Strike Ball 3

The brick-busting genre is one of gaming’s oldest chestnuts, and this time Strike Ball 3 is up. The third game in the series from Russian developer Owl Games, Strike Ball 3 builds upon its predecessors very well.

The original Strike Ball was a rudimentary 3D ball-breaker, but provided decent fun. The sequel, Strike Ball 2 was an enormous step up from the original that featured a slew of power-ups and great level design.

It must be said that compared to the step up from the original to the sequel, Strike Ball 3 is less revolutionary compared to Strike Ball 2. However, the changes are very important, and fundamentally alter the gameplay.

When booted up for the first time, check out all the graphics options. If you have a higher-end computer, you’ll be able to tweak all sorts of special effects like color depth and reflections. While these options are purely aesthetic, they really add a high level of polish and sparkle to the game. It’s a shame that a number of casual gamers’ rigs probably won’t be able to handle the upper-end graphics to see the game as it could be, but fear not: even on the lowest settings, Strike Ball 3 is still quite pretty.

But we’re not here to look at all the lovely scenery, right? It’s time to unleash some mammoth destruction!

The biggest addition to Strike Ball 3 is the PhysX engine, powered by nVidia. Basically, this means that if you knock a box over, the game will calculate exactly how it will tumble, roll or ricochet off other objects. Right off the bat, the advantages to adding this are obvious: Imagine a giant tower built of destructible bricks. You break its foundations. As the bricks fall, they sprawl all over the level, dynamically changing the playfield. Now add four balls each ricocheting off each other, and you can begin to imagine some of the chaotic joy in Strike Ball 3.

The level designs take great advantage of this physics engine, but that’s not the only ace up Strike Ball 3’s sleeve. Items play a huge role in the game. There are helpful items, like bombs that explode all the scenery, or hindering items like ball speed-ups or paddle-shrinkers. But best of all, there are levels designed specifically around items. For instance, metal bricks cannot be destroyed by the standard ball. However, there is one machine that doles out homing missile power-ups. Start collecting those, and the metal blocks can be decimated, allowing your ball to go in and take care of business. Power-ups are also cumulative, so if you get a 2x power-up, then a 3x and fireball, suddenly there are six flaming spheres of annihilation at your control.

In a new feature for the series, these items are upgrable. Levels are littered with collectible stars. Between each of the 100 levels, you can buy upgrades for items with these starts, both for positive and negative items. An upgrade for a positive item could be more ammunition for a machine gun upgrade, or extra time for a protective energy barrier. An upgrade for a negative item lessens the item’s impact, like reducing the amount of time your ball’s trajectory goes nuts with the Crazy Ball item. After a few levels, the amount of control over your destruction goes up.

Speaking of control, Strike Ball 3 adds a new twist to your paddle in the form of a magnetic control. If you find that the ball is just not going where you want it to, you can press your left mouse button, and the paddle actively draws the ball towards it. It’s a great feature, and as the levels get more complex, it’s very helpful.

If there’s one aspect in which Strike Ball 3 falls, it’s the music. The level of excitement the music brings falls somewhere between an elevator and my dentist’s waiting room. There aren’t enough tracks for the length of this game, and the tracks that are there are a little too easy-going compared to the gameplay. Also, with such complicated physics and graphics engines at work, there is occasional slowdown during the game.

Overall, though, Strike Ball 3 is a great, dynamic ball-breaker that is definitely more than your average time-waster. It’s amazing that, after all these years, there are still new ways to move the genre ahead. The improvements from one Strike Ball game to the next have been fantastic. Sign me up for Strike Ball 4 on its release day!
Review by David Stone
Gamezebo, Inc.

Believe in Santa

For those who haven’t already gobbled their fill of Diner Dash and overdosed on holiday cheer, there’s no better way to ring in this Christmas than with similarly-styled outing Believe in Santa.

