Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Indie Corner Episode 11: Optical Ball

Optical Ball: Breakout Done Right or A Collection of Weird Experiments? Review By Steve T.

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This game is awesome. No setup, punchline, or old man rant here. I really enjoyed this title and it's not hard to see why. It oozes with charm and it employs a lot of cool ideas on a retro classic. So for those not familiar with breakout it's an arcade game from the late 70's that saw you moving a  platform around to bounce a ball and break bricks above you . . . Welcome to gaming in its infancy. So with a simple goal like that one could only wonder how someone could turn that and make it more interesting.

The game persay is more of a compilation, filled with 9 different 'games' more along the line of modes if you will. The 9 different modes are drastically different and all feel really unique. My personal favorite is the space invaders mode where you not only have to keep the ball in play, but also have to destroy the aliens. If just one alien gets their hands on the ball, it's all over.


Now while I found the gameplay to be quite enjoyable, the actual presentation does leave a lot to be desired. Like the menu screen for example, I can see where the dev was trying to go for that 80's look and feel, but it just comes off as lazy and uninspired. The line work is jagged, lacking any real sort of place or purpose, it just feels like the dev rushed the menu screen. The game modes also could use a cleaner touch up. Like the tilt mode pictured above. Look at the paddle and ball . . . Neither one are using any sort of consistent theme. The paddle looks like a mangled mess of pixels, while the ball has a soft 3d shade to it. Just a little consistency will go a long way with this one.

Though that's it for this title. There's not too much more to say than this game at it's core is fun. If you can get over the wonky design choices, then I think you'll really enjoy this one and . . . It's free! One can never go wrong with free titles. We at Schock Site give this game a 4 out of 5.

Get the game here!  https://woodsmoke.itch.io/optical-ball

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