Ballhalla

First things first... I do not care if anyone is tired of puzzles... This one is worth your time... Especially since it's pretty different from the stuff we're used to seeing around. It contains balls, but it's not a ususal 3-match-swap puzzle... or any other kind of swap puzzle around.

Second... The characters are adorable... and there's a story. By now I'm sure you must be wondering what the heck I'm talking about. The name of the game is "Ballhalla" (of course reference to Valhalla). The story begins with the Professor Quark who managed to design the Insta-Matter Transporter. This gizmo is a machine which provides pathways to strange, mysterious and distant new worlds.

The one who gets to explore this new world is the professor's mechanical friend, Proto. But of course, something goes very wrong, and the professor's beloved cat, called Widget, is also transported to another realm.

The professor wants his cat back and in order to do that he must put together photographic clues, by combing energy balls. These balls will power-up the machine that will give out the photos that the professor needs to recreate Proto's and Widget's paths.

Now that we know the story, we can start with the game-play. In this section, all I can say is that this game is a unique twist on action-puzzlers. Your job is to absorb more balls into one. This will work if a ball is between other two balls of different colors. The challenge comes when you realize that the board you're playing is in constant movement and you must keep a balance.

If you swap too many balls in one of the sides, the "bucket" will have the tendency to tip over. In his case, you must start swapping balls from the other side of the bucket to maintain the balance. If you can't do this, the bucket will go out of balance, as a result you will lose a life.

You have 80 levels to play, 10 puzzles to solve, 16 trophies to win and 6 special power-ups to get... All in three game-play modes: Adventure, Relax and Time Challenge. Now imagine the "balance keeping action" in the Time Challenge mode. Everything goes... wild.

Now, going back to the game-play story... As you create heavier balls, a "wiper" will come across the screen to collect these balls. Those will be added to the meter that you can see below your bucket. When the meter is completely full, you will win the level.

When the Wiper comes, you will notice one thing, and that is that not all the balls will be swapped into the meter. Those which reach the weight of 10 will become Megaballs, those which reach number 20 become Gigaballs and those at 50 will become Hyperballs. These will add more power to the meter when they will be hit with a special ball that you control with your mouse.

Now it's time for the bonuses and power-ups. In the "bonus area", you will get the "5x Score Bonus" that will increase your score five times when the next wiper hits your bucket. Then you have the "breaks" that will prevent your board to tilt for 20 seconds. You can also gain an "extra life", "500 Score Bonus" (of course you get 500 points to your score) and "Illumination", bonus that will reveal the next possible matches for 20 seconds.

As a backfire to all these we have the Obstacles that will prevent the balls from falling, un-absorbable balls and bombs.

Overall, the game seems the perfect break from the usual puzzlers; and it actually is, no doubt about it. But the tilting bucket makes the game frantic at times and just gets the player to panic. Those who have troubles following patterns will have a hard time playing this.

Nevertheless... Enjoy!