Reviews

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

In this game you control ballz, a genetically manipulated ball specialized in close combat and ball warefare (as a molecular biology major I must strongly object to this kind of unscientific nonsense, but luckily it is of no importance this review). Ballz may be a ball which has mastered speech and intellect, but that doesn\'t mean he has full control over his movements. No, Ballz, being a mere ball, can only do two things: 1) roll forward at uniform speed and 2) bounce. And only by timing Ballz\' bounces in an excruciatingly exact manner is it that you get him through this game.

All this results in very inovative gameplay. By making precisely timed jumps you must make your way through 18 levels. The main goal is to simply reach the exit of the level, but you also have to collect all the yellow stars you find on the way to unlock the next level. Collecting stars is optional in that you can finish a level without them. However, you really need to get almost all simply to unlock the next level.

Now this all starts out simple enough. You jump a little here, a little there, collect the stars, find the exit and there you go. From about level 6 though, it gets very challenging.

More depth is added to the gameplay with several new game elements that are added as you progress to newer levels. You\'ll encounter fire and spike blocks that kill you instantly. There is water in which you float. There are blocks that crumble after you touch them once. Also, after level 6 or so you get a new ability, a special super jump that lets you rush horizontal in mid-air. All this really keeps the interest in the game high, and really makes you want to continue playing the game. For this review I only managed to play until level 10, so there may be even more surprises that I don\'t yet know about. But I\'ll definitely keep trying to get to the end of the game.

This game was made by a team of four and that shows. In my opinion this game has the most polish and the highest replay value of all entries. I haven\'t even mentioned the level intro sequences and the pretty artwork. There is a catchy tune playing in the background. The game is balanced, easy in the beginning but challenging near the end, with constantly new elements being added to keep the gameplay interesting. Now having said all that, the implementation of the garbage theme is a bit weak. Therefore I award high scores in all categories except the genre category.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 4 Technical 4 Genre 2

Review by Onewing all reviews by Onewing

Good: Good? How ‘bout great!
Bad: Extremely difficult at points, making it extremely frustrating.
Best Characters of TINS 07

Holy cow this game is out of control awesome. Now, read that sentence again and see if it makes any sense. Sure, it doesn’t and is filled with slang, but it was fun to say. Ballz doesn’t make sense either, but it sure is fun to play.

Hands down the best game of TINS ’07. In fact, I’m curious to put this game versus last year’s awesome game Dodger. Which would be better? Sometimes I wonder why we have to say which game is better, because they’re both a blast, both extremely well done (and rare at the same time, delicious).

Ballz is extremely polished, with a fully functional title screen, credits section and 18 levels of gaming awesomeness. There’s even a story to go along with it. Yeah, you might say it doesn’t count as a story, but rather a bad back-alley play, but each character has his characteristics. You could almost take away the faces and know who is talking. That’s what’s called brilliant dialogue, even if the topics are ludicrous.

I spent an hour playing this game, loving every moment of the overly simplistic movements and periodic power ups (that give it that juicy flavor). I’m proud to say I got to level 13 all by my lonesome, but then it was just beyond my ability. However, it wasn’t beyond my ability to hack the game and see the later levels and ending story. Let’s just say, level 13 is easy compared to those later levels.

I read some reviews above complaining about having to listen to the story line every time. You can just press Esc to skip it. That’s what’s so amazing about this game, typically, if you have a complaint about it, it’s not the game’s fault, it’s yours. I spent forever playing level 10 and decided it was impossible. Well, I found out I could get enough stars to bypass it altogether (gotta love that Mario64 star-collecting style). The next level you get a new ability that helps you in level 10. Ingenious.

Team Darkbits, I beg you to make a sequel. You freakin’ gave me blue ballz! Yeah, your game turns me on… meow.

Overall: See above: 5 out of 5!
Artistical: The professor has another role besides being goofy, to relay a few of the TINS requirements. He jumps in at one time to directly relay some news. So, technically, this rule was just barely satisfied, but the actual art of this game is so sweet, it deserves a 4.
Technical: No bugs, the smoke fits perfectly in the environment, the fire is not very impressive, but works. I’ll give you an 83%, which is a 4/5.
Genre: Once again the professor jumps into mention the garbage requirement, which is good for a laugh. And it does have a few levels in the sewer. Yeah, I’m giving it a 4, so what if I’m biased?

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 4 Technical 4 Genre 4

Review by Hard Rock all reviews by Hard Rock

By far the best game of Tins, it has excellent quality, and production. Ballz is a unique plat former, very entertaining and defiantly cool. The ball you control rolls and you simply react by either jumping or activating power ups which can be unlocked to try to collect all the items in the level. Before some levels you’ll get briefed on your mission and your purpose which is nice.

Since I\'ve been giving negative feedback for each game this one isn\'t without it faults. This is a game which the rules were worked or hacked in, rather then a game built around the rules. Not a bad thing, but it is against the spirit of a compo in some ways.

Rather then going on much more on the game for this review, I\'ll just say that this is the must play game for TINS.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 4 Technical 4 Genre 3

Review by Simon Parzer all reviews by Simon Parzer

This is what I call the best game in TINS07. Very nice graphics and effects, challenging gameplay, a solid engine, and even some dialogue-style cutscenes. After looking at the sourcecode I\'m not very convinced that the entry was entirely written during TINS, also the requirements are only loosely implemented (one small news item at the beginning, no garbage, fire and smoke hardly ever used in the gameplay).

These suspicions aside, it\'s a very entertaining game that even may be addicting for several days. The only thing is that the levels start getting very hard after level 10 or so. I couldn\'t bring up the motivation to play further after I tried a level about 20 times without success.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 3 Technical 5 Genre 2

Review by joeld42 all reviews by joeld42

Wow.. this game was unbelievable for being done in a weekend. Hats off. Gameplay, a story, smoke, fire, it had everything. Fantastic work. And origional and fun gameplay on top of all that!

Overall -- Great work. Gameplay was new and fun. Nice puzzle/action mix.
Artistical -- Great graphics, and current event showed up in the storyline.
Technical -- Amazing technical acheivement.
Genre -- Not quite sure how it related to \"garbage\" tho...

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 5 Technical 5 Genre 4

Review by muller all reviews by muller

very fun to play

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 5 Technical 4 Genre 5

Review by Blackroot all reviews by Blackroot

While undoubtly being the best game at tins 07\' this game
still dosen\'t really make me feel like \"wow\", the gameplay
is about reaction, there\'s no puzzle solving nor action
just plain \"press a key\", while that might be fun for some
people i\'m a fan of control and i would have appreciated
to have a bit more to do (you do however, get some special
powers which do give you a bit more control). I\'m not
saying the game was easy because it certainly wasn\'t, but
trying to jump over that f***** thing a hundred times
didn\'t really make me feel good.. actually, i have a great
temperament when it comes to games, but Ballz almost made me
angry with it\'s \"stupidity\". The graphics are nice, the
game seems well programmed and there\'s not much left to
complain about ... just kidding: the thing i hated the
most and what probably made me dislike ballz was the
dialogs you tried to skip as fast as you could but you
ended up wasting about 90% of your time on it..
also the map design felt like it was made with this guide
line: \"oh, this will add a few seconds to finish the map\"..
ok, it might be fun to try to beat your current \"best time\",
but sometimes i just felt like i wanted to tear the map
into pieces! :). also: the garbage part suck..
Anyway, great game Team Darkbits!

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 5 Technical 4 Genre 1