Review

Gameplay 62%

Wonderball is a simplified version of the classic arcade game “BreakOut”, where you move around a racket space ship to bounce a ball on blocks. Here, you just need to tap the screen at the right time to bounce back the ball, and instead of tiny bricks to destroy, there’s a wall covering up the whole way between the left and right sides of the playground. You start out with a single ball, but fi you manage to tap the screen just when the sphere is in the exact center of the magic bar in the lower part of the screen, you’ll get a “Perfect Hit” and the ball will split into 2, also getting fire power into one of them. At first, the walls will be destroyed quickly, but each floor you go up, the harder they will be to break. The screen is scrolling vertically automatically, and sometimes you won’t be able to take down the wall before it reaches the bottom of the screen, in which case you lose. You also lose when you don’t bounce back your last ball, in which case you can exchange 3 crystals to continue, or start over. Besides just breaking walls, the are items in the air while the balls are bouncing, like a hourglass which stops the screen scrolling for a few seconds, and a fire ball, wich engulfs your ball in hot magic making it 3 times more powerful. There are also golden coins to collect, which you can use to buy new spheres with different themes such as animals or sports, and level up your magic meter, making your balls stronger.

Graphics 78%

Wonderball features a hand drawn style for all elements on screen, with light effects added such as fire, sparkles, glowing, explosions, lighting when balls bounce, and they leave a fading trail of color. The overall design of the game is not very complex, but the added effects make for a noteworthy visual experience, in what would be an otherwise forgettable title. If worth mentioning that some custom balls you can play with also change the background, and while they’re mostly simple paintings scrolling, it’s a nice touch.

Production Quality 70%

Wonderball looks pretty good, and the idea of adapting the classic BreakOut gameplay to one simple tap for mobile users, may sound OK, but the truth is, it gets boring fast. Just tapping when the balls is at  acertain height gets way to repetitive, at least Smashy Duo has you tapping the left or right side of the screen, and you never know which enemy you’ll hit so the ball can come back sooner or later than you expect.   Here, the balls always seem to bounce at the same speed and angle, and since you’re interaction as a player is very limited, you’ll probably download a different title after a while. There are a lot of balls to unlock with different themes, but is not like they’re so appealing to look at that you’d want to keep playing to unlock them all. The sound effects and music are just average, just the quality you’d expect in the audio department, and while the graphics are quite well done, given the over simplified gameplay, they won’t make you keep playing for long.

Value for your Money 98%

Wonderball is free on Google Play and the Apple App Store. You won’t see any advertising, but you can buy coins and crystals through in-app transactions. If you really want to push yourself and break hundreds of walls, go ahead, but you’ll probably decide to buy an Arkanoid game with that money instead of spending it here.

Launch Video

Summary

Wonderball is fun for a couple of minutes, if you really have no better PONG clones available to play. It has very nice visuals and good music, but the gameplay is just too simple to get you hooked into playing once your record is 50 walls or so. Some players like this kind of single tap titles, and there are lots of unlockable balls, if that’s your personal taste, go ahead and download, it’s free. Pros

• Nice 2D visuals with lots of flashy effects
• Many balls and backgrounds to unlock

Cons

• The gameplay is way too simple, gets boring fast
• Just breaking your own record isn’t enough to keep you playing

Game Help Guru Rating 67%