Psychedelic flashing lights, hard pounding techno and balls tumbling might sound like a night down at the disco but it is actually a good description of BallRoller. In BallRoller you get to control the level, and the ball simply falls downwards or rolls in the direction inertia forces it. The game is a 2-d maze roller where you have to pick up a set number of orbs to complete the level. There is a set time limit, and if you don’t make it in time you have to start over.
In the earlier levels you only get challenged by the time limit alone but soon other obstacles gets thrown in the mix. Spiky objects that can’t be touched, and traps stealing your precious time add quite a challenge.
There are two ways to control BallRoller, but it is only the touch method that works. Just touch any side of the screen to rotate the level 90 degrees in that direction. Inertia will move the ball, and by quickly rotating back and forth it soon becomes quite easy to control the game. The second method is using the accelerometer and it is far from easy to use. The game actually warns about this when you select it as control method.
There is whopping 50 levels to complete in three different difficulties, giving a massive 150 retries to master the game.
I really enjoy playing BallRoller as it looks fantastic, sounds fantastic but most of all it has that truly addictive draw where you have to try a level one more time.
Presentation and graphics
Evolving and changing colours affecting the entire game, background, pickups and balls all constantly change. New background patterns come and go. It is really quite surrealistic playing BallRoller. The menus are boring, and lower the experience somewhat.
Sound
Fast fresh techno blast across the levels a great level of energy. Sound effects are nothing special but don’t annoy either. You can turn off the music to use your own music together with the sound effects.
Game play
Easy to get into, and yet hard to master. The controls are good, and I feel in charge of the action even though I don’t control the ball directly.
Levels get progressively harder, and the game soon becomes addictive.
Game life
BallRoller gives you a lot of levels, and replay value in the form of harder difficulties giving you shorter time to complete the levels. You have to complete a level before continuing to the next, which might make some players resign when facing too hard challenges early on. There are no achievements or unlockables in BallRoller.
Final rating
BallRoller is a good ball rolling game, with great controls, cool trippy graphics and an upbeat soundtrack.
