Madballs in...Babo: Invasion can best be described as Smash TV meets Serious Sam with sprinkles of class based combat from an MMO. All of this was created by mashing characters from Babo Violent, and a bizarre toy from many of our own childhoods - Madballs. These wild and crazy balls were a bit like Nerf toys that fell out of the ugly tree, and landed in the womb of some pretty twisted monsters; skulls, eyeballs, horns, scars, and wounds were not uncommon in these ghastly humorous balls. The boys at PlayBrains decided to strap a gun to their balls and away we go into the Invasion.
Believe it or not PlayBrains has crafted a narrative for a game about balls, the story follows two factions; The Evil Scorched faction, and the Good BDI faction. Each faction has dynamic differences in their gameplay and characters, adding a level of depth we didn't expect to see in a title like this. You can play either faction from the start, and various unlocks occur by playing through each campaign. The gameplay itself is a balance of hectic shooting and pseudo-puzzles.
It's highly recommended that you take your time through Madballs. You'll sell yourself short if you don't at least keep an eye out for some of the many secret areas in the game. Particularly in the Snow Blind level, there were many caves worth exploring, and many secret enemies to encounter. The game is sure to punish you for getting ahead of yourself with staggered health and weapons throughout the levels. Until, of course, you've unlocked your own means of healing. Speaking of getting ahead, a nice feature in co-op is the teleport to leader functionality. If one players gets too far ahead and another is lost, the game will teleport the group back together and they can continue rolling on their merry way.
Madballs has an incredible amount of unlocks for an arcade title. You'll be unlocking new characters, weapons, and player upgrades in no time, with progress towards other unlocks available for viewing from the menu. All unlocks are just a matter of playing the game!
More balls than you can shake a stick at.
Co-op in Madballs adds a level of depth to the game that's similar to squad based shooters. There are elements borrowed from games like City of Heroes, where you have a tank character go alert as many enemies as possible and have them follow that character into a co-op ambush. There are support classes that earn the ability to heal. There are classes built for speed, for attacking and for turning into a giant ball of rock and fire and crushing everything in its path. Each class and character has unique abilities, and if you have four unique players the team can be very self-sufficient.
It's always disappointing to find a co-op game that doesn't increase difficulty when more players are introduced to the mix. Thankfully Madballs scales pretty well, every time a new player enters the fray, the enemies scale in difficulty so the challenge is always there. This makes playing on "easy" mode, not-so-easy, but still enjoyable! Exploration is recommended especially in co-op mode, but don't get too separated since re-locating your allies is a bit of a chore.
I see you brought the big ball to this battle...
While the "Enduro-mode" co-op does not have a current save feature, it is still much more enjoyable than playing through the campaign mode solo. Each enemy taken down cooperatively earns you a co-op kill - a way to boost that score! There is also a multiplier system which is shared between the players. Each time a player takes a hit, part of that multiplier is knocked off. It becomes beneficial to your own score to cover your buddies ball!
Not feeling challenged enough in the main story? Ready to master some levels individually? Well, any level you've unlocked on your own will open up a "Level attack" mode, which is also available in co-op. This mode pits you against the clock to boost your score as high as you can get it in as little amount of time possible. Having additional co-op buddies not only gives you more baddies to kill for points, but the score is shared as well!
During our playsession with the PlayBrains team, we mentioned our disappointment about the lack of save-option in the co-op mode - call it a kick in the Madballs. We also found that at times it was difficult to locate your team mates if you got separated. While PlayBrains didn't confirm anything, they seemed generally interested in our feedback and said it was something they would look into. This is very good news for co-oppers!
Even though the single player game is definitely worth taking a look at, it just didn't bring the amount of insanity that co-op did. Of course, we didn't even touch on the 12 player versus maps - where you can integrate your avatar into the mix, or just battle royale with in-game characters! We were anything but mad while playing Madballs in...Babo: Invasion. The zany concept, the fast paced action, the depth and strategy were all a pleasant surprise. Like any good game the co-op mode makes things even more fun. There is no end to the fun - go grab 'em by the balls!