DX-Ball
| Externals |
| Longbow Digi. Arts |
| Gamehippo |
We got DX-Ball from a friend of Gustav's, or more exactly from some CD full of small games and demos that we borrowed from him. I played this game when I listened to my first Mp3:s, on repeat, since the combination was about the heaviest load the computer could take without completely choking. It's still the nicest and most addictive Arcanoid clone I've played so far, which made a download irresistible when I spotted it at Gamehippo.
In case you missed out on some classic gaming history an Arcanoid (or Megaballs, I haven't played this and I don't know which came first) clone is a game where you control a paddle moving left and right on the bottom of the screen. You use the paddle to bounce a ball against bricks on the screen. Miss the ball when it comes down anf you lose it. Bounces make the bricks disappear, clear the screen to move on to the next level. A cleared brick may also drop a bonus which you can pick up by touching it with the paddle as it falls down. Yeah, that's about it. Back to the lecture ...
Anyway, DX-Ball does all those little things right, so that whenever I try another clone I miss something there that DX-Ball has. Like how bonuses you catch work together, letting you have both lasers, meteor balls and multiple balls (even several multiples!) at the same time. Or how a lightning bolt will remove the final brick if you fail to hit it for long enough. Or how the game can break otherwise infinite bouncing loops after a while, always provide a way out if you get stuck. And there's the pacing of the levels, the amount of bonuses, and so on. I may seem a bit bought, but I really am doing this of own free will :-) ...
Also, the graphics just scream Amiga, something I completely fail to see as a bad thing, especially for a game of this type. Just look at those digits used for the score display, mmm ...
Oh, and all this is about DX-Ball version 1.x. Appearantly Longbow Digital Arts has created a DX-Ball 2, that seems to have vastly improved graphics among other things, but that one I haven't played. Yet ...
