MadBalls in...Babo: Invasion
Platform: Xbox 360, PC
Developed by: PlayBrains
Release date: July 15, 2009 on Xbox 360; September 17, 2009 on PC
Official website: playbrains.com
Game summary from xbox.com: "Combat revolved! In Madballs in … Babo: Invasion, campaign across distant worlds either solo or with four-player online co-op, taking no prisoners in your wake. Challenge your friends (and your enemies) to see who's the baddest ball on the planet in no-holds-barred 16-player multiplayer arenas with freaky characters or with your own Xbox 360® Avatar! Or really push your limits and try your hand at Invasion Mode where combatants create the very worlds where they wage war. Dozens of unique character classes, weapons, special abilities, worlds, unlocks, secrets, maps, and game modes give you limitless gameplay!"
Review Summary: MadBalls in... Babo: Invasion is a great arcade game that really exemplifies the value of having a quick, fun experience on Xbox LIVE Arcade. It has a lot of options and good gameplay whose only downsides are the camera and targeting system.
Remember Madballs? The toy line which had its heyday in the '80s only crossed my path when I remember vaguely as a child coming across a dirty, worn-out Oculus figure. Now the series is trying to establish something of a revival with a release of updated action figures in stores. Along with this is the game MadBalls in...Babo: Invasion which only actually has about two or so characters from the original series of collectibles.
Gameplay
The game takes place on a distant planet where an allegiance of ball-shaped beings are racing to find an ancient artifact before another group of ball-shaped beings rolls its way to victory. Now that the pesky storyline is out of the way I can say the game is pleasantly surprising. Let me just say that I was a bit apprehensive at first about a game that features rolling balls. The object of the game is to traverse through levels which have a somewhat labyrinthine quality. The player rolls around with the right stick while firing their weapons and strafing with the left analog stick. This is where the developers went very right with the design of the game. Madballs has almost a retro quality because the main gameplay style is shoot-and-avoid-being-shot, much like a modern Galaga. Much of the fun is derived from simply rolling around and avoiding ninja stars while letting loose with your shotgun.
The single player is a great experience, and the multiplayer is also fun with much of the standard features you would expect in a game nowadays, like 16 player co-op. In fact, one nice touch on the multiplayer side is that you can play using your Xbox Avatar. There is even a nice cutscene where your Avatar is put into a machine which chugs and wheezes until its spits your avatar back out... sans body. Then you basically roll around as yourself in solid multiplayer maps. Speaking of which, one good strategy on the multiplayer maps is to roll around, without stopping, in very large circles so that you are tough to hit but can still hit others.
There are however two things that bring the experience down from greatness. First, the camera is a mainly static top-down view. Unfortunately for Oculus, many of the enemies are set up above him. What this amounts to is that about half the time you don't see enemies until they are close enough to do damage. While I understand that a game like this might be less fun if you could see everybody from down the street, PlayBrains could have at least included the ability to use the d-pad or something to move the camera up. In addition to the not-so-helpful camera, the aiming system is strange too. The MadBalls can't really jump for the most part, but many of the enemies are on different levels. Add in the fact that the targeting reticule is also static (it can't be manipulated like in a shooting game) and it gets frustrating. The way the targeting works is that it basically stays in front of your character and turns as you turn. It isn't like Call of Duty, for example, where you can aim all over your field of vision by turning your head. Thus, when you want to shoot at someone above you, it is up to the reticule to decided whether it wants to shoot at the guy higher than you or pop rounds helplessly into the wall. Luckily for the fun of the game, the targeting system knows what you want more often than not. For those times when it doesn't, I suggest you purchase a little stress ball. Aside from these issues though, the game is fun because of its good level and puzzle design.
Presentation This side of the game is relatively spotless. All the characters and environments are well rendered in 3D with all the current-gen amenities such as interesting texture mapping, great lighting, etc. The particle effects are really good and even little things like explosions are well made. Kudos to PlayBrains for not getting lazy with the graphics on an arcade game and really delivering. The sound design is good too. You can expect all the great arcadey sounds like alien squeals, soldiers shouting and of course, weapons/explosions. Another great job in this aspect. My only complaint is that the characters seem to have limited voice clips during gameplay which gets annoying fast. If I hear "I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE" one more time, my little eyes might just explode from the frustration.
Overall MadBalls in...Babo:Invasion is a really fun game with good multiplayer that has interesting charm. Unfortunately, the game is held back from ultra-greatness by a frustrating camera and a mostly cooperative targeting system. Luckily for the game, these only pull it from the awesome category back down to the solid category. I recommend this game, just play the demo first and see if the camera issue bothers you. If not, get MadBalls in...Babo:Invasion.
