MadBalls Babo Invasion

8/10

MadBalls Babo Invasion Screenshots

Game Description

If somebody asked you what Madballs were you may struggle to remember what they were talking about but once you have seen the rubbery, gooey ball with a face that you squeeze to pull an even weirder face you are bound to remember (If you are over the age of 20). You will be pleased to know that there is now a game available through Xbox Live Arcade dedicated to these ugly but fun toys.

Madballs in Babo: Invasion is as you can image quite a disgusting game with brown scenes, green rivers full of toxic waste and splattered effects everywhere you look but when you first play it you get the feel that this shoot em up is just a tarted up version of the classic Geometry Wars with the masses of multiplier pickups.

As you work your way through the single player campaign you will be guiding your Madball along thin passage ways and along ledges with tons of bubbling larva below so if you need to drop down onto another ledge, one slip and your Madball is melted. You will be required to shoot enemies and flick switches to open games and at the end of each level you will try and conquer a boss which gets slightly tougher each time.

Each different Madball has its own special trick which can make you fly around like a pinball on speed or grow to a massive size to roll over and crush your enemies. You can change which Madball you play as at every checkpoint so you have a range of options to get you through the level once you are used to each special ability.

The multiplayer mode makes you scrap all of the planning aspect of the single player game and just go all out attack. The controls and speed make the need for planning go out of the window and just hold on and try and keep control of your Madball.

In the multiplayer modes, the incentives towards teamwork and planning built into the creative game modes are, in practice, discarded for an everyman-for-himself approach. The simplicity of the core game mechanics combined with the speed and precise control of the ball avatars scuppers the need for real long-view tactics and planning. This gives you a super high speed ball being pinged around the screen which is slightly crazy but it is somewhat fun.