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{subhead} BallMaster V1.1{def}{p}
Review by Chris Seward
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BallMaster is a new puzzle game to come from a team of Amiga users in
Kranj, Slovenia. As the title suggests it is a ball game. The game as
I said earlier is a puzzle game so that makes this a puzzle game with
balls (no pun intended).
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The game itself is very addictive. The way the game is played is that
you have at the top a ball release part where all the different colour
balls come out one at a time and as you go down the screen you have
paths and also these grey turning wheels which have four holes in them.
The turning wheels house the coloured balls. The idea is to match four
of the same coloured balls in all four spaces on the grey wheels. You
can turn the wheels by clicking the right mouse button and you can
release a ball along a path by clicking on it with the left mouse
button. If the hole in the wheel you are sending a ball to is blocked
then the ball will bounce and return back to the hole you just sent it
from.
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Once you have a wheel with all four balls of the same colour they will
disappear and you will have to fill up other wheels and that wheel
again with some other coloured balls.
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The games graphics are of shareware quality, they are not really poor
by any standards but they are simple so they won't impress either. While
playing the game you have some soothing music playing in the background
which is really quite nice and adds to the effect and overall
atmosphere of the game. I am not normally one for puzzle games as I
don't have the time to sit down and figure our how something works or
use my brain to play a game but this one is a simple puzzle game that
keeps you on your toes at all times. Just as you have cleared a section
of the same coloured balls another is being filled up with wrong coloured
balls and you have to send them off somewhere else.
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There is another catch that when a ball is released if the top wheels
are full a little timer goes up and you have to get the ball in one of
the wheels before the time runs out, as soon as you have that ball in
a hole another is released so it is a fast game.
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Overall if you like puzzle games you'll love this, and then again even
if puzzle games are not really your type then I still suggest taking a
look at this one as I was impressed. This version is not the full game,
but if you want the full version it will set you back 10 US$, 7 £ or
20 DEM for an emailed keyfile or 15 US$, 10 £ or 30 DEM for a mailed
disk version. The only problem I see with registering is many people
might be wary of sending money out of their own country as this has to
goto Slovenia. I would recommend you download this demo and if you like
it then register it, if not then you've only wasted a few seconds downloading
it. Great stuff!
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{bold}Available from{nobold}: Aminet:game/think/BallMasterAGA.lha ({link ftp://de.aminet.net/ftp/aminet/pub/game/think/8allMasterAGA.lha}Download This{end}){p}
{bold}URL{nobold} : {link http://www2.arnes.si/~gkrjes12/}http://www2.arnes.si/~gkrjes12/{end}
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{bold}Graphics{nobold}      : 76%{p}
{bold}Sound{nobold}         : 81%{p}
{bold}Playability{nobold}   : 88%{p}
{bold}Lastability{nobold}   : 86%{p}
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{bold}Overall{nobold}       : 84%