On the Ball

The Good
I checked out this game largely because of its similarity to one of my favourite Amiga games, Bob's Bad Day from Psygnosis. I never owned a SNES in its heyday, although I played some of the classic multi-player games on a friend's, so I was interested to see how this one worked.

In many ways, it's extremely obvious that this is a console game from Japan, and BBD an Amiga game from England. The presentation of this title is colourful and full of character, with a tutorial section, and all manner of bonus games. Time left at the end of one level is carried over to the next, and you get a fruit machine-type subgame to win more extra time on occasion. There are continues, and upon losing one (by running out of time on the level) you get a chance to win bonus time.

Furthermore, this title is essentially a pure reaction test, with little strategy, and less complex designs than BBD. In the latter game there are icons which change the direction of gravity (causing the character to 'fall' to the left), to disable parts of the joystick, to make the character piece bouncy or heavier or invincible, and there are coins to collect and enemies to avoid. On the Ball is a simple race against the clock, with no need to consult a map or plan a route - quick reactions and good reflexes are all that are really needed.

The Bad
For whatever reason, I've found a lot of the SNES games I've checked out in recent years quite easy, and this is no exception. There are only 24 levels, and few of these are challenging, especially as you can often build up a large 'cache' of time from the first few in each sequence. After doing the tutorial section, I completed the Beginner levels without using a continue, and the Expert levels at my second attempt. Even the 'special' levels aren't especially tricky, so I can only imagine, at the most, 4-6 hours of gameplay here.

Despite this, some aspects of the game seem unfairly hard. Attempting to smash bricks by building up momentum works quite well, but doing so in confined sections is quite fiddly, especially when you are on the direction forcing squares.

The Bottom Line
The basic task is to rotate a maze so as to guide a character from the start to the end. There are various hazards along the way, including blocks to smash through, some spaces which lose you time when hit, pinball-style flippers which ricochet the ball around violently (although you gain points for each contact - another idea that US or European designers wouldn't think of), arrows which attempt to force the ball in a particular direction, and so on.

So, is this lost and little-known SNES game better than my favourite little-known Amiga game? To be honest, no. The sheer lack of challenge the game offers ultimately kills the excitement pretty quickly, and the two-player mode is a mediocre consolation.