Go Mecha Ball Reviews

The quality of this game merits a positive review. It looks beautiful, plays beautiful, and has an environmental chaos to it that you just don't get in most arena roguelikes. I never knew I wanted Sonic 3D Blast with a Gun, and yet here I am. That said, I've always been frustrated when I play this game. When things are going great, they're awesome. Ping-ponging between enemies, launching them off edges, denying attacks and getting bonus damage for it with the right perks...it feels good! It feels REAL good. Then you touch a corner and get rocketed to the other side of the level. There's a lot of individual frustrations I have with this game that add up to me putting it down after just an hour of play. Metallic enemies are immune to gun damage, and they have a spawn rate of nearly, like, 40% it feels. Fortunately you only have to hit them once to break the armor, and most gadgets can crack them too, but you'll burn through cooldowns fast and it'll put an annoying hiccup in your flow. On top of that, certain enemies are just armored all the time - one from every angle. Sometimes it makes me wonder why I even *have* a gun. Then there's one enemy with a jumping attack that can't be interrupted, so there's only a single window after the slam attack, and the radial bullets it releases, for you to get your hits in. I never like fighting this enemy in particular. The camera feels just a bit too zoomed in. It's not too often when something comes flying in from offscreen, but you feel it when it does happen. Your dash roll has i-frames, so it pays to save it to protect yourself from attacks. But you gotta be rolled up to use it, and that takes a moment. So there's been a large number of times where I was ready with a dash, but due to the animation I was like .2 seconds off. Getting airborne can be fun, getting chain-bounces on enemy heads, but it can be a little annoying how long you're in the air off something like a ramp when it's happening constantly. And even the dedicated slam attack gadget isn't a fastfall. The game feels really good with a gamepad. It was definitely designed for a gamepad. But the keyboard mapping is utterly bizarre. You can rebind it, but you can't have your weapon swap on a scroll wheel, and if you rebind abilities, they'll still be on Q and E (though that's more of a bug). All these things together make this a fun but frustrating game for me, and I can't wholeheartedly recommend it as a result. But maybe these things won't bother you as much, and there's still a very well-built and fun game underneath all my little bugbears for sure.

[h1]All The Good Stuff![/h1] + My absolute, without a doubt favorite thing about Go Mecha Ball is the movement. Bumpers, giant fans, ramps, boost pads...there are plenty of really fun options to get around the levels and cause so much havoc! Slamming into an enemy and watching them fly up a half pipe to come crashing down while you fly by and knock an enemy into a giant fan as they float in the air for a moment before coming back down onto one of it's buddies, destroying them both. Just the sheer amount of creativity available is so damn cool!! + There is a great variety of upgrades, abilities, and weapons available that work well with the overall concept of the game and make things really fun. For example, there is literally a weapon that fires a cannon ball at enemies that absolutely obliterates, and there are some upgrades that allow rockets to spawn from the projectiles you fire, and some enemies even explode in huge blasts when you kill them. Outside of those zany options, the game does a good job of allowing players to craft runs to their style. Love getting in and smashing enemies to bits? Check. Long range guns, and more movement? Check. The myriad of choices is a big plus for me. [h1]...The Bad Stuff[/h1] - The biggest, and most glaring problem with this game are all the fucking bugs, errors, and glitches. They really mar the overall experience. Here's some examples of the trouble I ran into: [b]Every time[/b] I started a new run the character drops through the portal that opens up onto the hub area. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of it, but having to quit back to the main menu to relaunch again is annoying. If there are too many noises that occur at once the game's audio just turns into a stuttering, jarring mess of white noise that screams into your headphones. Loading between levels is a toss up if the game crashes or progresses. Enemies fall into cracks in the levels and killing them takes some...creativity. Sometimes when you select a new ability on, that ability's image is overlaid on the screen for the rest of the run. Honestly, the inconsistent nature of these problems is what's so damn frustrating. You never know when it's coming, and what causes the specific bug. - I wish the game provided more feedback when acquiring new skills/upgrades, etc. You'll get an upgrade that says "increases crit chance" but it's a mystery what the hell that even means. A percentage? A flat number increase? No clue, good luck, it just happens on a whim. Same thing goes for "increases damage", "rate of fire", that sorta stuff. You just have no idea what the increase actually means. Having more information is crucial and it's lacking here. - A minor problem, but one that I need to point out is the music. Why the music has to have the same futuristic themes when everything in the game has the same sounds is odd. At times I just took my headphones off because it's all just so [b]similar[/b] and it is painful to listen to the cacophony of sounds. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] Go Mecha Ball is undoubtedly a good time, hell sometimes if everything goes perfect it's a crazy fun time. The movement is so damn amazing and mixing it up really produces some grin inducing moments, and coupling it with some creative upgrades/abilities/weapons helps! Unfortunately with the severe technical issues, and some gameplay decisions that are baffling this isn't a surefire recommendation. I will still recommend this simply because there is a lot of fun to be had, but be aware of the problems. If this game seems at all alluring, give it a chance for sure, but if you aren't a fan of games that can be flaky with your patience maybe skip it. ⭐⭐⭐✨/5 (3.5/5)