Madballs in Babo: Invasion is what would happen if you threw Marble Madness and Twisted Metal into a blender; the basic idea of the game is to control an orb-like creature (or the head of your Mii Too Avatar) through several 3D stages, shooting various enemies. What exactly these enemies are depends on what mode you play, and Madballs offers lots of ’em: Singleplayer campaign (with online co-op for up to four players), Deathmatch (including the option to play as your Avatar’s head), Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and the titular Invasion mode.
Regardless of which mode you play, the premise is the same in that you control a Madball (one of those rubber ball toys from the 80s) and roll it around the map, picking up weapons as you go. It’s an overhead view shooter, somewhat like Smash TV. As the Madballs and your Avatar head are both round, they obey some ball-related physics. For example, they’re slow to go up an incline but can build up impressive speed going downhill. This is joined by a variety of weapons with different amounts of recoil, so a lot of the skill in this game is not only being able to fire accurately on the move, but also come to terms with ball physics and compensate for recoil subtly affecting your movement; you can move with some impressive agility once you learn this.
You only carry one main weapon at a time, though most of them have two firing modes. Sometimes this is uninspired, like a shotgun that can shoot ice buckshot and... wait for it... flame buckshot. Yeah. Others are far more interesting however, like a long-range beam rifle that can also fire a spread of wildly inaccurate missiles; one mode is useful for attacking individual foes at range, the other is better for clearing crowds. While you do get a few grenades and molotov cocktails, learning your primary weapon will be very important... and fun. The singleplayer campaign sends various enemies at you with their own set of weaknesses and resistances to certain attack types, while online play encourages weapon variety because the stages are laid out such that no one weapon tends to be a universal solution to all opponents.
While the singleplayer campaign and its co-op mode are well enough, its the versus multiplayer that really stands out. Deathmatch and its team variant are pretty obvious, and there is an option to play with your Avatar’s head converted to Madball-esque form. Capture the Flag play is fairly obvious as well, and only the Invasion mode really bears explaining: Players are divided into two teams, with each player picking a ’tile’ of the map and how they wish to place it. These tiles become that team’s base, and your goal is to protect that base from destruction while also tearing up the enemy’s. You’ll also unlock new weapons and characters regardless of what mode you play, so it might be a good idea to do a little of the campaign so you have more weapons to use online.
Not only that, but each Madball has their own special skill. I have not had the opportunity to try all of them, but they are reasonably varied and range from things like a sudden burst of speed or a high jump (both useful for dodging attacks), to deploying a small healing field for yourself and teammates. Combined with the well designed stages and variety of weapons, everyone is sure to find something that suits their style.
To be fair, Madballs has a few noteworthy problems though none of them are severe enough to make it a bad game or even come close to it. The first is that online play occasionally has problems. It normally plays perfectly, but large games with a poorly equipped host can have some very real lag. Worse, the game completely relies on the host... and a disturbing number of them in my experience tend to ’ragequit’ if things aren’t going their way, instantly ending the game for everyone. I suppose those aren’t the developers’ fault, but the second issue is: The loading times are hideous. It can easily take anywhere from thirty seconds to a minute to get into a game, though I’ll note the waiting time is well worth it.
At 800 Microsoft Points/$10, this is an excellent buy. It’s one of the better games on the Xbox Live Arcade service, as fully featured and well executed as many retail titles. Easy to learn but with plenty of depth, Madballs in Babo: Invasion comes highly recommended!
