On the Ball

I love my Snes.
I love my Snes because there're tonnes of Great games available for it. But, when People talk about the Snes, it only ever seems to be the same things people mention- Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Link to the Past, etc. This is understandable, since these games are freakin' awesome.

However, there are a lot of games on Snes that didn't quite get the recognition they deserved, perhaps partly due to the huge amounts of Shovelware shamelessly thrown at the poor, poor Snes.
Anyway. I'll be writing some posts up on my blog about some of these lesser-mentioned games, as well as some all-time favourites of mine, and some other extras, perhaps.

I'm gonna start with a Favourite of mine.



"On The Ball" is a port of the arcade game "Cameltry". It's a fairly odd game, where the aim is to get the ball to the end of a stage. You do this by turning the stage (Using the L and R buttons, or the D-pad), to keep the ball falling, building up momentum. You have a time limit and the faster you complete the stage the better, since your time limit will carry over to the following stages, with some extra time added based on your performance.
Along the way to the goal, your little ball will run into a fair few obstacles, including time-draining X Blocks, smaller Blocks which you can destroy by building up momentum, and some irritatingly-placed bumpers, which'll occasionally send you flying in the opposite direction to where you wanted to go.

The game uses Mode 7 quite heavily, the entire game being based on the rotation of the stage. Each stage is well designed, using the obstacles available in new ways, to create unique levels. The game has four difficulties, which each provide a completely unique course of stages. Whilst all these courses are relatively easy, the game's variety of levels still have quite a lot of replay value. This game's strangely entertaining, for what it is.
The game also has a multiplayer mode, though it's nothing special. Players take it in turns, trying to get through the stages as quickly as they can.



Anyway, all in all, I'd say this's a pretty great game. It's a simple concept, but one that stands out from the crowd as a fairly unique game, and its variety of levels will keep you coming back for a replay. I guess the only real issue is that it's over too quick.