Madballs
Description
On the planet Orb live a gang of notorious Madballs who decide what is passed through parliament. They have no leader, and this is where a ball simply known as Dust Brain comes in. It is his quest to persuade the other Madballs on the planet to join him in his quest for power, and he does this by bumping them off the multi-directionally scrolling platforms. Once a Madball has been persuaded, it appears in a tube at the bottom of the screen. When a Madball ends up in the tube, Dust Brain must find the 'downtube' exit so that he can pursue other Madballs.
While searching for other Madballs, Dust Brain encounters many obstacles that include trampolines, springboards, catapults, ramps, pyramids, and oil slicks; and these obstacles can either help or hinder Dust Brain. Each platform has its own dustbin, and if Dust Brain bounces over this, he changes into a Madball already in the tube. Also, he will make contact with three bureaucrats who will make his task harder, but they can also be pushed of the edge of platforms, giving Dust Brain plenty of time to bounce around before the bureaucrats have the chance to resurrect themselves.
Each Madball has its own speed and strength, and it can be difficult for a strong Madball to fall off a platform. Each of them also have their own energy source, which include cabbages, fish heads, bones, and Coke. When eight Madballs have been persuaded, this tube is full. When the active Madball falls off the platform, another one takes its place. When the last Madball in the tube falls off the platform, his quest for power has failed.
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Credits (Commodore 64 version)
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 67% (based on 6 ratings)
Players
Average score: 1.8 out of 5 (based on 6 ratings with 1 reviews)
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
The Good
I'm writing this after about three hours of playing the game. I haven't got very far but I'll be back again tomorrow to try again.
This game is different and that counts for a lot.
There's some daft back story about an alien parliament and trying to get other balls on your side by knocking them down holes and off the grid. Well before I played this game I read that, and the instructions and forgot everything within 3 seconds of playing the game. The only thing I remembered is that some piece of documentation said 'Oh by the way, the other Madballs are to get you'. 'Boy!' is that an understatement. There's no time to explore the play area, no time to acclimatise, these things are on you as soon as you start to move. They come in ones and in two's and probably later in the game they'll hunt in packs, but I never survived that long. They hound you off the game board ruthlessly so be prepared to die a lot, very quickly and very often until you master the controls and have an effective strategy for dealing with them.
So what's good about that? Well the pleasure, the feeling of sheer triumph, when you do get one of them makes up for dozens of deaths.
I did all my moving around via cursor keys and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could go diagonally to avoid my pursuers.
I thought I'd play it for 10 - 15 minutes and here I am an a couple of hours later still trying to crack it. I still really don't know what I'm supposed to do in the game and that's after reading the instructions and the reviews and playing it, but it's different enough to make me want to keep playing.
Oddly enough I think if this game was re-made today with music, sound effects, modern graphics and realistic physics it just wouldn't be the same.
The Bad
I'd have liked an easier start to the game.
(Although there's that nagging feeling that this was an easy start and I'm just to old & slow to play it)
The Bottom Line
Wacky and zany are terms I rarely use but they were made for this game.
It's also a little gem and a breath of fresh air.
ZX Spectrum · by piltdown_man (236989) · 2010
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Katakis | カタキス.
ZX Spectrum added by Martin Smith.
Game added July 17, 2008. Last modified February 22, 2023.