Come In Like a Wrecking Ball
HIGH Firing guns (and myself!) at enemies is great!
LOW “Variety” translates to “more of the same”.
WTF Killing everyone in the name of “fun”!
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.
Cat Rascal and their friends just want to have fun, and for a while they did. Then a portal ripped open and drenched the world in chaos. Naturally, fun was no longer an option. This group of cats spent years putting together a mech that could survive the portal’s energy, and now, it’s up to them to delve into the portal and bring fun back to the world.
Whale Peak Games presents Go Mecha Ball — an isometric roguelike twin stick shooter where players control Cat Rascal (or one of their friends) through a dangerous realm full of robots that want to fire as many bullets as possible into their faces. Players will run around arenas picking up guns and shooting waves of enemies that drop gold to buy items or crystals that can be used for permeant upgrades between runs. Completing each level in a run awards a power up — either more damage, more health, or a special ability, including things like a rocket jump that damages enemies around the player, turrets that help fend off enemies, or grenades that deal area damage.
While a max of two guns and two abilities the player can have at any moment is nice, the most important tool is being able to transform into a ball that comes with a boost. It does function as a dash, but it’s also the main way players can gain ammo for their guns. As enemies attack the player, ball-dashing into enemies to ‘deny’ the attack forces enemies to drop ammo. In later levels, the dash can also be used to clear stage hazards, strip armor from enemies, and push enemies off ledges. This boost has a limit, though, and managing it requires consistent strategy.
The dash isn’t the only bit of strategy that needs to be used, though — each level also has aspects that must be utilized in order to eliminate every enemy. For example, many areas are vertical in scope, which means enemies can be above or below the player. Finding bounce pads to go up or dropping down onto enemies from above will be needed. Some levels also have boost pads that act like a free dash into enemies, causing damage or the denials that award ammo.
While this might seem like it adds up to a solid action experience, don’t forget that Go Mecha Ball is a roguelike, and the progression here is strange. Before each run, players can use tokens in gacha machines, and these are what award abilities, weapons, and upgrades that are not given right away, but instead must be found during a run. This didn’t quite land for me, as there was never a solid sense of making progress — it just felt like I was adding random pickups to the levels.
Another odd aspect to Go Mecha Ball’s roguelike status is that enemy variety is slim, so it’s easy to learn patterns. In an effort to combat this low variety, players will get an artifact that increases the difficulty of the next run, but this essentially meant it was still the same enemies, but this time they’d have extra armor or a healing aura to buff their buddies. Variety is one of the hallmarks of the roguelike genre, but this ain’t it. I would have much rather had more enemy types instead of the same goons bulked up. This limited number of foes made every run feel too similar.
Honestly though, I can largely forgive Go Mecha Ball in both instances because frankly, I had such a great time with it. The physics feels smooth and responsive in a way that works for me, and it’s satisfying to launch off a ramp in ball form, transform to shoot an enemy mid-air, transform back to dash into another enemy and then send them off the level in one smooth motion. Because of moments like this, Go Mecha Ball has rolled its way to being one of my favorite games of the year in just a few short hours.
For me: Go Mecha Ball gets an 8 out of 10.
Disclosures: This game is developed by Whale Peak Games and published by Super Rare Originals. It is currently available on Steam, XBO/X/S and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 8 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Alcohol Reference and Fantasy Violence. Robots explode into pieces when they are destroyed, while the player sparks and starts to smoke, but the screen fades to black before they explode. While the game says Alcohol references, I either didn’t encounter them myself or I completely missed them through my playthrough.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in-game, but it’s is not resizable. Audio mostly serves aesthetic purposes and is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable controls: Controls are not remappable, and there is no control scheme layout. Players can hold left trigger to go into ball form, and release to go back to mech form. Right Trigger shoots the currently equipped weapon. Left and Right bumpers are both for abilities. Left control stick will move the character, while the right control stick will aim the gun. “X” will switch weapons, “A” will select items to purchase in the shop.
While Sonic and Street Fighter were great places to start, his first love was Final Fantasy X when his dad bought a PS2. Ever since, that love for gaming has evolved -- there are a number of game worlds out there, and he intends to explore them all. RPG to horror, platformers to casual and everything in between -- if it’s available, he’ll play it.
While his time is short between writing reviews, tabletop gaming, and attempting to start a cheesecake business, he has caught all 806 pokemon and can speedrun Star Fox 64 in less than 40 minutes. He’s always looking for new things to try and new challenges to conquer. You can find him on Twitter -- @eugene_sax.
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