Fugdale’s Funhouse

Colibricks - Rainbow Brick Breaking

First off, Colibricks is for Mac Users only and it does require a download to play, but it is one of my favorite games for the Mac. It also costs a small amount to unlock the full game, but is well worth it.

Similar to the arcade classic, Archanoid, Colibricks uses the tried and true formula of ball, paddle and bricks. You control your paddle and send the ping pong ball towards multi-colored and multi-functional bricks. Your objective? Eliminate all the bricks. As you hit certain special bricks, pellets float off, catch a pellet on your paddle and interesting changes will manifest. Your paddle will get smaller or larger, your ball will speed up or slow down, you will get multiple balls or possibly a laser to shoot bricks from your paddle.

The game provides 50 different levels and many of them are truly challenging. Some, next to impossible. The full version of the game allows you to play the levels in random order so you will be able to experience all the levels regardless of how well you play. Game controls are very simple using arrow keys or mouse to move your paddle left and right. The fun comes from the unique challenges each course presents. If you enjoy the game enough, you can even create your own levels using the level editor included with the full version of the game.

This game has been around for many years, but it still holds it’s place in my favorite game library.

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Poom - Bounce your ball as long as you can

Poom requires only that you keep your ball from falling into the big black pit at the bottom of the screen. The ball falls from a tube high above. The unique quality of this game comes from the ever-changing paddle, which consists of a grid of small squares and several open gaps which the ball can fall through. Each time the ball bounces it loses momentum and the bounces get shorter. Additionally each time the ball hits the paddle, the paddle reconfigures itself, providing a high probability that you will miss the ball.

On the various squares that make up the paddle you will find coins, which give you extra points; bulls eye targets, which reinvigorate your ball to bounce higher; and metal plates, which cause your ball to lose momentum.

The game takes a little getting used to, you will lose a lot of balls at first, but you seem to have an endless supply of balls. It’s really just an exercise in attaining the highest bounce count you can with any one ball. It has the challenge of playing paddle ball.

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Curve Ball - 3-D Pong

Remember the days of Pong on the Atari? No? Well I guess I’m dating myself a bit. Curve-ball, takes pong a step further by making the game 3-Dimensional. You view the game as if you were standing behind your paddle. The ball travels forward into the distance and returns back toward you.

The graphics consist of very simple line graphs to give you a visual benchmark of how far away the ball lies and the gameplay feels just a little lagging. It’s difficult at first to hit the ball, but it quickly becomes easy and just like Pong, the novelty of the game wears off pretty quickly. I do like the sound effect they use when the ball makes contact with the paddle. It sounds like a dodge ball from gym class.

The game will hold a mild amusement for some, but really needs more going on with it to hold onto repeat players.

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Plastic Balls - Break-Out in the Round

This nifty little game holds a lot of appeal. You get all the satisfaction of games like Breakout or Colibricks, but the field is circular. Your paddle lies in the center of a round arena and all the bricks lie around the perimeter. You move your mouse left or right to hit the ball in any direction. You miss if your ball hits the center cog.

As you strike the bricks, objects, such as bananas, bombs and watermelon fall toward the center where you can collect them for points and for adjustments to your paddle, speed and other fun effects which help and hinder your progress.

The graphics are simple, yet effective and the sounds have a very crisp quality to them with a general hum of electricity in the background.

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The Crossing - Dancing Deer

This very original and beautiful adaptation of the ball and paddle theme, doesn’t even use a ball. Instead your goal is to guide galloping deer across an abyss using your paddle. The deer lift off into the air and must land at least once on your paddle to make it across the chasm.

The deer can get a little antsy and start coming at you too quickly, but the first few minutes of gameplay won’t give anyone much trouble. Along the way you can collect falling flowers to increase or decrease the size of your paddle, earn extra points or gain extra lives. If you let 5 deer fall to their demise, you will perish as well.

The joy of this game doesn’t so much come from the gameplay, which gets a little old after a few tries, rather from it’s very original concept and beautifully rendered graphics. In fact the same designer, Ferry Halim, has many other gorgeous games involving beautiful music, animals and nature. This game feature a lush Hallmark Card score.

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Shuffle - Knock the balls off

Shuffle rocks! This game is so simple to learn, graphically pleasing and plays very quickly. The simple concept pits you against the computer. You each have a row of balls on either end of a chess board. You choose a ball to flick toward your opponent and use your mouse to fling it like a sling shot. You must try to knock your opponents balls off the board before he does the same to yours.

If you win four rounds, you win the game. And for each round or game you win, your balls move closer toward your opponent on the next round. The more you win, the fewer balls you start with as well.

This very simple game provides a lot of fun playtime.

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Pinboliada - Zuma meets Pinball

If you like balls-on-a-track shooter games such as Zuma and Luxor, this game provides another version that stacks up fairly well against the others and has a few twists of its own. Basically, the same concept applie–a long string of multi-colored balls starts down a windy course towards the pit at the end. You must shoot balls toward the string, inserting them next to balls of the same color. If you line up 3 or more balls of the same color, they disappear. Eliminate all the balls in the string before they reach the end.

The difference between Pinboliada and Zuma is that this course takes place on a pinball table top and several pinball bouncers obstruct your shooting path and bounce your balls off in different directions. You can also shoot balls over score pads to generate larger scores. The graphics look great! The balls seem to really roll and the pinball theme has a clever realistic feel to it.

However, it doesn’t seem like the levels change too much. You have 2-3 different courses and they just repeat. Unlike Zuma, the game has a timer of 4 minutes. You just need to wrack up as many points as possible in that time. Because of the lack of progressiveness in this iteration of the game, I can’t give it as enthusiastic of a recommendation as Zuma or Luxor. Hopefully a larger version of the game will come about.

Tags: Shooter, Obstacle Course, Physics, Arcade, Puzzler, Game Review, Survive, Game, Ball-and-Paddle, game, Games

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