Game Reviews

Red Ball 4

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iOS
| Red Ball 4
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Red Ball 4
|
iOS
| Red Ball 4

It might look like the kind of game you would have found yourself playing on your Nokia N95 back in 2007, but Red Ball 4 is as pure an iOS platformer as you're likely to get.

Rather than any flashy gimmicks or extravagant combat techniques the focus here is on movement, momentum, and timed jumping

And that makes it quite refreshing.

Let's bounce

In truth, the red ball you play as hardly makes for the most charismatic of leads. But FDG hasn't put it here to look good.

You see, as a ball, you move completely differently to your average bipedal platformer protagonist. You don't run and jump - though the virtual controls are mapped out in that familiar way. Rather, you roll and bounce.

This means that you can build up a seemingly ceaseless amount of momentum simply by rolling down a hill, while it's possible to clip the corner of a platform and barely spin over the crest.

It takes a while to get used to, and you'll plummet to your death on several occasions during the game's more intricate moments (such as when crossing deadly bodies of water). But frequent and well-positioned restart flags put paid to any frustration.

Spinning in new directions

Each side-scrolling level in Red Ball 4 is a series of spatial puzzles, and the game's plain graphics belie a surprisingly nuanced physics engine.

Giant boulders can be used as portable platforms and crushing tools, and planks can be shunted into place as makeshift bridges. It all feels agreeably tactile.

Encounters with the game's square enemies provide yet another element that feels out of kilter with other platformers.

Most can be dealt with through a time-honoured head-bounce, but your character's tricky sense of momentum makes approaching them a surprisingly cagey, tactical affair - particularly when some enemies have to be attacked on certain sides.

Let's not get too carried away here - Red Ball 4 isn't the best iOS platformer on the market. It suffers from a lack of personality, and it fails to throw up anything that will really raise your pulse.

But it's a solid and thoughtfully constructed game that concentrates on seeing through a handful of ideas in an efficient and considered way. If you can roll along with it, you'll have a fair amount of fun.

Red Ball 4

Despite its unassuming nature, Red Ball 4 is a thoughtfully constructed and surprisingly nuanced platformer
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.