Ballhala Review

Platform: PC
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB: Everyone
Number of players: 1
Publisher: Big Fish Games
Official Website
Writer: Dawn

Rating : 5.9 Skip

Okay, basically the object of this game is to rescue Widget and Proto (trusted cat and robot) from a parallel dimension they slipped into from Professor Quark’s laboratory by accident when Widget jumped into the portal at the same time as Proto. The player starts by accumulating energy, creating matter balls of greater and greater weight. The more weight, the more energy collected. At the end of each level, jigsaw type puzzle pieces are awarded and when there is enough after a set of levels, completion of the puzzle in either ‘drop and slide’ or ‘turn and trade’ methods grants a clue to figure out where they are, who they’re with, and how to get them home safely. Player performance (speed, number of attempts, etc.) doesn’t affect the story at all.

I think the idea of the game is good. The execution of it was, quite frankly, a little disappointing. The first major chunk of the story, which is revealed before gameplay even starts, actually tries too hard to explain too much, therefore lacking eloquence. Then, we’re shown a little bit more of the story after 6 levels of play, plus a bonus level, plus the puzzle. It would be preferable, perhaps, to start (and end, which I will get to soon enough) with less story, so that players could get more story more often along the way, creating more of the fun puzzle rounds and less time/ work in between story pieces. The bits of story the player does get within the game portion, are slightly puzzling themselves and don’t really give a clear picture of what’s happening. After levels and levels of the same thing basically over and over, the last large chunk of story is finally shown, which, to me, makes it seem as though they said, ‘Okay, we have made them play long enough, we’d better just put the rest of the story here’.

Graphics:
The colors in this game are beautiful, and the characters are actually cute, which was a good initial appeal. Also, the lighting is as pleasant as it is functional, creating more of a dynamic between different parts of the game (especially giving extra emphasis to the mega- and giga- balls you can create). The story part is told through Polaroids (some of which were supposed to be taken by Proto the robot, but include him?), which I also found unexciting. I am not sure that is a graphics weakness as opposed to a general design flaw, however. I will say that I didn’t get tired of looking at the game, which is a plus seeing as it’s all the same level basically, with slightly different challenges and occasional addition of color. Overall, graphics, though simple, are the best part of this game.

Controls:
It’s mouse-based… mostly just clicking. It’s a minor twist on the match 3 type games we all know and love. Instead of switching places to match 3, the player clicks on a colored energy ball that is surrounded on 2 or 4 sides completely by another color to absorb the adjacent balls’ weight. Some of the other tasks include picking up and dropping or right clicking to rotate puzzle pieces, and moving the mouse left and right to rotate the machine to hit your mega- and giga- balls with a meteor within the container (completely random bonus point accumulator). This particular maneuver I found slightly annoying, especially with my optical mouse. I found that if I moved to fast, it just threw the pointer to the left, which rotated the machine quite rapidly to the left, eating up time and not allowing me to bonus. Other than that particular agitation, controls are easy and pretty basic.

Sound:
Eh. The sound didn’t bother me until about midway through the game. There are a couple of melodies it plays in a semi-futuristic genre that seem to run together by that point and make me want to turn it down. However, there are great sound cues that it helps tremendously to pay attention to. One of these is when the container is about to tip out of balance, the music warps slightly faster – which I did really take notice of and like.

Flow:
As I have more than alluded to before, it’s pretty much the same level over and over, which disrupts the flow and makes the game sort of anti-climatic. There are aspects of challenge that are included in each collection of levels, but these aspects don’t seem to increase in difficulty as the game goes on in a general sense. There are definitely more difficult levels than others; they just don’t necessarily progress that way. The puzzles within sets of levels don’t progress in difficulty, either. So, it seems like play goes on and on and on and on and then just finishes.

Fun Factor:
Ok, to be honest, I was prepared to write that it isn’t fun anymore, and after playing it, I didn’t think that I would play it again. But, then I played it to refresh myself to write about it and get some things right, and got sucked in for a couple of hours. The fun factor for me is in the competition with myself. I also try to ace the time, which sometimes seems impossible. The intricacies (though some make the game more frustrating) of the levels are entertaining and challenging enough to make me want to finish the game (just don’t move the clothesline – it will seem overwhelming to see how far it goes on). It’s just how disjointed gameplay is from the story and the lack of flow that make it less fun.

Female Aspect:
I don’t think that there are any female characters. To be fair, there are only 3 and the cat is purple… maybe Widget is a girl. But it’s Widget’s fault we are in this mess anyway… The player is him or herself, though. So, if you’re a girl, like I am, there you have it.

Replay Value:
This is a game I would say skip in the first place. But there are many things to keep playing. The adventure is re-playable, as are individual levels (to improve scores or times), but there are also extra-adventure modes – relax mode and time challenges – which might be worth a try if you do have the game… maybe trying relax mode before starting the adventure will give good practice and enable speedier completion.

Thanks for reading! Dawn