Impossiball

Review

The tension is at its peak . . . both of the contestants focus strongly on the screen ahead. The start is imminent! One of the contestants is on the keyboard and the other holds a gamepad firmly. Does one of them hold an advantage over the other with the choice of their apparatus? Personally, I don’t think so. After all, it’s a game of impossiball!

Impossiball is revamp with twists of the famous Atari arcade game, “Pong,” where you can play 1vs1 or 2vs2 in a few unique modes, as well as the classic design with retro graphics for those of the 70’s and 80’s vintage, like myself.

On the main menu, you can choose to start a game straight away, or change your preferences in regards to the options or controls, and find out a little more about the modes by clicking on the instructions tab.

We all know how the game pong works . . . right?! Just in case, each player has a rectangular bar (like the classic game) at their disposal on each side of the screen. The goal is to make sure your opponent misses the ball and you score a point. On the Impossibal mode, 500 white balls appear in random waves, so to speak, and spread out equally on both sides of the screen. The rectangle bars are now ships (red and blue) that you can rotate left and right on a 30 degree angle, as well as moving them up and down. The trick is to touch as many of these balls as possible, which then become your ship’s colour (red in this case). Each time one of these balls manages to get past a ship and through to the other side, you score a point. You can also save points. Well, when you touch a blue ball, it become red and returns to your opponent’s side of the screen. As long as you’ve touched the blue ball and it has turned red, no points are given against you. Same with the white balls, by the way.  The fun bit is that both parties are in the same situation; it’s hectic! Bear in mind, some balls keep bouncing from one side to the other and gather speed; more speed equals more points for the player who manages to get these balls through. You can also choose how long the game goes for; for example, the first player to reach 1,000, 2,000 or up to 20,000 points (quite a long game, I must say)!

In the dodgeball mode, you have to doge the balls. They start small and grow rapidly. The bigger the ball you touch, the more points your opponent receives.

There are power plays that can either help you or go against you.  Icons pop up in the middle of the screen and all you have to do is to have one of your balls touch it first in order to activate it for a few seconds. For example, the shield icon activates a barrier behind your ship so that no balls can get through. Another power play can minimise your ship, making it harder to hit balls.

There are four types of view available to play: classic, vertical (which is my favourite), behind the ship, and the cockpit view.

In terms of the difficulty, it’s hard, regardless of whether you play against a friend or the AI. Mind you, you do have the ability to change the difficulty from easy to hard against the computer. Still hard!

Fun graphics and soundtrack. The game runs very well and the fluidity is superb. Control-wise, they are responsive whether you use the keyboard or gamepad. It might take a while to master.