At a glance...

Reviewer	Platform	Publisher	Developer	Players
Matt Bailey	Xbox 360	Microsoft Game Studios	Playbrains	1-16 (Online via Xbox Live)
Requirements
Xbox Live Gold subscription is required for online play

Madballs in Babo: Invasion review

We're used to licensed titles these days. Every major publisher has a bunch of them to bring in revenue in a less risky manner, sometimes deploying them around major new film releases. We're even used to licensed properties from the 1980s being brought back for games in the 21st Century, as evidenced by the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game earlier this year. But that's for franchises that are around today. What we're not used to is seeing is mid-1980s American toys being reintroduced in this way. Madballs are characters in the shape of balls, popular in their time, but pretty much unknown today. Then, at E3, Canadian indie developer Playbrains announced they were bringing the franchise to the Xbox Live Arcade, and not only that, but it would be in the form of a follow up to another reasonably unknown property, freeware title BaboViolent 2.

So, that curious combination brings us to Madballs in Babo: Invasion, an 800 Microsoft Points (£6.80) 3D action game. But as with any licensed title, it's not the license itself that matters, it's how the game plays. Thankfully Babo: Invasion turns out to be a rather fun title, packed with more modes of play than some full-price retail titles. The single player has a 10-level campaign featuring a story you don't have to worry about; it's not great, and besides, the main focus is the multiplayer. Unfortunately there's no split-screen option, but there is a range of modes for play over Xbox Live. Co-op lets up to 4 of you tackle the main campaign together, which should makes things more interesting, but it's the Versus mode where the most fun in Babo: Invasion lies. The modes on offer include the standard deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag, while also throwing in "Avatar" mode. This let's you use your Xbox Live Avatar from the Dashboard in-game, replacing the eyeball with your Avatar's head. Deathmatches with your own head just seem that bit more fun, and recognising this unique feature, it even gets its own listing on the Multiplayer menu alongside Co-Op and Versus. There's also another special Versus gametype; Invasion. This sees two players designing their own maps to fight in by placing a combination of map tiles down before the match begins. The idea is to create a unique battleground each time, and it works well when you find others willing to participate. Babo: Invasion seems to have picked up an online following since it's launch, so you shouldn't struggle to find opponents, but they may not always be willing to step outside of the standard deathmatch.

Babo: Invasion is, at heart, an arena shooter; your character rolls around the maps and you need to shoot the enemies. The Madballs themselves are somewhat ugly (and in toy form, squishy) balls that you navigate around the levels in a Marble Madness manner, being careful to avoid falling off certain edges, and controlling the character with the left stick. The right stick, meanwhile, is used to control the direction the weapon fires, in the same way as a twin-stick shooter like Geometry Wars. It works well, and is enjoyable, but it's also this very nature which makes Babo: Invasion more suited to multiplayer. As mentioned before, the story isn't that great, the characters' voices can get annoying rather quickly due to the amount of repetition, and you can get a bit bogged down in fighting the same enemies over and over. In multiplayer none of this matters; your opponents vary, carry unique (though sometimes even more annoying) voices, and you can just enjoy the underlying mechanics of the game.

Babo: Invasion has been made to offer quite a large chunk of gameplay through repeated play. While it may not be the most enjoyable part of the game, going through singleplayer is one way to quickly unlock new weapons, weapon modes and abilities, as well as other Madballs characters. It is, however, also possible to gain these through time spent in multiplayer too. All the unlocks are particularly useful for playing online, where your unlocked content is carried over. Everything is also scored, with plenty of multipliers thrown in, and each level has it's own online leaderboards, again encouraging you to keep playing.

Babo: Invasion also looks quite nice visually for an Xbox Live Arcade title, with a range of bright colours on screen and particle effects to keep things looking vibrant. There's often lots of action displayed on-screen (particularly in multiplayer), and while the game does manage to avoid this becoming confusing, there are the occasional framerate hiccups. Still, it's a minor issue which doesn't get in the way of an enjoyable game.

Ratings

Overall	The single player will keep you amused for a while, but it's the enjoyable and fully featured multiplayer mode of Madballs in Babo: Invasion which will keep you occupied for a long time.	8/10

Click here for more Madballs in Babo: Invasion reviews.

Copyright Information

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License, except where otherwise noted.

Smileys taken from Crack's Smilies.