Overview
On the Ball is a puzzle game originally released in the Arcade by Taito. The player has to maneuver a marble around a maze by shifting the maze itself rather than the marble. By moving the maze left and right, the marble rolls down the sides towards the bottom of the screen. The goal is to reach the end of the maze before the timer runs out.
Taito Corporation originally developed and released Cameltry for their Taito F2 Arcade system hardware in the US in 1989. It was then ported to the SFC/SNES in 1992, with the Japanese title remaining the same and European/N. American title changing to On the Ball. The game also included SNES Mouse support. In 1993 the game was ported to the FM Towns computer.
From 2006 - present several other versions were released by Taito:
- 2006: Updated on the Nintendo DS in Japan as Mawashite Koron.
- 2006: Released on the Xbox in Europe on the Taito Legends 2 compilation as Cameltry.
- 2007: Nintendo DS version released to Europe/N. America as Labyrinth.
- 2007: Released on the PC/PS2 in Australia/Europe/N. America on the Taito Legends 2 compilation as Cameltry.
- 2007: Released on the PSP in Australia/Europe/N. America on the Taito Legends Power-Up compilation as Cameltry.
- 2009: Updated on the iPhone as On the Ball.
- 2010: Updated on the Zune HD as On the Ball.
Gameplay
The player takes control of the static maze and rotates it around a free-falling ball. The goal is the guide the ball to the finish marker within a set amount of time. The time limit is designated by a countdown timer. Within the maze are obstacles such as: breakable walls, incorrect paths and time-penalty objects.
Some versions of the game include varying difficulty modes for the player to select before the start of a level or series of levels. The difficulty modes vary the countdown timer and sometimes the time-penalty incurred by objects.
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