taking a twin-stick shooter and pairing it with pinball and an emphasis on 3d movement (despite having no jump button!) is something that would normally have me skeptical, but they really, truly made it work. there are some really solid ideas in the systems and animations that make this thing feel great to play from the second you fire it up. it reveals a small handful of issues as you play it though, and while each problem is a tiny one, they stack up in ways a few players might find really frustrating.
for one, it suffers from some readability issues. the game's got a ton of satisfying visual effects but smack in the middle of all the action are boosters and bumpers and jump pads that can be difficult to see when you're focused on dodging bullets (or vice versa). you run into similar issues with the perspective, which is fine 98% of the time but will occasionally cause you to take damage when you attempt to traverse what is actually a really tiny ledge that blocks your movement, or when you try to dodge an attack that's actually passing harmlessly above your head. skill issue? maybe. (probably.)
my other qualm is with mid-run progression. the passive upgrades (i.e. pickups that are not guns or abilities) are fairly underwhelming. some of them can be strong but none of them are truly exciting, with most of them being simple steroids - a boost to ability damage, a boost to fire rate after colliding with an enemy, etc. the guns and abilities force real change in how you play the game, but the game effectively trains you out of taking these passive upgrades with a tremendously boring early selection. the weirder issue, though, is that shop prices before a boss are tuned very strangely - some of the items seem nearly impossible to afford (especially going into the first boss) and you'll rarely be in a situation where you're buying 2 or more items from the shop unless you're grabbing the two cheapest things.
what i find harder to describe is what's actually good about the game - not because there's so little to describe, but because a lot of it comes down to little design tricks whose contributions are mostly experiential. guns feel punchy, there's a real sense of speed when you're in ball form, and the way physics apply to enemies means that slamming into things at high speed can result in some really delightful secondary effects where ramming a single enemy can air-mail them into two more hapless bozos, sending them right off the map. the developers know how to make a game that feels good to play and that becomes really obvious when you're not running into those issues from earlier. popping out of the fast-but-floaty ball form mid-air to take a couple precise shots before balling up again and goomba stomping some idiot makes you feel like a wizard, as does learning how to use your dash optimally - it functions as a multitool, letting good players choose between adjusting their momentum, refilling their ammo w/ a glory kill, or parrying an attack.
i wouldn't go so far as to say that it's a game-changing roguelite but i definitely think it deserves more attention than it's got. it's got a lot of the same strengths as something like Roboquest - hell, they've got the same steam review score - but this has 1/60th the audience. it's 40% off at the time of writing but if $12 USD is too rich for your blood then it's worth watching during the summer sale, if nothing else.
for one, it suffers from some readability issues. the game's got a ton of satisfying visual effects but smack in the middle of all the action are boosters and bumpers and jump pads that can be difficult to see when you're focused on dodging bullets (or vice versa). you run into similar issues with the perspective, which is fine 98% of the time but will occasionally cause you to take damage when you attempt to traverse what is actually a really tiny ledge that blocks your movement, or when you try to dodge an attack that's actually passing harmlessly above your head. skill issue? maybe. (probably.)
my other qualm is with mid-run progression. the passive upgrades (i.e. pickups that are not guns or abilities) are fairly underwhelming. some of them can be strong but none of them are truly exciting, with most of them being simple steroids - a boost to ability damage, a boost to fire rate after colliding with an enemy, etc. the guns and abilities force real change in how you play the game, but the game effectively trains you out of taking these passive upgrades with a tremendously boring early selection. the weirder issue, though, is that shop prices before a boss are tuned very strangely - some of the items seem nearly impossible to afford (especially going into the first boss) and you'll rarely be in a situation where you're buying 2 or more items from the shop unless you're grabbing the two cheapest things.
