When I first heard there was going to be a Madballs game I thought, ‘Awesome! Madballs are cool!’. Then on further thinking I started to wonder what the hell they were going to do to make a game based on Madballs. But I’m getting ahead of myself here, some people are probably wondering just what is a Madball. Well as the name suggests it is a ball and mad part is the ball is a head or other round body part. Typically a grotesque, monster head but as you find in the XBLA game your lead Madball is Oculus Orbus, an eyeball. I had several Madballs back in the 80′s and was surprised to find they are still popular today with a new ‘Sick’ range recently available.
Anyway, how do you create a game based on nothing more than a ball? It’s been done before I guess, Bounder and Re-Bounder back in the 8-bit era and even Marble Blast Ultra on XBLA is a ball game. So what if you took Marble Blast Ultra and strapped various weapons to the marble and then had to fight your way through hostile worlds? Well then you would have a pretty good idea of what Madballs in Babo: Invasion is like. Does it work? It sure does!
This is what I like in a XBLA game, easy and enjoyable to pick up and play but plenty of meat for those who want to really get stuck in. Anyone will be able to play Madballs but with heaps of unlockables and a great multi-player there is more than enough to keep a more serious gamer busy for a fair while. I really hope multi-player sticks around with this title as it has one of the best Avatar incorporations to date. How? Well how about chopping off your Avatar’s head and mounting machine guns to it before rolling off to take on your friends in head to head combat.
Gameplay is straight forward enough, 10 different weapons each with 2 firing modes. Certain enemies are immune to some weapons so a quick switch of firing mode will sort that out. Weapons and modes are unlocked through the single player campaign along with the ability to transform into different Madballs with different support powers. All in all a very straight forward game which is pulled off well enough to keep you hooked.
Controls and camera movement all work well and the graphics are of a good standard with my only problem being that sometimes enemies are obscured under bridges and walkways overhead. Sound also lives up to expectations for a XBLA title with some quite catch tunes playing at times. The checkpoint system incorporated into each level makes it less painful if you die but with a limited number of lives for each level there is still plenty of challenge to be had.
Closing Comments.
I jumped straight in to Madballs and have been enjoying ever since. Clean slick gameplay. A good variety of weapons and Madballs along with some great Boss battles make this a good purchase for your MS Points. But yet again how long the multi-player will last is anyone’s guess. There is just something about strapping a lobber to your balls and rolling through an alien landscape, who wouldn’t enjoy it?
Released 15/7/2009 for 800 MS Points.