Its hard not to get a bit nostalgic when playing Magic Ball. The basic
gameplay hearkens back to Breakout for the Atari, then Arkanoid in the
arcades (and on Nintendo). It is effectively the next iteration in that
formula. You take control of a paddle at the bottom of the screen and
bounce a ball at wall full of stuff to destroy. If you miss the ball on
its way down with your paddle, you lose a life. Lose them all and its
game over. The primary addition here though is that instead of just
busting down an inanimate set of bricks, you lay siege to a three
dimensional scene that moves, falls, and crumbles as you decimate it
with your magic soccer ball.
Certain destructibles on each level will produce power ups, extra
lives, and even death skulls to make things more entertaining than just
bouncy, bouncy. There are temporary upgrades for your paddle in the
form of machine gun, laser or cannon to help bust up the scenery with
quickness. Additionally, you can grab environmental effecting items
that produce a series of lightning strikes, wind gusts, earthquake or
even a meteor storm. Grab that death skull though, and you're out a
life. In total there are 24 different items.
On the multiplayer side of things, you can tackle the game's levels
with a friend in co-op mode, or challenge someone to see who can break
apart the level first.
Graphically, Magic Ball delivers some vibrant and colorful visuals in
native 1080p. There's plenty of chaos and taking down some of the
taller structures is really quite a treat to see. The musical backing
is downright garbage, but the rest of the sound effects are well done
and varied.
Additionally, its a very easy game and very forgiving. While you do indeed have a set number of lives, if you lose them all, you can just start the level you are on at the beginning. The only thing the lives alllow you to do is continue your path of destruction on a level. Your overall score does not get affected by loss of life or restarting a level.
I enjoyed what I played of Magic Ball but would have prefered a longer experience and more of a challenge. It really is a nice looking game and there's nothing like hitting a few environmental power-ups in a row to really get the destruction rolling.
The Good:
- Vibrant, attractive destructible environments
- A nice evolution in the brick-breaking formula
- Fun and action packed
The Bad:
- Three hours and you're done
- Too easy and forgiving
- Not enough visual variety in the two themes
The Ugly:
- The Crazy Ball powerup