It's almost time for the World Cup and man I'm so excited! There's just something magical about the white lines on the fresh cut grass, the roar of the crowd, the, uh, the yellow cards and the, um, red? Yeah, red cards, and th... that announcer guy that screams "Goal!" for a really long time anytime anyone scores, and, okay, fine, I'm a big old faker. I don't really watch soccer, but I do appreciate that fans of the game around the world are poised in anticipation for the sport's biggest event. Just in time to celebrate the coming of the World Cup from Turbo Nuke, (the new brand for Long Animals and Robot Jam) comes Soccer Balls, a physics puzzler that can be enjoyed by hardcore soccer fans and laypersons alike.
Now if you, like many of us, can't score a goal to save your life but do have an uncanny knack for hitting random people in the face, there's nothing to worry about. You may never suit up with the pros, but you do have the perfect skill set to excel here. Unlike your standard soccer game, your goal here is to hit all of the referees with a soccer ball, thus making them lose their heads (in the cutest way possible and not at all like in the movie, Scanners. *shudder*). To do this, simply aim and adjust the power using the mouse, and click away. Of course it's not always that easy and you'll have to pass the ball to team mates, activate switches, break through wooden obstacles as well as pull off a host of other tricks in order to make it through each level.
Like Cyclomaniacs, also from Long Animals and Robot Jam, Soccer Balls is simple, accessible, and engaging. Not exactly heavy with eye candy, this phuzzle is nevertheless likeable and consistent, delivering up a fairly wide variety of puzzles that seem to do a good job of exploring the game's mechanic. Unfortunately, Soccer Balls suffers from being too easy. The overly generous trajectory lines and the ability to refresh balls in a single level result in a game that poses little to no challenge at all until the last handful of stages. Attempting to get a perfect score on each level can add some difficulty to the task at hand, but in most cases not a whole lot.
Just because a game is easy doesn't mean it isn't also fun, however. Besides, it can be quite refreshing to play a game of soccer without first standing against the fence next to the kid with the curiously persistent mothball smell and strange knee braces to see who gets picked last.
Reminds me of Fragger.
Your right it does get a bit challenging as the game goes along.
Quick Pass (Level 30?) is evil.
Peter Crouch's Donkey Kong is doing my head in! great game though
The most irratating thing is that the players have a bigger wind up for their kick than popeye, which makes the last level practically impossible, as because of this you have to predictthe position of something several seconds in advance....
Why is there a ball timer? Why doesn't it just detect when the ball stops or is lost off-screen?
I'm not ashamed to say that I had tiny little bits of post-it note with arrows pointing at the optimal places to click all over my screen by the time I passed the "quick pass" level.
Maybe I SHOULD be ashamed. But I'm not.
Cave Fans seems impossible.
I still say level 31 (Quick Pass) was the toughest, but a wet erase sharpie works wonders on monitors.....
Is there anyway to get 33 without a lost ball? My OCD won't leave it alone until I have 3 stars on all the levels...
@William, yes there is. I finished the game with 3 stars on every level, but don't remember which one specifically is level 33.
Okay, just got up to level 33 on my home puter and remember what you're talking about. I assume you're talking about hitting the last switch and not losing your ball next to it. Just have the guy arch it up as high as he can without hitting anything above him or getting into the fans and the ball will bounce out with just barely enough momentum to roll over the little burm.
Anybody any idea on peter crouch? level 29???
i cant pass level 29 :S
any help plz
on 29:
if you hit the button just right, it will switch off, also.
was level 35 easy for anyone? I can't seem to get it with just one ball.
help on 27
@Atrox
Try having the 1st guy kick the ball to the left with a high arc; the slope is just barely enough for the ball to bounce back right. After that, get the switches and pwn the ref at the top. It should now be fairly easy to get the ball down to pwn the final 2 refs.
@Cermo
I was 1 step away from doing that too. I was just too lazy to get off this chair.
I lol @ ending. I liked it.
help on 32 (tiny ball swin) plz
last level wasnt that hard, hardest level was quick pass
Update