Rumble Ball

Solid gameplay in a pretty package

Reviewed by Shawn from afro-ninja.com

Coming across unique arcade-type games these days is rare, considering just about every idea out there has been taken. Rumble Ball isn’t exactly a blazing new concept, but it’s probably a little different from the other stuff you’ve seen. That coupled with some nice graphics and presentation makes for a nice little game

In Rumble Ball your goal is to bounce your ball into every breakable object on the screen. The first object you hit nets you ten points, and each additional object you hit (while the ball is still moving) gets you an extra ten points on top of what your scored for the previous object. Angle the ball right and you could be seeing 100+ points for a single block or coin. It’s a simple idea but it adds strategy- you can’t adjust the power of your ball, only the angle to shoot it from. There are no penalties so you can back your ball up into a better position if you want to try for big scores. You can catch up to your ball and hit it again to change direction mid-roll, but that wont benefit you as it will reset your score accumulator back to ten.

The graphics (and presentation elements in general) are very clean and suited to the game. Blocks have a nice textured look to them. The ball is shaded and carries a shadow with it, and has a yellow dot in the middle that shows how the ball is rolling. What I like even better than the graphics though, are the sound effects. All the sounds seem to fit perfectly, from the hit of the ball to the bouncing noises it makes against the walls. As you collect coins in sequence they also make a slightly higher pitched noise each time (think of a turtle shell hitting a line of goombas in a Mario game) which is a nice addition. Oddly enough the title screen has a music loop but the main game doesn’t. No matter, I didn’t miss it any.

My only real complaint with the game is that it’s short, a mere five levels long. You even have the option to skip levels, but I’m not sure why because that’s just less opportunity to score points. I’d like to see a sequel with a little more variety (more objects to collect, some way of receiving penalties, timed levels, etc) and more levels at that, but that’s always a natural progression. Definitely worth a look.

Click here to play Rumble Ball






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