If you are younger than 35 years of age, then you probably didn’t get to enjoy the game Joust when you were growing up. It’s a 2D game that had multiple platforms onscreen, ostriches you would ride and enemies you would literally ‘joust’ or fall on top of to get rid of them. As you progressed in Joust, platforms would become scarce, the enemies would increase in quantity and lava would appear at the bottom, which would make life difficult when you needed a break from button-mashing.
It was a helluva game back in the day.
Well, TOO DX has taken the Joust concept, added more than a few birds to the mix (16 in total) and made it a local multiplayer driven game that has you playing against your best friends (or worst enemies). On top of this, they’ve also added some bombs you can bounce off the walls to send speeding towards other players and a scoring goal for balls to go during gameplay.
Welcome to Sportsball!
The gameplay in Sportsball is quite simple. Much like Joust, you button-mash your way through the levels to fly and position your bird in the best possible manner to strike down on your enemies. Some of the modes in the game score just on the elimination factor (dropping down on another player’s bird eliminates them, scores one point for you). Other modes score by players bouncing a ball into a net. Regardless, the actual core gameplay and ‘goal’ isn’t that difficult to grasp.
Here is a breakdown of the modes:
Duel – This is a one-on-one match where the first player to five points (via ball-in-net) wins the game. It’s like a soccer match with birds.
Sportsbrawl Bout – No balls on this one, just a straight-up elimination match. Four players can play against each other, a point is scored by eliminating an opponent. There is a two-minute time limit with this mode. Probably the mode that people will play the most, especially if you want to be a jerk to your friends.
Sportsbrawl Pro – Bombs, drop and pop on opponents and plenty of ways to score. This has a lot going on and the inclusion of a ‘bomb’ in this mode makes life just a bit sweeter. I enjoyed this one the most, if not only to watch birds go ‘poof’ from the explosions.
Explosive Chaos – A sh*tload of bombs. Enjoy this one.
These are the main modes of play in the game and they have just a little bit of variety between each other to make matches interesting. There is also a custom mode available for those wanting a unique experience in the game.
To make all of these modes a little bit more fun, the game features different birds you can choose from. There are four different teams of birds to choose from: Red Hot, Pink Pros, Sapphire Skyhearts and the Gang of Green (love that name). Each team brings its own attributes to the table, as each bird within that team acts differently. For example, the Pink Pros have a flamingo that is huge, slow, but more controllable than other birds to use (that makes it easier to attack people). For me, I liked the Sapphire Skyhearts’ Chickadee, which was an even balanced bird in almost ever category. It was easy to control and quick. Each bird featured has a category breakdown that is measured by attack/fly/control/speed. You literally have a bird load out. So, when you go in to choose a bird for a specific mode, make sure you pick the bird with the most relatable attributes to whatever mode you’re playing.
Modes and birds aside, you also have to choose different locations with different styles of gameplay to them. For example, the Seattle location in the game is simple and the platforms look like something directly out of Joust. Seattle contains two tiers of three platforms that allow you to bounce balls off of them or strategize for certain attacks. If you choose the South Africa ISS map then you should expect more drop throughs, less platforms and a bit more open map. Each map has its own flavor and style that will dictate your fighting style. I like that variety.
As for the visuals, Sportsball is visually simplistic. It looks like it could be something done in flash, and that might be the original concept (not sure). The animation is fluid, yet not really detailed. The maps are the same way, though I have to give props to the audio, which actually makes the visuals nicer (as weird as that sounds). If you’re winning in Seattle, the crowd will chant your team name. Does it do much for the experience? Not emotionally, but it’s a little detail that stands out.
Now, the music in the game needs to be less annoying, though I’m sure they meant for it to be an incredibly repetitive 80s-esque song. I will be humming a ‘Sportsball’ tune for the next month. I apologize to my wife in advance.
All of this aside, the biggest issue I have with this game is that there is not a single-player mode to it. This is purely a multiplayer game. If you play it solo, then you’ll just be playing the training levels in the game — which is about as exciting as this sentence just read. So, if you’re a bit of a loner, then you probably won’t be interested in this game. For me, I have like a ba-jillion kids at home, so finding people to play on a day-to-day basis isn’t really that difficult. At times it can get intense at home with this game, which makes the experience so much better. I will say that the lack of an online/multiplayer component is a downer (you can’t only play this local), as Sportsball would probably be up there with the likes of Pac-Man Versus in terms of simple, yet fun, multiplayer goodness. I know Pac-Man Versus is a local thing (Gamecube didn’t sniff online play when this came out), but the amount of joy it brings is still up there with the best MP games.
