Ballz 3D: Fighting at its Ballziest

For a quite different and truly sublime fighting experience, try the new game BALLZ (Accolade, for Genesis, $59.95), in which the combatants are composed of elastic, spherical globules. Paradoxically, Ballz's faceless fighters (including a sumo wrestler, a clown, and a ballerina) are endowed with more personality than any of the brutes in MK II or Warrior-and this game's 3-D scaling effects and hip soundtrack make the competition look like a kindergarten hair-pulling match.

Ballz takes the increasingly routine genre of fighting games and gives it new bounce, injecting a wicked sense of humor into the action. The screen in the background flashes some of the best put-downs ever seen in a game.

Ballz is the closest thing to Virtua Fighter on any home system...but even though that's a compliment, it still doesn't do justice to this game's supremely eccentric personality. Give it a chance, won't you?

What's more, the real-time object manipulation allows for some pretty impressive visual effect; namely, a rotating arena, changing camera angles as in Virtua Fighter and an incredible "Instant Replay" mode in which you can tilt, rotate and zoom in or out on the playfield. The Super NES Mode 7 has allowed these types of special effects in the past, but seeing them done entirely in software on the Genesis was enough to make my jaw drop. In addition to the cutting-edge gameplay, Ballz has a lot of features that are just plain cool - not calculated cool, but naturally so.

With all its brashness and attitude, Ballz comes on strong, but after a few plays the originality soon dries up and the marshmallow characters start to wear thing. If you're a little deranged or if you just want to cop an attitude and release some tension, drop a sixty spot, get some Ballz and become King of the Rude Marshmallow Men.

With Super Street Fighter II and MK II already on the shelf, Ballz seems out of place for the SNES owners. It just goes to show you that what's innovative one month is old news the next. The SNES Ballz may interest fanatical fighters who must have every fighting game for their collection, but it may just deflate the rest of you.

Tired of the same ol' fighting game? Ballz definitely wins originality points for it's unique fighting perspectives, hilarious characters and original special attacks. The graphics are very clean and the control is right on par. However, the eight characters are limited in what they can do, so the game gets tiresome after a short while. If you are in desperate need of a new fighting game, Ballz will do, but at least rent it first.

Ballz has a unique perspective on the fighting field (like Virtua Fighter), but I found some of the moves difficult to pull off at times. The fighters were interesting, with their various taunts and other poses and the whole idea is innovative, but in the end it just never really came together for me. It is an interesting variation on the fighting theme, though.

3D Ballz is unique and very original, no doubt about it, but the gameplay and controls are terrible and the overall design tasteless. This is a shame as the game shows a lot of potential... unfortunately potential just leaves you craving for more...

So, here we are. Ballz is a game that many just don't play because it's seen as SO bad. Well, I'm not going to lie; it is hard to really get into, but this brings back the point I made in the beginning. Who am I to say that this game was really a waste of time? I know nothing of how it was made, or how much time and effort was put in. It's hard for me to stick a number on this. Ah... the hell with it. THIS GAME IS UTTER TOSH! Ignore Ballz at all costs! If there's an awesome bundle on eBay with ten games you always wanted, and the dealer is will send you Ballz for free just for buying? Report him!

I can't remember the last time I lost interest in a game so quickly. It doesn't help that Ballz conveys an irreverent attitude that borders on crude. The box even boasts about how you can fart on your opponents. Pretty classy, huh? The fighting "arena" is surrounded by television screens that flash idiotic wisecracks like "Ballzai!" and "Lick the mat chump!" The game's atrocious "music" (if you can call it that) is composed of a hodgepodge of grating digitized samples. Needless to say, it's so execrably bad that it alone could justify the F grade. Like so many other games that attempt to be edgy and funny, Ballz comes off as completely tasteless and obnoxious.