One of the most unabashedly gleeful titles we’ve ever played, it’s as much a spastic arcade experience as ode to seasonal consumerism that’s all-too-easy to get hooked on. Thank the title’s brilliant cartoon visuals, snow-filled intro screen, comic book-style story interludes and a fun-filled guest appearance by old St. Nick himself.

Well, that and a steady array of 40 speedy, mouse-mashing challenges featuring 25 different presents and a dozen different consumer types to keep you constantly hopping…

The story in a nutshell: Highlight-haired heroine Sandy visits her grandmother, who owns a gift shop, every year about this time. Only things have suddenly taken a turn for the worse; the bank’s about to foreclose on the store if she can’t pay back a $10,000 loan in record time. Thankfully, Santa appears and offers up two of his elves as handy helpers, who’ll assist Sandy as she hits the factory floor and cash register, hoping to please enough patrons and earn enough scratch to get grams out of hock.

So there you find yourself – at the candy-colored, animated boutique or mall kiosk – when the action begins. In the center of the screen rests a conveyor belt, upon which toys (cars, teddy bears, planes, action figures, etc.) appear when you pull the lever. Below, to the left and right, sit cherubic elves and several jars of paint in various colors ranging from red to blue, violet and gold. At the top of the display lounges a retail counter, at which customers arrive in steadily increasing volume as the timer, depicted as a ticking clock representing official store hours, counts down.

To the left-hand side of your monitor, you’ll also spot a display case where varyingly shaped/colored gift boxes wait. On the right, there’s a wastebasket for dumping botched creations, and a rack of cards and bowl of candy canes, which can be dragged and dropped onto customers to improve their mood.

Your goal: To make as much money as possible by frantically filling orders for these shoppers, whose happiness – depicted via heart-shaped icons above their head – wanes with each passing second. Hence the action plays out as follows…

Check the speech bubble by each customer to see a picture of the specific toy they want. Grab it off the conveyor belt (or summon a new batch of goods by pressing the lever), then hand it to the appropriate elf for painting. Once made, deliver it to the buyer for a cash reward, or add extras like balloons, flags, gift boxes and bows as needed before doing so. Collect the loot and move on to the next patron.

Mind you, the further along a board game-type map you move, the harder things get. The trick here’s learning how to queue up multiple actions to most effectively respond to the hordes of shoppers who soon start hassling you while making a minimum of errors. And, of course, deciding who to please first or temporarily ignore, depending on their maximum cheer level (which varies, and affects your ultimate payout) or whether a visiting clown is present to help you entertain them.

Repetitive as scenarios get – there are only so many flustered businessmen/women, flashbulb-snapping tourists and smiling grannies you can hand model roadsters or boy scouts ponies (don’t ask) before becoming frustrated – the outing still proves enjoyable nonetheless. Battle through some minor control issues, e.g. problems canceling actions, being unable to correct production errors while they’re happening and issues with accurately dropping tiny candy canes on customers’ heads while under the gun, and you’ll not only gain access to new background settings, patrons and toys. You’ll also get to decorate shops with cabinets, curtains, pictures and potted plants, plus access bonuses like gloves and magic potions which speed up the production process.

Besides, even for us Scrooge-like reviewers, it’s hard to say “bah, humbug” in the face of an awesome presentation featuring stunning visuals and jazzy, upbeat versions of seasonal tunes like “Oh Christmas Tree,” “Deck the Halls” and our personal favorite, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Which, naturally, those who pick this one up will undoubtedly enjoy…

Review by Scott Steinberg
Gamezebo, Inc.

Cake Mania 3

Help Jill work her cake-making magic to get back in time for her wedding!
Cake Mania 3
In this third part of the Cake Mania series, Jill confronts her greatest challenge yet — planning her dream wedding! Disaster strikes when a mysterious time bender crashes to the ground and shatters into pieces. As Jill’s family and friends rush to pick up the scattered shards, they are suddenly sent hurtling through time. Now, to ensure her wedding goes off without a hitch, Jill herself must travel to through time — from Ancient Egypt to an unknown future — and work her cake-making magic in order to get herself and her guests back before the ceremony begins!