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Switchball compared to Ballance

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First off, I do very much appreciate that a company created a game that may be dubbed a sequel to Ballance. The ideas in Switchball and the level design are nice extensions to Ballance. Now a few comments on the gameplay and an assessment of Switchball compared to Ballance.

I found Switchball via serendipity, purchased and installed the full version without a hitch on my Vista system, thinking this game would be a nice Easter present for my kid. On Easter Sunday, however, I ran into substantial trouble getting the game installed on my kid's otherwise standard XP system - I kept getting a blank registration screen during Setup. The game made me waste some 2 hours on Easter Sunday walking through all trouble shooting sections in vain, until I decided to walk through the registry via Regedit and eliminate all and every traces of Sierra. For some reason, the installation then went smoothly - yet a software company should not make parents walk via an otherwise critical editor through the registry of some standard PC. That experience tinged very much the impression of Switchball.

Gameplay: I can't help but compare this game to Ballance, which is a class in its own, way more elaborate than those Marble Madness derivatives, which convey a simplistic impression with respect to the gameplay in general and the graphics when compared to Ballance and to Switchball. The gameplay and the atmosphere with Ballance are much more intense than with Switchball, though. There are three reasons:

1) The music and sound design of Switchball is simplistic, thus getting boring and stale quickly, quite in contrast to the sound design and music coming with Ballance. I am very much under the impression that Sierra whipped up some game levels and pressed towards publishing, treating aspects such as game atmosphere and music as ancillary components - a very detrimental and wrong management decision here: Switchball cannot hold a candle to Ballance in terms of game atmosphere.

2) Game control: Switchball supports mouse and keyboard control, whereas Ballance supports keyboard control only. While the mouse is a nice feature to have, e.g. to get some overview of some game level, keyboard control is more precise and my kids' preferred way to move around. The keyboard control of Switchball is quite comparable to the keyboard control of Ballance, up to an important difference: at times there is some slack in the keyboard control, which makes it difficult to master some critical level details. This may be a programming bug or a real-time issue and/or may be alleviated when some physical Ageia graphics board is part of the system, don't know - yet this randomly sloppy keyboard reaction may lead to frustrations at times. Ballance in contrast does support a very precise and direct keyboard control not suffering from occasional glitches like Switchball.

3) The paper ball of Ballance is something missing in Switchball. I loved the intricacies of the tumbling paper ball in Ballance. Switchball supports new game ideas, such as jumping, magnetic and boosted balls; the lovely and simple paper ball would have been a very nice addition to Switchball, though.

Wrapping up, I very much welcome Sierra's Switchball. My kids did and do have quite some fun with this game, albeit they still miss the atmosphere conveyed by Ballance. By all means, keep those games coming - lovely and timeless game idea. I just hope that the creators of Ballance may get together again creating further sequels to Ballance, or help other companies in this endeavour and provide their expertise in creating captivating game atmospheres.

Marble Madness for the 21st Century

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: December 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have a soft spot for the classic 80s arcade game "Marble Madness" and so any game using balls, contraptions, and mazes gets my attention.

Switchball is fascinating, highly-addicting, action-puzzle game. The object is simple, get the ball from one side of the course to the other. I've played through the first 10 levels and each level introduces new challenges and inventive ways to progress through the maze. Tunnels, air fans, magnets, cannons, helium inflators, movable crates - all contribute to the challenge and keep the game from getting boring.

In addition to the hand-eye coordination needed to properly maneuver the ball, each maze offers up some logical problem solving scenarios that remind me of interactive puzzle games like Myst. So with Switchball, you get the best of both worlds. And it's a great game for kids since there is nothing objectionable about it.

The game could easily rate 5 stars if it weren't for the difficulty in learning how to properly move the ball. I prefer to use the arrow keys over the mouse. After playing for a while you get used to it. In addition, it would be nice to "lock" the camera angle after moving it from the default position - although that might make the game too easy.

Boring

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: November 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this due to an Amazon recommendation. I find it boring and difficult to keep control of the ball. It was a waste of money

A Fun, Challenging Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Switchball is a challenging game that remains fun at every level in the game.
I bought the PC version and would say you definitely need to purchase a game controller (it usually connects through a USB port) in order to play the game effectively and efficiently. I have a simple Logitech game controller and can't imagine playing this game on my computer without using one.
There are about 6 or 7 levels in the game. You start out with the first level and proceed through about 6 different puzzles within each level. Upon completion of the first level, you unlock the next level and so on. The game gets progressively more difficult as you complete each level. There are "Save" checkpoints within each puzzle so if you fall off the puzzle platform, you will restart at the last Save checkpoint. The problem with this is that as you move to the later levels, the puzzles become more difficult and the "Save" checkpoints become fewer and farther inbetween. This can lead to a lot of frustration when you end up having to re-do a large portion of a puzzle because there aren't as many "Save" checkpoints in it.
There are some hidden paths in a few of the puzzles. If you play the timed version of the puzzles, you can win different medal awards which don't give you anything in the game other than bragging rights.
You can do a search on YouTube for videos of solutions to a puzzle/level in the game. Some of the videos are just for the quickest way through the game which isn't always helpful but at least you know the levels can be solved.
Overall, if you enjoy puzzle games, I recommend Switchball for you.

This delivers what they promise

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I wanted a up to date game to play in the 30 minutes prior to shuting down my computer each day. Kind of a fun way to end a long day of work.
This Switchball game works perfect for this purpose. The game is simple but challenging. It is easy to put down or can be run for a long period of time.
Amazon was great..arrived on the exact date they identified....price was reasonable.

Lame.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game expands upon the original marble ball game of the NES from like 1988. Unfortunately much of the new things are in the first half of the game. The setup of each level is different, while the style never changes. The camera will change angles automatically for you, but as far as I know you cannot lock another camera view of your choosing. The upper levels are definitely challenging, in a make-you-want-to-pull-your-hair-out kind of way. It isn't that the puzzles are difficult, it's that it just takes skill with the mouse to get the ball to go the correct direction. It is hard to give this game a terrible review, because it was only $20 brand new. It is by no means a quality game however. Another annoying thing is the resolution is maxed out at 1024 x 768. Not every game company can makes games like Halo. One good thing is the physics engine used seems realistic, but all in all I'd skip this one.

Fun ball roller/puzzle hybrid

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

While at first it may look like you're average ball roller, this is much more of a puzzle game than Marble Madness or Super Monkey Ball ever thought about being. With roughly 80% of the game completed the difficulty curve has been very smooth. For the most part the puzzles are physics based. None have been brain busters so far but once you know what it do it can be difficult to pull it off.

The background light techno is relaxing. Graphics are clean and attractive. The physics are very well done which is to be expected in a game built around them. There is no built in vsync option for this game and I got some noticeable screen tearing when I first loaded it up. After forcing vsync through the Nvida control panel (which can also be done in the ATI control panel) it looked great.

Long story short; the game is fun. I would recommend it.

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