#IDARB Review (Xbox One)

The last few years have seen an ever-increasing reliance on crowdsourcing in the gaming industry, as developers count on fans to provide feedback on their projects, money via crowdfunding, or just solutions to bugs and glitches.

Other Ocean Interactive followed a similar route with #IDARB, its latest effort, which combines its own idea with all sorts of concepts and mechanics provided by fans, while allowing a high degree of interaction during the actual matches.

The game is now available on the Xbox One, for free if you have a premium Xbox Live Gold subscription, so fans can finally see if their work has paid off and resulted in a delightful experience.

Does #IDARB manage to paint a cohesive picture or should it focus more on its original aspects? Let's find out.

Story

#IDARB doesn't have an actual plot per se, but it does feature a single-player campaign that eases players into its basic yet hectic gameplay. You play a regular guy but go up against a wide array of different rivals, from crazy shamans to a group of animals from Old McDonald's farm, which go on to become breakfast elements (pig turns into bacon, etc.) during a later stage.

The campaign is hilarious even if it's only told through the sequences before the start of the next match. It also complements the random nature of the game and manages to keep things wacky yet simple.

The Tilt hashbomb in action in #IDARB

Gameplay

The core premise of #IDARB is to take a ball and throw it into the goal of the other player/team. You can play it alone, 1v1, or in different combinations up to a total of eight players. While one-on-one the experience can require some strategy and timing, when more players get added, things quickly go sideways.

You can jump, double-jump, and perform an action that can result in you throwing the ball, if you have it in your possession, or causing the rival to lose control of it, if you're in their vicinity. As such, you'll more or less have to keep jumping around the environment, trying to get the ball into your possession while preventing rivals from getting their mitts on it.

Throwing the ball takes some time to get used to, but you'll soon be able to figure out trickshots and combinations that ensure as many points as possible for your side. You can simply walk through the goal with the ball in your possession for one point, you can throw it from nearby for two points, or from a greater distance for three or five points. There are, of course, multipliers, depending on how many bounces the ball registered before getting inside the goal, or if you performed combos like alley oops.

If you're playing with others, you can also pass the ball from one another but this leaves the door open for interceptions and turnarounds from the other team, so it's often better to just run with the ball for as long as possible.

The layout of the level doesn't change, as it features platforms that are solid or some that can be jumped through. Navigating through the stage takes some time to get used to, but after a few matches, which are composed of four rounds each, you'll soon be able to make your way through it easily and with style.

“However, one of the defining aspects of #IDARB is the hashbomb. It’s comprised of different temporary modifiers that are added by the game during a match.”

These can create doppelgangers of the characters, effectively doubling the number of players, tilt the level from side to side, and even introduce complete darkness, all drastically altering the gameplay for at least a few moments.

#IDARB, like the hashtag in its name suggests, is also reliant on Twitter and even has a scroll bar with all the latest mentions of the actual name. This can be both good and bad, as some genuinely funny remarks can be spotted but also some deeply offending ones.

When you're not playing the actual matches, you can enter a fantasy league in which you can bet virtual money on one of two teams of AI-controlled players and then admire their matches to see if you're a winner or a loser. You can also drop hashbombs to try and affect the result but these can always end up backfiring.

You can choose from a variety of characters or just create your own, but try to make them stand out, as in the hectic battles you'll often lose track of your own little guy or gal.

While overall the game performs pretty well, there are a few control quirks, as the character can end up going in a different direction despite the analog stick being firmly pointed the other way. Some collisions aren't detected all that well and the replay for some goals will certainly draw attention on them.

Multiplayer

#IDARB can be played by up to four people locally and eight players online. While you and your local friends can use the matchmaking system to go up against a team of the same number of players, you can't create a party with another friend online and then use the matchmaking mechanic.

You aren't missing that much, however, as online matches are plagued by lag and sluggish movements, so at least until things are patched up, you might want to limit yourself to the local brawls.

Visuals and sound

#IDARB boasts a great pixelated style that manages to feel impressive and fluid even in the most hectic of situations. The framerate is at 60fps and keeps everything as responsive as possible, with the exception of the online matches, as mentioned above.

The soundtrack is great, as are the audio effects, but what really stands out is the narrator, who quotes everything from famous movies to Internet memes and much more, amplifying the action on the screen similarly to how NBA Jam's announcers do.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion

#IDARB is a fun experience when it comes to local co-op play, offering enough wacky elements to keep its general premise as interesting as possible. Unfortunately, control issues, poor online matches, and a few other problems keep it from really impressing.

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