CRASH Back Review

Each issue, a game is picked that was commercially released after the last issue of CRASH was published in September 1991 — this issue it is Astroball, released by Revelation in 1992, and developed by Balor Knight.

Way before Bitcoin was a thing, the citizens of Astroball’s universe thought it was a great idea to store their hard-earned cash on the cloud(s); this was the future and far more secure and viable than traditional banking methods. But when there’s a new system in place, there’s always someone wanting to rattle the cage, looking for weak spots. This is where you come in and control a

CRITICISM

Astroball is a game you play with your tongue sandwiched between your pursed lips due to the amount of concentration required. It is the gaming equivalent of threading a needle — it requires focus, concentration and a silly face. When you miss your intended platform and plummet a fair distance down, you do know it’s your fault

bouncing thief of a ball that must hop the lofty heights, leaping from cloud to cloud, collecting the scattered coins. Starting on the lowest level, you must navigate the ball over all the platforms and avoid the hazards. The ball can fall from any height, but is vulnerable to hitting the ground floor, which results in losing a life. There are also plenty of little orbs, called death stars, that destroy the sphere upon and accept the trekking back to the top (again and again). It reminded me of the platform layout on Mastertronic’s Zub, but with a more fast-paced challenge. It certainly gets trickier as the levels progress — vanishing/ blinking clouds and a vast increase in death star orbs will be sure to hinder the most skilled of players. As addictive as it is, the sense of progression contact. There is more sky than platform, which presents the player with their greatest challenge — death by dexterity (or lack of). Although the player has complete control of the momentum and direction of the ball, the pace can be rather rapid, so doing a hard and fast bounce, it’s easy to lose sight of what is below you. Once all of the coins are collected, the player must locate the teleport that takes them to the next level. Check out the cool bonus game in-between stages. is somewhat hindered due to the levels only having a colour change rather than having different sprites. This alone would give the game extra longevity.

Use of Computer 79% Graphics: 68% Playability: 82%

Getting started: 80% Addictive Qualities: 76% Overall: 78%