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Fizzball

We've run FilePlanet for a long time, and you'd think that by now we'd have learned not to judge a game from a screenshot. FizzBall, from Grubby Games, proves the rule. Looking at the screens, you might be tempted to think this is a simplistic casual game that only appeals to kids. You might be tempted to skip over it. Wrong, wrong. Wrong.


Sure, kids will love FizzBall -- there's even a special kids' mode with little quizzes -- but the gameplay is brilliant enough to hook all ages. Even crotchety editors like us. You might remember the developer, Grubby Games, from last year's Professor Fizzwizzle Demo, another IGF finalist. In both cases the developer uses wonderfully expressive animations and bright, colorful art to accent some deep gameplay.

FizzBall plays as a cross between "Katamari Damacy" and the arcade classic "Arkanoid." See, something is making all the animals in the forest sick, and Professor Fizzwizzle has decided to solve the problem the way any rational scientist would: by inventing a giant bubble that grows bigger as it sucks up and captures animals. You bat the FizzBall around using a giant bumper on train tracks, and the object is to keep it in play by moving the bumper back and forth along the bottom of the screen.

The FizzBall mercilessly smashes through everything in the level -- bashing off of crates, crashing through fences, or rattling trees. At first the tiny FizzBall is barely big enough to pick up acorns and apples, so you'll bounce off of all the animals (who moo, squawk, squeak, and quack as you pound into them). Later it'll grow big enough to start scooping them up. Faster, Fizzwizzle! Save the wee animals!

Grubby Games manages to take that simple idea and run with it in ways you'd never expect. Smashing crates will drop powerups toward the bottom of the screen, things that allow you to fire lasers or make the FizzBall move faster. You've also got special "Superfans" attached to your paddle that allow you to blow the FizzBall at weird angles or faster speeds. Every few levels you'll have a special bonus round, where you try to catch as many monkeys as possible or smash the most crates in the shortest amount of time. And everything in the level is interactive: for instance, hit a chicken with a small FizzBall and it'll squawk and lay an egg. You can gobble up the egg to get a bigger FizzBall... hopefully big enough to scoop up the chicken.

Really hardcore players can start earning medals, collecting them the way you would Xbox Live achievements. The medals are challenging: Like collecting a momma duck and then all her ducklings in order. Or destroying everything breakable on a level.

FizzBall reeled us in and kept us smiling, level after level. Don't pass it up!


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