Voxel Baller is another of the PONG/Breakout style games on Steam, where a paddle is manipulated to keep a ball in play until a player manages to clear the field, or satisfy a specific objective. This genre of game tends to commonly be offered at a price that may seem higher than most SAS (short attention span) Steam games, and at $7.99, and Voxel Baller is no exception. Yet it seems to be worth every penny!
Where Voxel Baller (VB) differs from some other similar games is the amount of content offered, and several other interesting features. VB is divided into 10 “worlds” (or blocks) of 5 levels each, for a total of 50 levels. Each “world” can be played separately for practicality and convenience. VB offers the typical power-ups, both helpful and harmful, and additional lives are quite plentiful. (I’ve had as many as seven lives at one time, if I remember correctly.) The levels that I’ve seen are quite varied, imaginative and fun, and the two bosses offered up through level 25 (which is as far as I’ve managed) were defeated more often than not.
Several features seem unusual to VB, and in a good way. One is an endless mode, though I’ve yet to try it, and there are six characters to select from to play as. Each game attempt, win or lose, offers both points toward high scores, and tokens that can be used to buy additional of the six characters, each with different abilities. (I’m fond of Gertrud, personally.) Tokens are also used to open the endless mode, and to acquire additional credits.
Interestingly, VB doesn’t offer mouse control; keyboard and controller only. Admittedly, upon first playing I (and other players) issued a complaint to the developer concerning what was considered a significant omission. However, truth be told, if the additional speed and dexterity afforded by mouse control was necessary, this player would never have gotten close to level 25 in such a short time, if ever. I can’t help but wonder if using a mouse would simply make VB too easy to be challenging or fun. Just prior to writing this review I offered the developer an apology for my misunderstanding of what begins to seem as a fully appropriate choice (at least based on one player's experience.) Getting the paddle exactly where it needs to be becomes a greater challenge (especially in light of enemies that cause the paddle to freeze, but often can’t be avoided.)
To this point I’d have to say that my only real issue with VB is that sometimes the field gets so busy and so crowded that the ball can be difficult to spot. But I’ll accept this, rather than the alternative of too little going on, and it’s not something that happens frequently.
Voxel Baller is a game that I expect to spend a significant amount of time on, and hope to perhaps complete some day. Each level is original enough to involve its own difficulties and strategies, and having six characters with different abilities goes far toward six very different versions of each level. The art is amusing and colorful, and in general VB seems to be a well conceived and designed addition to (perhaps) the oldest of all computer games, now about 43 years in the making.
As with most Steam games, offline game time in Voxel Baller is not tracked externally.
