Your Sinclair


Ball Crazy
By Mastertronic Added Dimension
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Your Sinclair #20

Ball Crazy

When I got this from the Ed, I felt like yelling "No, no, not another bouncy ball game! Give it to some other mug!" I didn't, but now I wish I had. You play Erik, a bouncy little ball and, as the blurb puts it, "the aim is to bounce Erik around the screen." Fine, I thought, so I tried to. I know now that the only thing you can bounce around on is the ground, which rather limits things.

Still, the gameplayis simple enough. Erik bounces over five different coloured blocks, each of which changes colour whenever bounced on. All the blocks have to be changed to a uniform colour, as shown by a block at the top of the screen. While doing this you also have to blow away various aliens which float around and hamper you because, if you touch one, you lose a life, and poor ol' Erik deflates pitifully, with a last Pss [What, a wargame? - Ed] as he dies. But you'll find that bullets literally drop into your hot, grubby little hands, as will all the other Items that you can pick up. These include a crash helmet which makes you invincible for a while, an air tank which supplies extra lives, money for extra points, and ticks - you know, the things that teachers (not the whisky) put on the end of work when it's right. (I really wouldn't know myself - mine usually had crosses.)

That's basically the game. After each row is completed, a new row appears on top, gradually building a wall. I found the screenshots on the cassette inlay misleading, as when loaded the game (important note - the game does not load with every joystick interface) the yellow pacman creature in the Amstrad pic turned out to be a transparent pacman creature which changed colour as it went through the top brick - colour clash alert!

All in all it's a fairly average budget game - and it would have been better value at £1.99. Definitely a "yup" game - you look at it, go "yup" and turn it off. It's supposed to turn you "ball crazy", but to go crazy over this you'd have to be crazy!

Yet another bouncy ball game. Nice graphics - shame about the game. Check before you buy.

Tony Lee

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