what i find harder to describe is what's actually good about the game - not because there's so little to describe, but because a lot of it comes down to little design tricks whose contributions are mostly experiential. guns feel punchy, there's a real sense of speed when you're in ball form, and the way physics apply to enemies means that slamming into things at high speed can result in some really delightful secondary effects where ramming a single enemy can air-mail them into two more hapless bozos, sending them right off the map. the developers know how to make a game that feels good to play and that becomes really obvious when you're not running into those issues from earlier. popping out of the fast-but-floaty ball form mid-air to take a couple precise shots before balling up again and goomba stomping some idiot makes you feel like a wizard, as does learning how to use your dash optimally - it functions as a multitool, letting good players choose between adjusting their momentum, refilling their ammo w/ a glory kill, or parrying an attack.
i wouldn't go so far as to say that it's a game-changing roguelite but i definitely think it deserves more attention than it's got. it's got a lot of the same strengths as something like Roboquest - hell, they've got the same steam review score - but this has 1/60th the audience. it's 40% off at the time of writing but if $12 USD is too rich for your blood then it's worth watching during the summer sale, if nothing else.
Sempre quis ser main wrencking ball no overwatch e definitivamente tive meus desejos realizados. Ótimo jogo, divertido pra passar o tempo. A arte é bonita, as fases são legais. Foda.
Um jogo bem divertido, fator replay meio tanto faz, nn me motivou tanto para continua jogando após zera, mas tudo eh bem gostosinho, toda temática e sons de pinball é muito bem encaixado, e eh extremamente frenético, oq me divertiu bastante
One of the more fun roguelikes I have played in recent memory. The art style and direction are amazing and the music is stellar. The game's presentation is extremely well done and has a ton of charm to it. The gameplay is pretty kinetic and moving around as a ball with weapons is pretty smooth albeit some hiccups with how levels are designed. The economy is pretty well tuned and getting ability, weapon, and trait upgrades never feels grindy, which is good considering how much stuff there is to unlock. Moment to moment gameplay is very fun, I just wish the "build" aspect was a bit more appealing. I never really felt like I had to think about what upgrades and weapons I wanted to get since there's clearly a hierarchy of what is better than what. Stuff doesn't "synergize" as much as they cram together to make something.
Overall though, it's a fun time!
Overall though, it's a fun time!
Go Mecha Ball's gamefeel is so delicious it should be used to teach classes on character controllers.
It's an instant game of the year contender.
It's a love letter to screenshake.
It's a PhD-level dissertation on "juice".
It's the best core loop I've ever felt in a roguelite.
It's an instant game of the year contender.
It's a love letter to screenshake.
It's a PhD-level dissertation on "juice".
It's the best core loop I've ever felt in a roguelite.
it's so incredibly frustrating to see a game with a cool movement system and some interesting ideas around combos and counters just absolutely give up on encounter design and a difficulty curve because a roguelike is a common design pattern.
Really want to like this, and 2* might be a little harsh, but there's so much unrealised promise here. A shame.
Bons gráficos, sem muita inovação com o passar das runs, jogo bem fácil também (zerei na primeira run).
Vale se você for um iniciante nos roguelikes e quiser um jogo mais simples, mas que é bem divertido com as mecânicas de pinball.
Vale se você for um iniciante nos roguelikes e quiser um jogo mais simples, mas que é bem divertido com as mecânicas de pinball.
Só joguei por estar no game pass, mas uma diversão bem leve (tudo bem que só fiz 1 run mas zerei fds)
Eh, this game isn't really bad but I found myself getting bored of it quick. Maybe I suck, but the moment to moment gameplay of rolling around, dodging, shooting, and ramming enemies does not flow as well as it should imo. Weapons that I experienced weren't too interesting, neither were the abilities. Bosses existed. Not a fan of returning to the menu to change my character when there's a hub but whatever. Some of the music was cool tho, that shop track goes.
GMB is a very special game. It might look like a roguelike/lite but it’s really more of an arcade game with light roguelike elements. Being dropped in levels with random enemies, weapons, abilities and upgrades is all part of the game. But it’s more focused on keeping your combo max (for better currency and passive activation), efficiency, dancing around enemies and being able to do it with all the difficulty levels (there are 5 total). Finishing the game the first time is just the beginning. And doing it with 4 distinct characters along with the way they react to weapons/abilities/upgrades adds to the variety. They might look similar at first but you’ll soon find out otherwise. The game has 4 worlds with 3 levels and one boss each. Each level comes with 3 waves of enemies. The higher difficulties don’t just add more health and damage but more mechanics are also introduced such as the enemies being able to drop mines or heal others.
