Skee-Ball is like... well, it's like skee-ball.On one hand, it's impressive how focused this game is -- it feels just like skee-ball. On the other hand, it's a shame how focused this game is -- it just feels like skee-ball. The result may be really boring, but it's clear that someone put a lot of work into this simulation. Thanks to this little game, I can now safely say that I will never feel the need to have a real skee-ball machine of my very own (not that this was something that was likely to happen or which I was likely to feel).
There's definitely some added gameplay in the idea of redeeming tickets for items, but not much. I'm saddened that this is the case because I really liked this concept. By the time a player is interested in this feature, which is probably the same moment they get tired of playing the game, they will have realized that the most obvious way to play this game is just to keep flicking balls as fast as one can. This guarantees a certain rate of return with regard to tickets, which will allow the player to buy items in the little shop.
Even this idea is a little too focused on recreating the real world experience, though. The items in the shop are generally pretty lame (in the world of this game that means they're ugly and poorly drawn) and minimally functional (you can buy different balls to use in the game, but they seem to behave exactly the same). So there's not a whole lot of point in pursuing this added feature.
At least, I assume there isn't any point -- the game doesn't give me much reason to think that things will get better if I devote a few more hours of my life to playing it, and I'm certainly not going to try on the off chance that Nirvana awaits after the millionth ball toss. As Chet and Eric wrote on Old Man Murray: if you've got something really good in your game, be sure put it up front because no one's going to see it otherwise.
I played until I could buy a new ball and then I bought a plastic spider ring, some vampire teeth, a fake mustache, a kazoo and a finger trap. In real life I would probably have done the same thing except without the new ball. ...Plastic spider rings are cool.
P.S. As I went to look for a screenshot for this game, I'm disturbed to have seen some of the reviews from people who found it engrossing and to learn that this was a number one best seller in the App Store at some point. People are so disappointing!
P.P.S. After playing Ramp Champ, I have to admit that this game is really, really well made. I don't have to admit that it's fun, though, because it isn't. ...Well, not for more than a minute, anyway.
It's interesting to see the higher production values in ramp champ, albeit with a less satisfying ball flicking/motion/gravity simulation.
ReplyDeleteContinuing with my beating a dead horse: It's noteworthy that there are very few failure events in Skee-Ball — simply some results are more successful than others, though everyone is a winner. Whereas in Ramp Champ, there's a lot of failure and frustration and LOSE LOSE LOSE. I think it would benefit from having one of those "Free ball" catchers that they have in Peggle.
Yes, Skee-Ball was number one for a very long time. We know the guys that made it. Though they didn't technically make it, they found some guys who made a skee ball clone and said, hey, we can license the skee ball name, ya wanna? And then they did. The original game was called 10 balls, one cup or something equally horrible.