sledgefire in terms of power, but that's if you tap into it, otherwise it's complete crap.

The Burstwave is a promising blaster that just ends up sucking completely. It's slower to operate than the Sledgefire and it performs far worse; the box says 50 feet, what a joke. The fact the Sledgefire and the Burstwave are roughly the same price make things a bit worse for the latter. That being said, if you mod it, even in the simple way I did, the Burstwave can become a very nasty blaster for most situations thanks to it's long range and balanced spread. In it's stock form though, it's pretty awful and I can only recommend it based on what it's capable of and if you absolutely cannot mod period, it's not worth it. The Burstwave gets a sub par 5 out of 10 for these reasons. It sucks, but with a little work, it becomes pretty awesome.

The Verdict

Class- Air Powered Shotgun

Range- Insanely inconsistent, up to 30 feet if you're lucky.

Size- Similar to the Blastfire DX-500.

Reliability- No real issues, it just shoots like shit.

Ammo- 12 Smart Stick Darts
Modding- Lots of potential. A simple pump plug can boost power dramatically.

Value- At $25, the Sledgefire is a more consistent performer.

Is It Better Than?

Sledgefire- Depends, the Sledgefire is the better blaster overall being that it shoots harder and loads quicker. However a modded Burstwave can outgun a Sledgefire well past it's maximum range. If you know a bit of modding knowhow, the Burstwave packs a bigger punch.

Blastfire- Depends, the Blastfire is more powerful and it can be fired in semi-auto to conserve ammo. However the Burstwave can be reloaded much quicker and is much easier to mod than the Blastfire's semi-complex backpressure system. The Hornet AS-6 is much the same, just add some of the worst reliability on the market into the mix,