Collide-a-Ball (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Collide-a-Ball isn't the kind of game that seems complicated, and looks are not entirely deceiving. The premise is to move the ramps and other directional devices around the board so the ball rolls into the goal. The complexity comes from arranging the pieces so the ball goes into the goal.

For the most part, it's actually kind of fun. As with most good puzzle games, finding the right arrangement of the board pieces is satisfying. The boards get fairly complex pretty quick, and the player is expected to simply roll with the punches. Right here is a game that keeps the tutorials to an absolute minimum, and yet doesn't seem to falter for it.

Half the fun is seeing new things on the board and figuring out how they manipulate the direction of the ball. Experimentation is absolutely essential—and encouraged—and it's rare to see a game give the player so little and yet feel like a little science lab. Exploring the possibilities is still limited to the layouts the game presents, but those layouts are varied enough to remain engaging and exciting.

At least for a while, Collide-a-Ball is tantalising. It becomes evident, though, that the strategy and puzzle solving is capped at a certain point. Reaching the later stages of a game should make you feel like you're incorporating all your knowledge into moments of pure puzzle-solving zen. Unfortunately, this game just feels stale after a while, not introducing enough new mechanics to keep the experience engaging for very long. Perhaps it's the limited inventory, or that, with all the experimentation, there is still only one solution to each puzzle.

If there was any other complaint to leverage here, it would be the visuals. There is a clear difference between minimalism and unattractive, and this game vaulted to the latter. Textures are boring, looking like something from an "Intro to Photoshop CS1" class. A few of them look kind of like real photos skinned onto the blocks. The background is equally boring; just a plain old blue sky scene. This game is plenty engaging, although you couldn't tell just by looking at it.