Developer: 10tons
Publisher: 10tons
Release Date: 30/10/2017
Price as of Article: $4.99/ £3.99
You are King oddball who is on a path of destruction, with his long tongue he wants to destroy the world and on his way will look to destroy anything in his way from tanks, humans and helicopters. Is there anyone or anything that will be able to stop the king? There is of course a very limited story here but it serves it’s purpose and sets you on you way and that’s straight into the game.
All of the audio in this cheap little game is pleasant enough from the boulder hitting the tanks and exploding to the lick of King oddballs tongue swiping another boulder to let go of. The music made by Jonathan gear is a nice touch as the melodies here are all very pleasant to listen to.
The games graphics are drawn in a cartoon style and are actually really quite charming. This is a budget game but the graphics here look better than some of the more expensive titles I have seen on the eshop so it was a pleasant surprise. Game runs smoothly and I had no issues with it either in docked mode or in handheld mode.
Explosions look decent enough and King oddball looks well … odd!
This is one of the most simple games I have ever had to review and in my mind, it’s sometimes these simple games that give you the most bang for your buck or pound for pound the best value. Here we have a single button game, where your skill is tested with timing. The rest is all about the physics. King oddball uses his disgustingly long tongue to pick up boulders from the top left of the screen and then swings them like a pendulum with his tongue.
This is one strong king which does not have any arms or legs and is literally round. It’s then up to you to release the boulders at just the right time. Throughout the levels, there will be obstacles which will make it more difficult for you to achieve your objective. Later on, you will have enemies which will have shields and this is where you will need to use your savvy to figure out how to take out the most enemies with the minimal use of boulders.
You have a grid-like map where you can choose which levels to do next and you will have to complete a full square on the grid to move onto the next square which will open up more levels. Look out for the pumpkins to enter the Halloween grid. You will be able to play the Halloween levels pack which is a great touch here from the developer.
On your way will be 160 levels to plough through which get more challenging as you go along but the difficulty curve is just right here. The physics engine works really nice actually. Usually, with these types of games, you go in not expecting too much but it’s often these games where you have zero expectations where they surprise you the most.
This is as simple as it sounds let go of the boulder at precisely the right moment to destroy as many objects on the screen as possible. The more stuff you hit the better and you may even get one of your boulders back to throw again if you get a large enough multiplayer. As you can imagine later on this is absolutely key to get further. You will also get a boulder back if you manage to bounce it back to hit King Oddball which is a nice touch. A nice surprise is when he sometimes picks up the pause button to chuck with his tongue which made me laugh. Tongue and cheek indeed and there isn’t much more to the game than that.
As always there are a few negatives with games like these. While there is an element of skill involved in terms timing there is no getting away from the fact that you could throw the same boulder 10 times in the exact same place and have 10 differing outcomes. The developer has taken out the scoring system and replaced it with a word at the end of the level using a superlative which is ok but I would prefer a score based system but that’s just me.
The game can be frustrating at times especially on levels you need to replay over and over again but it’s one of those games you could say is frustratingly addictive.
This is a game which is only £3.99 or $4.99 and is one of the cheapest games on the eshop to go along the likes of Kamiko, Knight Terrors and others around this price range. Honestly here you are getting a load of content and the bonus is this was released especially around Halloween so 10tons could release their Halloween pack.
King Oddball is now dressed as a pumpkin and on some of the Haloween levels, the tanks and helicopters now have nice looking pearly whites, better to eat you with of course. You get 160 levels plus the replayability here is quite high as you can then try out the diamond levels which is this games version of hard mode. Complete the level without using the last boulder which is actually a diamond and you get to keep the diamond showing that diamonds really are forever! showing you are excellent at this game. Furthermore, the game has an implemented achievement system which is most welcome.
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