Badaboing
Mark Arenz over at Ridiculopathy has just released a brand new game, Bada Boing, and it's based on a very simple idea: Bounce a ball off a trampoline to hit targets and score points. Using the mouse just click, drag, and release a ball from the unlimited supply to 'throw' it. It's really quite intuitive to play.
Included are 4 different game modes incorporating the same addictive gameplay mechanic.
- Time Attack: the name of this mode is a little deceiving since all 4 modes are played against the clock. To play, simply bounce balls at the target with rings representing different values. The center bullseye is worth the most points, of course.
- Hoop Dreams: your targets in this mode are 3 moving basketball hoops with backboards. Bonus points are awarded by earning combos when making more than one basket with a single ball.
- Simon Says: similar to skee-ball at a carnival midway but with an indicator pointing to one of the tubes to shoot for bonus points.
- Smash! (pictured): my favorite of the bunch and somewhat similar to Bloons. Smash all targets in play to get a fresh set. Bonus points are awarded for larger combos made with a single shot.
Besides the bonus points to shoot for, power-ups will appear at random offering point bonuses, point multipliers, and additional time on the clock.
Analysis: When I was a kid I had a physics toy similar in concept to this game called Bing, Bang, Boing, so I like the idea a lot. It's a fun game with a bit more potential than realized here, however. As I mentioned above, at least one of the modes is very similar to Bloons, the brilliantly executed balloon-popping game by Stephen Harris at NinjaKiwi. This game would benefit from additional modes of play that are not time-dependent, but rather give the player a limited number of balls with which to achieve a high score, similar to how Bloons works.
Also, the power-ups put the game slightly out of balance, as it reduces the high score list to the random few who get a long string of time power-ups that could effectively extend the game indefinitely.
Still, it's an enjoyable game and a fresh new offering from Mark, and perhaps we'll see some updates to the game that will kick it up a notch.
Nice Game. Jay, for some reason my highscore doesn't show up, Even though my score is higher than others on the list. Do you know what the problem is?
Thanks.
Did you click "Submit" to submit your high score? It appears you must have to do that for the high score system to record it. However, I have been so far unable to reach a high enough score to try it for myself.
I did notice a couple of minor cosmetic bugs while play testing the game, so I wouldn't be surprised if a bug or two remain with the high score system as well.
Hopefully Mark will get it all sorted soon.
It's fun for a few minutes but I was done with the game as soon as I realized that I couldn't avoid being on a timer to end the game. If succeeding gave you more time or there was a way to extend a play past the initial timer, I'd be a lot more interested in playing it.
Bada bing! Bada Boom!
Um....after you quit the game, the annoying music track keeps playing in the background. Tad more programming I think.
Sounds like you inadvertently left another browser window open. I've done that myself on a couple of occasions and couldn't figure out to save my life where the music was coming from. xD
No amount of programming can keep music playing once a Flash movie is unloaded from memory. xD
I really wanted to like this game but it's just too darn hard to control. I can't bounce the balls reliably - it seems the tiniest horizontal motion of the mouse sends the ball sailing off the screen, nowhere near the trampoline; but without that tiny horizontal motion the ball just falls straight down and that's not helpful either. When I do succeed in bouncing the ball on the trampoline I seem to get only two or three different trajectories, making aiming impossible. Plus the time element mentioned by John - it's annoying to get no additional play as a reward for successful play. All in all an interesting idea but the execution of it is not very fun to play.
I've found that the easiest way to control your throw so that you always hit the trampoline is to hold the ball a short distance above and to the left of the trampoline, then slam the ball down into the trampoline and release a few inches above it. This makes it almost impossible to miss the trampoline, though hitting the target will still be a challenge.
Someone has posted an insanely long comment on the game's webpage, so now the game is quite difficult to find (well, I assume the comment is the cause). If anyone is struggling like I was, you have to scroll to the right quite a long way to get to the game.
there's only like a centimeter of space on the trampoline!!! If they're open to suggestion i'm asking to make the trampoline way bigger.
I hate that if you slam the ball too hard or let go not soon enough, the ball apparently will go through the trampoline, and roll over the edge. A good tactic while playing (in the Smash! mode expecially) is to grab the ball and stop at an angle to the trampline, so that one quick motion will do. It apears though, that the trampoline will only bounce the ball when it touches the center spot, which is a ligher shade of color. I also dislike the fact that the highscores... seem to be updated... never. I got a score of about 80,200 in Slam, which would of have given me 5th or 6th place in the highscores. I absolutly hate the Simon Says mode, for aiming is hard. Often times, the ball smacks into the side of the first tube, and bounces back. Also, the x2 bonus (and the other ones) seem to help enourmously. I wish there were a way to increase the apearence of these bounuses, or to have them apear more consistantly, rather than randomly (or perhaps just not apear at all). Hoop Dreams and Smash! modes are my favorites.
Update