Acrophobia Ball

Challenging games are addictive most of the time, given the fact that they keep the players engaged due to the high difficulty level. It’s tough to walk away from something that challenges your abilities without feeling at least a tad defeated, so there’s always that “one more try” effect. On the other hand, this doesn’t really work if the mechanics are broken or not polished enough to be fun.

Acrophobia Ball is a simple arcade game in which you control a ball that must overcome a variety of obstacles in order to pick up glowing objects and reach the end of every level. The formula is far from original, but it can still keep you busy for a while if you enjoy this type of games. Granted, there are a few problems that might ruin the experience every now and again, but you can learn to live with them.

There’s no story to worry about, so you can concentrate on the action instead. Each stage features a different layout, so you rarely have to tackle the same situation twice. Don’t expect anything too wild in terms of level design, however, because everything is kept as basic as possible in this regard. There are some gameplay issues to overcome as well.

The game has its fair share of troubles too, some of which can be pretty annoying. To begin with, the camera is fixed and very poorly positioned sometimes, making it difficult to see where you are going. That’s not great in a game that should technically reward precision and good reflexes, not to mention the fact that the collision system fails every now and again and you fall through platforms.

Thankfully, at least the controls are decent enough, albeit rather slow and imprecise. This can be part of the challenge, on the other hand, or it can be attributed to inertia, since it would be pretty difficult to keep a rolling ball steady. Lastly, the graphics are about as basic as they can get, especially since everything is washed out and gray most of the time anyway.

Even if Acrophobia Ball has quite a few issues you have to deal with, the overall experience can still be quite fun, mainly because of the challenging levels. However, it really needs a better camera system and some other gameplay fixes in order to be truly enjoyable.