PDA

View Full Version : Game of the Day 1/22/2016: On the Ball



celerystalker
01-22-2016, 12:58 AM
8428A port to the SNES of Taito's arcade game Cameltry, On the Ball is an odd sort of puzzle game that doesn't have a ton of imitators. On a 2D maze, your goal is to guide a ball to the goal of each level within a given time limit, accruing points along the way for high score. The catch, though, is that you don't control the focal point of the screen, the ball... you control the maze.

In one of the best uses of mode 7 graphics, you use the shoulder buttons to spin the maze clockwise or counter-clockwise, avoiding obastacles that will slow your progress, or worse, steal precious seconds off of your timer. There are four courses with several stages in each, and as you clear each stage, you carry remaining seconds over to the next within the same course. This is vital, as the time limits become increasingly stingy as the mazes become more complex.

On the Ball is a blast, and the original arcade game (Cameltry) can be found on Taito Legends 2 on PS2 in the US. I stumbled across this one in 1999 when I was working at FuncoLand, and I'd change out the games in the displays every day to keep things interesting, and I got hooked.

Anybody like it?

FieryReign
01-22-2016, 01:33 AM
That game is crack. Played the hell out of Cameltry on that Taito compilation.

Niku-Sama
01-22-2016, 01:44 AM
I played it as a rental once and it annoyed the crap outta me. That and marble madness. I just couldn't get into it

Aussie2B
01-22-2016, 01:50 AM
Love, love, loooooooove On the Ball. One of the happy accidents of my childhood. I had played and liked Revenge of the Gator on a borrowed Game Boy, and since all I had at the time was a SNES (and I was completely oblivious to what was available for it), I asked my mom for a pinball SNES game for Christmas or my birthday or some such, not knowing that there were basically no pinball games in the US SNES library. I ended up with On the Ball instead, but I wasn't disappointed at all. Besides just being really fun, it's got a funky, interesting atmosphere about it. The music, background graphics, the weird "inspirational posters" you get for clearing stages, it makes for a bizarre, captivating experience. I played the heck out of the game in the 90s, and I specifically got Taito Legends 2 for Cameltry but it's not nearly as good. I also got Labyrinth for DS, but it also pales in comparison.

Emperor Megas
01-22-2016, 05:02 PM
I never heard of this game. I am familiar with Cameltry, though I wasn't a huge fan. I'll keep an eye out for this sequel though.

celerystalker
01-22-2016, 07:07 PM
Love, love, loooooooove On the Ball. One of the happy accidents of my childhood. I had played and liked Revenge of the Gator on a borrowed Game Boy, and since all I had at the time was a SNES (and I was completely oblivious to what was available for it), I asked my mom for a pinball SNES game for Christmas or my birthday or some such, not knowing that there were basically no pinball games in the US SNES library. I ended up with On the Ball instead, but I wasn't disappointed at all. Besides just being really fun, it's got a funky, interesting atmosphere about it. The music, background graphics, the weird "inspirational posters" you get for clearing stages, it makes for a bizarre, captivating experience. I played the heck out of the game in the 90s, and I specifically got Taito Legends 2 for Cameltry but it's not nearly as good. I also got Labyrinth for DS, but it also pales in comparison.

I love those little posters... a ball on a cliff overlooking a sunset... it's wonderfully odd. It added a lot of personality beyond being just another puzzle game.