I suppose we’re calling it the Ballotron trilogy now. Probably the most unlikely of sequence has reached its third iteration with Ballotron Coolbox, following Ballotron and Ballotron Oceans. Who is aware of the place the Ballotron saga will take us subsequent.
Except for coinciding with Christmas, it is a ‘Coolbox’ as a result of the blocks are decidedly icy. Relatively than the gooey, bouncy blocks of Ballotron Oceans, we’re getting blocks that shatter when touched. It’s a delicate alteration to the physics of Ballotron: as an alternative of your balls’ actions being muffled while you hit these cubes, your ball ploughs by way of at pace, sending fragments concerning the stage like shrapnel. That shrapnel can nonetheless get in the best way, dinking your balls in several instructions, making Ballotron Coolbox a delicate spin-off from the unique video games.
For the uninitiated, Ballotron is a puzzle sport that performs a bit like pool or snooker if you happen to squint. You might have a big blue ball and a big inexperienced ball, and the extent is received in the event that they knock into one another. However that’s not a simple process, as you possibly can’t management both of these two balls. As a substitute, you’ve company over another, tinier blue balls within the stage. These could be pulled again within the pool-cue trend that we talked about. The additional you pull again, the tougher they’re flung. Intention the small balls on the giant balls, and – hopefully – a sequence of ricochets sends the balls into blocks after which ultimately into one another.
It’s a easy premise that has a base enchantment to it. There’s typically a path of least resistance in direction of the massive, inexperienced ball. For instance, maybe there are partitions, angled at 45 levels, that you’ll want to bounce into to succeed in the ultimate ball. We’ve performed sufficient loopy golf to know this outdated trick. One half of Ballotron Coolbox, then, is to determine the most effective strategy, and the second half is executing on it. Ballotron Coolbox neatly exhibits your earlier shot as a dotted line, so you possibly can alter delicately subsequent time. A millimetre or two to the left, and this time it’ll all work out.
Ballotron has at all times allowed two types of play. There’s the strategy for the meticulous planner, the place you utilize the setting to your benefit, pulling off the right shot. Maybe you even seize the gold coin (Ballotron Coolbox’s collectible) on the best way. Then there’s the strategy for the hit-and-hoper. You possibly can simply yank again the cue and hearth your blue ball willy-nilly. With luck, the balls will careen across the display screen and provides one another a little bit kiss.
Each approaches are viable, and it’s completely tremendous to resort to the second as soon as the primary fails. It’s this duality that makes Ballotron Coolbox an interesting, chill expertise. Even when your preliminary shot is pants, there’s a excellent probability {that a} chain response will trigger your balls to satisfy regardless. It implies that it’s very laborious to get caught, and ranges could be accomplished with out a lot thought in any respect.
There’s a flipside to that coin, after all. Ballotron, and Ballotron Coolbox specifically, is wedded to randomness. Usually the most effective reply to a stage is to leather-based the balls and see what occurs, and that may be extra ‘chaos concept’ than a number of gamers would really like. There are ranges that require extra structured thought to finish, however there are extra that don’t. It doesn’t assist that replicating a shot, positioning it precisely the identical because the earlier go, can typically ship fully totally different outcomes.
Should you’re a Ballotron fan, then there are some very, very minor variations between Ballotron Coolbox and the opposite video games. Probably the most instantly apparent is that Ballotron Coolbox has had a makeover. It feels much less low-cost, as if it’s slowly morphing into Peggle. The colors and descriptions are thicker, the balls shinier and extra tactile. It’s leveled up within the presentation division, which is good.
There are the ice blocks, as we’ve talked about, whereas Ballotron Coolbox additionally loves a portal. These do what you’d predict, sending every part from one location to a different as soon as they cross by way of. Small balls, massive balls, even blocks could be nudged by way of these holes.
Puzzling with portals makes good sense. Portals are a daily addition to puzzle video games. However we object to those used right here, as a result of they don’t abide by the easy guidelines we’re used to. Typically, the balls bounce out of the portals moderately than passing by way of. We predict it’s as a result of some are one-way, however nothing within the sport marks them as such. And the portals are inexplicably not colour-coded. If there’s a couple of within the stage, you need to do a spot of trial and error to search out out which connects to which. And that’s lame, frankly.
Ice blocks, portals and a brand new lick of paint shouldn’t be sufficient in our ebook. They’re all independently tremendous, however they don’t represent a sequel. Ballotron Coolbox finally ends up feeling like vanilla DLC for the unique sport: DLC, we would add, that the unique sport didn’t want. We’re pushing one hundred-and-fifty ranges of Ballotron in whole, however they don’t distinguish sufficient from one another to warrant that quantity. So lots of them boil all the way down to the identical layouts, the identical options.
We didn’t have a nasty time taking part in Ballotron Coolbox. Whereas it’s extra of the identical, it’s an unfussy ‘extra of the identical’, with ranges that may be crushed by giving the cue ball an enormous quantity of welly and watching the ricochets. It’s one of many least expensive video games you’ll find on the Xbox, too, at a miniscule £4.19.
But when we’re going to get extra of those Ballotron video games, we’re going to wish one thing extra subsequent time. Ice blocks and portals ain’t going to chop it. We’re getting the Ballotron boredom, and we most undoubtedly wouldn’t advise taking part in a couple of of them in a row.