So let’s get to the positives. Firstly the gameplay is brilliant and something I haven’t seen before. Being a mix of pinball movement with twin stick shooting works incredibly well. It’s a delight and the reason why I remained engaged the entire 25 hours to 100% the game. The graphics are gorgeous and the animations are on point too. The bosses are fun and there are lots of different enemies with their own moves etc. The achievements are reasonable even with the hardest difficulty and clearing the game within 30 minutes. It’s the kind of game that doesn’t have a high difficulty curve. You can get good at it fairly quickly the more time you invest in it.
As for cons, I can mainly think of three. The music doesn’t match the visuals and gameplay. Or there is something weird going on with the mixing that doesn’t make the music shine as much. Other people noted that the levels look too similar and therefore add to the repetitiveness. I can understand this but it didn’t affect me as much because I was so focused on the gameplay. Not all the characters are created equally. Sprout’s speciality is abilities and the first one is unlocked after the first level, assuming it’s a good ability you want. Sprout also has low health. So you start very weak until you get some decent abilities while the other characters are just stronger and better right from the get go. Sprout needs some balancing. There are a few very minor bugs that aren’t really worth mentioning to be honest. And lastly, the next points are more of a feedback to make the game better. Having some sort of control over what weapons, abilities or upgrades you get would be nice. Think of re-roll or banishing stuff. Being able to see the stats that come with upgrades and having an overall stats menu for the character would be cool too. Right now you can only see the stats for your weapons.
GMB is one of those games that are rare. They don’t come very often. The mix of originality that works so well to the point that it feels natural. It’s the kind of game I question why we haven’t had something like it before. Not everyone is going to like it as much or care about what it’s trying to do. It’s not trying to be a roguelike/lite, it’s trying to be its own thing and it’s wonderful for it. I paid over €16 and think it’s worth it. I can’t guarantee that everyone is going to like the game but if you’re one of those who do, you’re going to LOVE IT and want more.
So let’s get to the positives. Firstly the gameplay is brilliant and something I haven’t seen before. Being a mix of pinball movement with twin stick shooting works incredibly well. It’s a delight and the reason why I remained engaged the entire 25 hours to 100% the game. The graphics are gorgeous and the animations are on point too. The bosses are fun and there are lots of different enemies with their own moves etc. The achievements are reasonable even with the hardest difficulty and clearing the game within 30 minutes. It’s the kind of game that doesn’t have a high difficulty curve. You can get good at it fairly quickly the more time you invest in it.
As for cons, I can mainly think of three. The music doesn’t match the visuals and gameplay. Or there is something weird going on with the mixing that doesn’t make the music shine as much. Other people noted that the levels look too similar and therefore add to the repetitiveness. I can understand this but it didn’t affect me as much because I was so focused on the gameplay. Not all the characters are created equally. Sprout’s speciality is abilities and the first one is unlocked after the first level, assuming it’s a good ability you want. Sprout also has low health. So you start very weak until you get some decent abilities while the other characters are just stronger and better right from the get go. Sprout needs some balancing. There are a few very minor bugs that aren’t really worth mentioning to be honest. And lastly, the next points are more of a feedback to make the game better. Having some sort of control over what weapons, abilities or upgrades you get would be nice. Think of re-roll or banishing stuff. Being able to see the stats that come with upgrades and having an overall stats menu for the character would be cool too. Right now you can only see the stats for your weapons.
GMB is one of those games that are rare. They don’t come very often. The mix of originality that works so well to the point that it feels natural. It’s the kind of game I question why we haven’t had something like it before. Not everyone is going to like it as much or care about what it’s trying to do. It’s not trying to be a roguelike/lite, it’s trying to be its own thing and it’s wonderful for it. I paid over €16 and think it’s worth it. I can’t guarantee that everyone is going to like the game but if you’re one of those who do, you’re going to LOVE IT and want more.
