xbox live indie game reviews

When I saw the titel Aceball, I was expecting some sort of pong or breakout variant that somehow worked poker into the storyline. Sadly, there's no poker-esque gameplay mechanics--just a healthy dose of poker-themed characters. Aceball plays exactly like Pong (move your paddle up and down), but it's built as more of an arcade game. As the game goes on, obstacles appear on the gameboard to make things more interesting. Some are permanent, some can be smashed (a la breakout), and some are aliens.

There are a variety of the "aliens" that show up, each with different effects. Most are based on poker face cards. The Queen stands out in my mind because she's the only "alien" who is stationary. She'll appear in one spot and watch the ball bounce around her until she gets hit, but mostly she's just a randomly placed obstacle. There are 50 levels total, but I confess I've only made it through level 18 at the highest. You only get 5 lives, and once multiple balls start spawning things can get a little hectic.

There are some really fun levels in the sampling I played in the Arcade mode. Those that require you to score 5 balls, though, quickly devolve into tedium. Some levels can be beaten in a matter of seconds (the AI isn't always so bright), but some can stretch on for five or ten minutes. Occasionally, the ball will impact a paddle at such an angle that it's essentially bouncing straight up and donw. When this happens, it can take up to a full minute for the ball to make its way from one side of the screen to another--way too long to just sit there and watch. The "long" levels are such a chore that after playing arcade mode a couple of times I haven't really felt the desire to go back.

After giving up on the single player mode, I grabbed a roommate and tried out the multiplayer. The coop isn't much fun, as the vast majority of the time the front paddle gets all the action. The battle modes, though, are at least interesting. All the battles are 2v2, whether or not you actually have four humans or not. Playing two humans vs two computers is a bit of a joke, but the human vs human action was actually pretty engaging.

Both of us took up the role of the "back" paddle, with the AIs playing the front paddles. This can be frustratring at times, as they're not so bright and often block your shots right back into your goal. A subtle gameplay tweak (making the paddles collide on only the side facing the opponent's goal) would fix this and make the game a lot more playable. Even with this caveat, though, we had a pretty good time. It transforms the game from pong to something more like foosball.

Ultimately, it was a close call on this one. I think the arcade mode could be a lot more fun with a little work, and the multiplayer can be fun if you've got at least 2 or 3 people sitting around. Because it's only 200 points, I'm going to give Aceball a thumbs up solely based on its multiplayer gameplay.