So, Cyclops BallZ. Doesn’t contain cyclopes. Does contain balls, though. Whether these are regular balls, or the presumably far more exciting “ballZ” of the title, is left to the player’s imagination. Essentially, it’s a first-person game of one-on-one dodgeball. And instead of playing against another human, you get to play against a range of ‘whacky’ characters: monsters, dogs, plants… though, as already mentioned, no cyclops.

And, er, that’s it. The game is controlled by swiping at the ball as it gets near you. The direction you swipe imparts a degree of control on the ball, and as you’re playing in a narrow corridor you can bounce the ball off the walls, ceiling and floor. Fail to hit the ball at the right moment and it’ll sail past/through you, and your opponent will score. First to five points wins.

The game is quite nice looking – full 3D, with the tilt sensor in your phone allowing you to ‘lean’ left or right, adjusting your perspective slightly. Neatly, this also works in the menu screen. Indeed, if I had to think of one thing to particularly praise the game for, it’s the main menu: it’s attractive, uncluttered and well presented. So top marks there, Brontes Processing!

Unfortunately, as that choice of praise might suggest, there’s not as many nice things to say about the gameplay. The control system works, but feels a bit too ineffectual: while your swipes have some effect on the ball, it’s actually quite mild, so you don’t feel that much in control – the game ends up feeling less a game of skill, and more about endurance, as you just have to survive long enough for your computer opponent to mess up. More than that though, it feels like it was designed to be a more full-bodied experience: a Wii-like game, that would suit full body motion better than swiping at a screen: and indeed, a bit of research reveals that Brontes Processing normally make games designed to be played using a webcam.

There are a couple of modes to try: Campaign is the core mode as described above, which has five opponents to defeat. On top of that there’s an Action mode, which sees you trying to hit a static opponent. As your opponent has no effect on the ball’s direction, this mode seems a little more skill-oriented, but again proves uninspiring: it’s a simply high score mode, where you try to hit your target as many times as possible with three balls. And that’s your lot. Well, there is also a Training mode, but bizarrely that’s the one mode left out of the trial – quite why you’d want to stop people demoing your game from learning how to play it I don’t know.

Sadly, the game isn’t satisfying, deep, or varied enough for me to justify shelling out for the full release – and that has to be my recommendation to others. It’s worth a try – as said, the game at least looks quite nice, and you may get more out of it than I did, but don’t expect anything spectacular.

Cyclops BallZ Gameplay Video

Cyclops BallZ Screenshots

Version Under Review : 1.0.1.0 ( Trial )

Website : Brontes Processing, ( alternate site ) Twitter : @marekczech ; Facebook ; check out what gamers are saying about it in our Gaming Forum

There is a trial version available and the full version is available for $2.99, In trial your ranking is not saved when you play Career Mode

Our Rating for Cyclops BallZ

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