Challenges are, just as you might suspect, slightly differing variations on the standard. The variation is not in the actual gameplay but the spawn rate of enemies and bombs, the behavior of those enemies (does a bomb explosion automatically spawn more), and the general speed of gameplay. There are four challenges - Blizzard, Overload, Patience and Escalation. The differences are subtle, but definitely noticeable and it was a couple hours of play overall before I managed to crack the top 100 on all of the respective leaderboard (top 30 on some). There’s a small learning curve on how best to approach each of the challenges. For example, in escalation, don’t hang out too near the bombs or plan on cutting back through the blast radius as the enemies will spawn on the spot almost immediately.
The graphics on the game are pretty cool as well. They’re not insanely complex or anything but they are of a sufficient level to not detract from the game in any way and the whole game has a sort of cool organic TRON feel to it. The enemies remind me of blood cells and pollen but everything has a sort of neon-ish glow.
The music is quite well done as well. There could have been, as we have seen in so many games, a really hard techno soundtrack that not only gets repetitive but annoying. Radiangames took a slightly more laid back approach. The music is still very electronic but in a sort of synthesizers meet upbeat jazz sort of way. Sure, there aren’t all that many songs. In fact, it’s entirely possible that there’s just one and it repeats and I just haven’t noticed. Now that I stop and listen I do believe there is just one. That’s a mark of good work. There’s enough variation in the song to keep it from being grindingly repetitive and it just hovers on the edge of consciousness while playing and doesn’t intrude.
Overall, I’ve put in a good many hours already since I got this. How many? I have no idea. Actually Raptr says just five hours, but that’s already five hours of entertainment for the best dollar you’ll ever spend in your gaming life.
Description:
This game was classified by the community with the following category scores - Violence=1/3, Sex=0/3, Mature Content=0/3. Dodge, Trigger, Destroy! Be the Fireball as you set off huge explosion combos across 8 waves and 4 unique challenges. Compare your scores to the best in the world using the online scoreboards. Fireball is the fifth game in the radiangames series. 80 MSP ($1) Available now on Xbox LIVE Indie Games.
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Our Rating for Radiangames Fireball Review (XBLA Indie)
9.5
Replay It’s not hectic but it’s addictive. That’s exactly what I like in a game.
10.0
Graphics A cool mix of TRON electro and biological entities. Not eye-straining or pulsating. Simply, awesome.
9.0
Sound Games like this generally have grating, hard-pumping techno that annoys. Fireball has none of that, it’s quite unintrusive music complements the gameplay perfectly.
9.5
Gameplay Cruise around, blow stuff up and survive as long as you can. It’s simply genius. No worrying about cross-brain left/right stick shooting. Just worry about accuracy. I found myself often laughing and saying "I Can’t believe I squeezed through there!"
0.0
Multiplayer
9.5
Overall The game doesn’t have any multiplayer, but it would be totally insane if it did. This is the best single dollar you could ever put into a game and the return on investment is near infinite.
was a couple hours of play overall before I managed to crack the top 100 on all of the respective leaderboard (top 30 on some). There’s a small learning curve on how best to approach each of the challenges. For example, in escalation, don’t hang out too near the bombs or plan on cutting back through the blast radius as the enemies will spawn on the spot almost immediately.
it’s entirely possible that there’s just one and it repeats and I just haven’t noticed. Now that I stop and listen I do believe there is just one. That’s a mark of good work. There’s enough variation in the song to keep it from being grindingly repetitive and it just hovers on the edge of consciousness while playing and doesn’t intrude.