Gameplay très satisfaisant, mais assez répétitif.
Only got room for so many roguelikes. I enjoy the unique mechanics here, but found myself losing interest as a run would go on.
Really satisfying roguelite. Rolling around as a ball is made super easy with little assists that have been tuned to perfection.
Terrible sound mixing. Game gets stale and annoying as shit around the second difficulty. Fine for what it is as a game on game pass.
Pinball meets Twin Stick Shooter in a shallow indie rogue like.
Go Mecha Ball is an overwhelming blur that does everything in it power to hurt your senses. Firstly if you are considering playing this game I highly recommend turning down the music, turning off motion blur and disabling screen shake screen. Not only are all these thing obnoxious and overwhelming the colour palet and texture design is god awful too.
Now for gameplay, it's actually not all terrible. I particularly like the class that focuses on being a pinball as there's something quiet satisfying about bouncing enemy's off the map. There is a fair bit of enemy variety which is nice, however I can't say the same for the boss fights. In total there are 4 main bosses (possibly a 5th if you 100%) that are very unrewarding and painfully easy.
Overall the rogue mechanics are quiet dull and with the game play thats average at best I wouldn't recommend.
Go Mecha Ball is an overwhelming blur that does everything in it power to hurt your senses. Firstly if you are considering playing this game I highly recommend turning down the music, turning off motion blur and disabling screen shake screen. Not only are all these thing obnoxious and overwhelming the colour palet and texture design is god awful too.
Now for gameplay, it's actually not all terrible. I particularly like the class that focuses on being a pinball as there's something quiet satisfying about bouncing enemy's off the map. There is a fair bit of enemy variety which is nice, however I can't say the same for the boss fights. In total there are 4 main bosses (possibly a 5th if you 100%) that are very unrewarding and painfully easy.
Overall the rogue mechanics are quiet dull and with the game play thats average at best I wouldn't recommend.
Eu demorei pra me adaptar e para entender. Mas depois que entendi. Fluiu muito bem. Vale muito pros fãs de jogos arcade, especialmente se gostar de jogos frenéticos.
It took me a while to adapt and to understand. But after I did, it flowed nicely It's really worth it for fans of arcade games, especially if you like frantic games.
It took me a while to adapt and to understand. But after I did, it flowed nicely It's really worth it for fans of arcade games, especially if you like frantic games.
Game is pretty fun but it can get old quick. I waited to see how I felt about the other characters before I gathered my thoughts, but seeing that they don't really offer much of a change in gameplay is kinda disappointing,
A gripe I have is having to go back to the menu to switch characters when the game offers me a hub.
Pinball mixed with a chaotic top down shooting in a rouge-lite format sounds like it could be a really cool thing, but the lack of variety with the levels and enemies really makes the game feel way too repetitive. I could just be complain' about nothing.
Also I think the music kind of sucks lol. The shop track hits though
A gripe I have is having to go back to the menu to switch characters when the game offers me a hub.
Pinball mixed with a chaotic top down shooting in a rouge-lite format sounds like it could be a really cool thing, but the lack of variety with the levels and enemies really makes the game feel way too repetitive. I could just be complain' about nothing.
Also I think the music kind of sucks lol. The shop track hits though
A game about speed that feels miles better than most Sonic games. Is a twin stick shooter though, so different thing all together. Looks great, music is really frenetic, and has a pretty good progression.
-Balls -
Tiene un gameplay bastante rápido, pero siento que deacae demasiado en la monotonia, en parte por su poca cantidad de armas y habs, como tal es un roguelite decente. Se queda corto por lo dicho.
Y graficamente es bonito, su historia es "Meh"
Tiene un gameplay bastante rápido, pero siento que deacae demasiado en la monotonia, en parte por su poca cantidad de armas y habs, como tal es un roguelite decente. Se queda corto por lo dicho.
