Wizball

Reviewed by: DeathDude

Positive Points: Nice remake 
Interesting concept
Pretty good music

Negative Points: Very tough
Only two lives to begin

Genre: Arcade

Size: 24 806

Requirements: Windows

Questionable Content: None

Editor rating: 4.3

Homepage: http://retrospec.sgn.net/game-links.php?link=wizball

Download location: http://retrospec.sgn.net/game-links.php?link=wizball

The game of Wizball, where you play as a cough cough wizball, have to go forth and colour the world, from its drab black and white look. Of course, the world was not always black and white; you can thank the evil Zark and his sprites for this mischief. Ultimately, the fate of the world is up to you the wizball and your little side kick cat, to go forth and recolor the world and bring peace, happiness and all those fun emotions back. The objective may seem to be simple, but once you start playing Wizball you will realize it really is not all that easy. However, along the way you will encounter plenty of action, some nice sounding music and an overall interesting concept, that make this particular remake a definite standout.

As explained in the last paragraph, your objective is to use your wizball to recolour the world. However, it never will be that easy. First of all your wizball is not capable of doing the colour, your partner in crime, cat, a smaller miniature sort of wizball will aid you in collecting the colour droplets. Cat, does not start the game with your character, you must first collect a certain amount of green pearls before you will be able to call for Cat. How do you get these green pearls? It is simple; you destroy as many enemies as you can till one appears or simply a stationary molecule shape. There are a total of seven features you can activate when you receive these green pearls. Everything from better movement of your wizball, to upgrading your firepower to a smart bomb that destroys all the enemies on screen. It is up to you to decide which of these powers you wish to use, some like better movement is required if you hope to survive long enough against the many enemies along the way.

Now once you do earn the ability to use cat, you must begin to collect colour droplets in order to fill up the three coloured jars, consisting in the first level of the colours red, blue and green. How do you collect these colour droplets? Every so often in each particular level section, you will notice little coloured balls, which you must destroy using the lasers from your wizball. Once you destroy a coloured ball, by holding down the fire button you will be able to control cat and collect the colour droplet that falls from a defeated colour ball. By continuing to collect these droplets, you will eventually fill the coloured jars and when one colour is filled, you will be taken to a bonus stage where you will be able to collect more points and green pearls. When you die in the bonus stage, you will warp to the wiz-lab where you will be given the option of selecting a particular bonus from your guardian angel wizard. These bonuses are the same as collecting a green pearl, except this time, the bonus will stay with your wizball after it dies, instead of losing all your abilities when your wizball bites the dust.

Your wizball must move between one of three worlds to collect all the colours and eventually you will colour the entire landscape of each of the worlds and once you do colour all three worlds, you will be free to move onto the next level, it is a long process that will test your navigation and movement skills against the many obstacles you face along the way.

Graphically the game looks quite nice, especially once you compare it with the original game. The remake does a nice job of not only updating the look of the original commodore 64 classic, but also has its own touch to the overall look of the game, while still being faithful to the original. It looks great and once you do begin to colour each of the different worlds, you will really begin to appreciate the amount of work that was done.

The overall concept of Wizball is definitely unique if you think about it, with the many objectives you have to do. Simply controlling the wizball at first is a challenge, until you begin to collect the green pearls to help with movement and firepower. Yet you have to collect colour droplets, battle enemies, move between different worlds, collect more colour droplets, go through bonus stages and ultimately try to stay alive as much as you can. The game can get hectic in some parts, challenging you to move quickly, all the trying to defeat your enemies, there is plenty to see and do in this particular journey.

The music and sound effects in the game are also another high point in the remake. The music has a sort of ambient feeling as you are playing the game and looking for enemies or simply the coloured balls. At times, the music can be noticeable and others not so much, what with all that is going on. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable to hear and it fits the mood of the game like a glove. I certainly appreciated the soundtrack and all the effort that was made with it.

The only concerns about the game that I had was the two lives that you begin with in the game. It certainly adds to the challenge factor of the game, but ultimately when you first begin the game, and are trying to control the wizballs erratic movement, you might lose a few lives in the process. You can collect more lives, when you collect white coloured droplets, but also keep in mind you need your partner cat to collect the droplets, so sometimes you may just luck out with not getting an extra life when you may need one. It would have been great to have more than 2 lives to begin the game with, but that is just a minor concern.

If you are looking for a little bit of action, a little bit of strategy thrown in with the ability to colour a world to get that warm fuzzy feeling inside of yourself, then Wizball is the game for you to check out and see in action.