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Switchball
I first discovered this game while I was doing research for a column on physics games that never came to be. It was just a small demo for the PC with (I think) only 1 level back then. There wasn't a full game to go with it. The big to do about it was that it was being developed to take advantage of the new PhysX processors. Even without a PhysX processor the demo was impressive indeed.
Follow the jump to see how it made the transition to the XBox 360.
Follow the jump to see how it made the transition to the XBox 360.
Switchball is a marble rolling puzzle game. The puzzles are linear and must be solved in a prescribed order by rolling your marble around platforms suspended in mid air. Fall off a platform or connector and you start back at the last checkpoint to try it again. The game gets it's name from the fact that at many places during each level you must morph the marble into a different type. There are several types to choose from, unfortunately you don't get to choose which one you use. You can only morph into the type of marble that you encounter a morphing station for. Generally this isn't a problem since it's often fairly obvious which marble you need or it's obvious from the morphing station you encounter what you need to do. There are a couple of places where multiple morphing stations are placed, and you need to decide to which to use. This could to confuse the solution, or it could be indicative that there are multiple solutions available at this point.
Graphically, Switchball is impressive for an XBLA game. Most games on XBLA are in 2D, while Switchball is full 3D with very nice texture and lighting work. There are a few minor issues, however. As is true with most 3D games with a floating camera sometimes the camera works itself into some inconvenient locations which obscure the action. This seems to only happen at the very moment you need to see most of all, like when you are rolling a narrow path or are in mid-air trying to land on a small platform. You can move the camera around, but when you are going for a fast time you don't always have the time to stop and fix the camera or risk falling off in mid camera adjustment..
Another, more disappointing, graphical problem is the slight tearing that occurs. It doesn't happen much in SD, but I've heard it's worse in HD. Despite the impressive visuals the game does not, in my opinion, push the machine so hard that tearing should appear. This could be a hold out from the PhysX code in the original game or it could be a sign of a bad port from the PC version.
Being a game that relies on it's physics implementation you can expect every thing to react like their real world counterparts. Cloth tears when a heavy object is placed on it. The metal marble rolls slowly and responds to input noticeably more sluggishly than the twitchy, ultra responsive air marble.
Control with the gamepad is very intuitive. Using the left stick, up rolls the marble away form you and down towards you with left and right being self explanatory. The right stick is used to control the camera zoom and rotation.
This is a fun game. I've loved it since I played the demo on the PC. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was coming out for the 360, since I had all but forgotten about it. It's not an action packed game, and some of the puzzles may take some head scratching but most can be figured out in a few minutes if you stop and think about it. At 800 points it's half the price of the PC version, and that makes it a bargain in my book. It won't take more than a couple of hours to solve all the levels, but getting fast enough times on the levels to get some of the achievements will keep you occupied for quite a while longer.
Graphically, Switchball is impressive for an XBLA game. Most games on XBLA are in 2D, while Switchball is full 3D with very nice texture and lighting work. There are a few minor issues, however. As is true with most 3D games with a floating camera sometimes the camera works itself into some inconvenient locations which obscure the action. This seems to only happen at the very moment you need to see most of all, like when you are rolling a narrow path or are in mid-air trying to land on a small platform. You can move the camera around, but when you are going for a fast time you don't always have the time to stop and fix the camera or risk falling off in mid camera adjustment..
Another, more disappointing, graphical problem is the slight tearing that occurs. It doesn't happen much in SD, but I've heard it's worse in HD. Despite the impressive visuals the game does not, in my opinion, push the machine so hard that tearing should appear. This could be a hold out from the PhysX code in the original game or it could be a sign of a bad port from the PC version.
Being a game that relies on it's physics implementation you can expect every thing to react like their real world counterparts. Cloth tears when a heavy object is placed on it. The metal marble rolls slowly and responds to input noticeably more sluggishly than the twitchy, ultra responsive air marble.
Control with the gamepad is very intuitive. Using the left stick, up rolls the marble away form you and down towards you with left and right being self explanatory. The right stick is used to control the camera zoom and rotation.
This is a fun game. I've loved it since I played the demo on the PC. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was coming out for the 360, since I had all but forgotten about it. It's not an action packed game, and some of the puzzles may take some head scratching but most can be figured out in a few minutes if you stop and think about it. At 800 points it's half the price of the PC version, and that makes it a bargain in my book. It won't take more than a couple of hours to solve all the levels, but getting fast enough times on the levels to get some of the achievements will keep you occupied for quite a while longer.
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