BallBlazer Champions User Reviews

by plizben
from , ,

Jul 2, 2002

A long awaited remake? Yes. Worth it? Well I was a little disappointed.

This is a remake of the classic 8-bit Atari game "Ballblazer". It's like a 2 player hockey game where you use "Rotofoils" (A hovercraft like car) to take posession of the "Plasmorb" and put it through the goal. The 8-bit version was pretty cut and dry but a very good game for the time. Ballblazer champions took out the cut and dry and added some nice features. It now sports Tournament Play where you play gradually tougher opponents, ship upgrading with your winnings and new playfields which are all great implementations.

The idea of new playfields was a great idea but just that. A great idea but lack of design and playability. The first 2 statiums are playable enough, next 3 or 4 are tough to even navigate let alone score in. The later stadiums are very difficult at best. Some of the later stadiums are like dogfighting in the sky with barriers and tunnel-vision. There are bouses (Weapons, money, etc...) and dangers that lurk in the playing field. A nice touch but there are cliffs, ramps, multi-tiered stadiums and other obstacles that are difficult to see and navigate. By the time you figure out where the "Plasmorb" lands at, it's already in the AI's posession and it's heading for your goal. Gameplay is in first or third person perspective but some stadiums may be more playable using a top down structure. With a push of a button, you can face the direction of the plasmorb or the opponents goal (if you're in posession). But if you're playing a multi-tiered stadium, you will have to do a lot of maneuvering, ramp climbing and cliff dropping to reach your goal and the AI opponent always knows the stadium better than you.

I rated this game a 1.5 because one really nice feature is a passcode exists to play the classic 8-bit version with better graphics.