Y graficamente es bonito, su historia es "Meh"
Nada melhor do que um jogo que se garante pelo gameplay, né?
É um enorme prazer ir melhorando a movimentação, conseguindo sustentar os combos e utilizando todo o potencial das armas e habilidades. Como um JOGO, Go Mecha Ball é uma aula de polimento e estrutura.
Difícil pesar se minha crítica ao RNG, que seria minha única reclamação, é simplesmente por eu não ser um jogador de múltiplos estilos de jogo ou se realmente uma build voltada pra HP e sustain acabam desbalanceando.
Você pode acabar triturando uns dos Bosses em 10 segundos mas simplesmente não conseguir finalizar a run por falta de HP/Cura...
Enfim jogão!
Fiz questão de platinar.
É um enorme prazer ir melhorando a movimentação, conseguindo sustentar os combos e utilizando todo o potencial das armas e habilidades. Como um JOGO, Go Mecha Ball é uma aula de polimento e estrutura.
Difícil pesar se minha crítica ao RNG, que seria minha única reclamação, é simplesmente por eu não ser um jogador de múltiplos estilos de jogo ou se realmente uma build voltada pra HP e sustain acabam desbalanceando.
Você pode acabar triturando uns dos Bosses em 10 segundos mas simplesmente não conseguir finalizar a run por falta de HP/Cura...
Enfim jogão!
Fiz questão de platinar.
This game was okay. A rougelite introducing pinball elements to freshen up gameplay. Unfortunately the levels are quite samey with flat enemies excluding the bosses. After one completed run I was certain I saw all the game had to offer.
Very cool game, except for those armored freaks you have to roll into before you can shoot them. Fuck them.
Neat concept but the execution is lacking and it's visually... too polished and smooth, if that makes sense?
I will never understand using the 'in-run' money to unlock characters instead of the blue coins you use for other progression related items.
I will never understand using the 'in-run' money to unlock characters instead of the blue coins you use for other progression related items.
Um jogo que no começo é divertido, mas jogando muito tempo acaba ficando enjoativo, um roguelike que vale apena dar uma chance em alguma promoção ou no gamepass
Loved, loved, loved the concept on this. Worked better than it originally seemed. Very tough on my wrists though, lol. Super smooth and great gameplay.
The moment to moment gameplay in Go Mecha Ball instantly clicks - Bounching, boosting, jumping at Enemy neck-breaking speed, weaving between bullets, pouncing on robots, is instantly very very fun, supported by smooth controls and a visually consistent style.
The skeleton around the gameplay struggles to support it - the roguelike aspects only allow for very limited build making, runs blend into each other quickly. The content is quite thin, essentially 3 Levels with 3 sub-levels and one boss each, that do not vary between runs. At least half of the guns have no reason for existing and do not feel meaningfully different from one another. Because of that I didnt stick with GMB for long, but give me a controller and let me bounce around a level and I m certain I d have fun again instantly
The skeleton around the gameplay struggles to support it - the roguelike aspects only allow for very limited build making, runs blend into each other quickly. The content is quite thin, essentially 3 Levels with 3 sub-levels and one boss each, that do not vary between runs. At least half of the guns have no reason for existing and do not feel meaningfully different from one another. Because of that I didnt stick with GMB for long, but give me a controller and let me bounce around a level and I m certain I d have fun again instantly
While it comes up a little weak on the rogue-like front, this is a great twin-stick arcade shooter with some BALLIN' movement mechanics. Absolute blast for 5-10 hours or so.
Has a great look and FEEL (the animation in particular is sublime) but falls into too many tropes of a rogue lite and gameplay that isn't strong enough to carry the weight of those issues. Would have preferred it as a marble madness with guns.
movement was lots of fun, looks good, generally just felt really good. a bit easy though! i beat my very first run, and it doesn't seem like there's a ton of replayability beyond just wanting to do some more runs for fun. which is fine, it's fun enough to do that a bit but i wish there was a bit more variety in the locations/bosses.