Go Mecha Ball is an arcade action game developed by Whale Peak Games and published by Super Rare Originals. It combines roguelite elements with twin-stick shooter mechanics at its finest. If youâre looking for something challenging, then this will be worth checking out.
The premise of Go Mecha Ball is to defeat the malfunctioning AI. Otherwise, there isnât too much of a story at play here. Itâs heavily gameplay-based rather than following a storyline and developing characters. For an action-arcade game, Iâm totally okay with this. I donât need much reason to shoot my way through hordes of enemies. Itâs fun either way.
Besides shooting, Go Mecha Ball takes inspiration from pinball. Each level has a relatively open floor plan with obstacles and ramps youâll need to maneuver around (but so do the enemies). When you first start the game, youâre equipped with one gun. As you defeat enemies, theyâll drop other weapons you can pick up and swap between up to two at a time. Enemies will also drop ammo, so be sure to pick that up as well.
You donât need to defeat enemies just by shooting them, though. This is where the pinball comes in. Your character can turn into a ball, roll around, and dash into the enemies and obstacles. Think Sonic the Hedgehog style. Dashing into enemies as a ball damages them and can certainly kill them. It can also knock them over the edge of the map. (Luckily, you canât fall over the edge!)
I found I could get through the waves of enemies just as a ball with no need to worry about learning the twin-stick controls. However, that also caused me to learn the hard way that if you defeat enemies like that, they wonât drop coins. And if you push them over the edge, they definitely wonât drop coins. There are two types of currency to collect: yellow coins and blue, known as glitch coins. The yellow ones allow you to buy items from the shop and the glitch coins allow you to go to a vending machine to get an ability, upgrade, or weapon at random.
Weapons are other types of guns that will drop from enemies, allowing you more of a selection on how to defeat them. Abilities are extra attacks with cooldown times your mecha ball can have. For example, you can jump super high and cause AOE damage when you land, throw grenades, or stun enemies. Upgrades make you stronger, such as increasing the gun damage or boost damage, increasing your max health, and more.
Once you use your glitch coins for these, you donât get the upgrade, ability, or weapon right away. You simply have unlocked it for the chance to get it during your play through. After every level, you can choose from a random pool of up to three upgrades or abilities to make yourself stronger for the next level.
Each level is divided into three waves of enemies that increasingly get strongerâsome shoot lasers, others chase you as a ball of their own, and more. Once you make it through the three hordes, youâll get to choose an upgrade or ability, and then move onto the next level of three waves. Get through three levels (nine waves total) and youâll have the option to spend those yellow coins at the shop. Here you can buy another upgrade, ability, or weapon. Or, you can heal up to 50% of your health. However, I found the shop items to be too expensive. I almost never had enough coins to buy anything. Even after killing enemies with the guns, they didnât seem to drop enough currency for me to heal myself right before the big boss.
Yes, Go Mecha Ball has bosses. After visiting the shop, youâre thrown into a battle. It took me multiple tries to defeat the first boss. I wasnât kidding when I said this game was challenging. However, I had hoped to get through the first boss with relative ease since itâs the first boss. My problem was that I had low health and couldnât afford to heal before the battle. When I finally beat the boss, I assumed Iâd get a free heal. Unfortunately, I didnât. The game threw me into the next level of three waves of enemies when I only had two HP. I died immediately, and thatâs when I learned the game does not save at all.
Go Mecha Ball is one of those games where you need to see how far you can go in one sitting. There are only four worlds; if you want to complete it, youâll need to do so in one gameplay session. Now, this is where I got frustrated with the game. I understand practice makes perfect, but to you work so hard on something only for it to all get erased in the end was super disappointing.
Let me explain what I mean. When you lose a run in this game, nothing carries over except for the glitch coins youâve collected and havenât used yet. Whatever abilities and upgrades you got with glitch coins have reset, too. You can use your remaining glitch coins on upgrades, abilities, and weapons you may have already unlocked. The yellow coins do not carry over at all. So, I didnât have any hope of saving up for that shop to heal myself before the boss battle. I learned this when I died during the levels before the first boss, but I had hoped defeating a boss would serve as some sort of checkpoint or allow you to keep what you already worked so hard to achieve. But no, it completely resets, only allowing you to keep what remaining glitch coins you had left over.Â
Earlier, I said this game is a good challenge, and it is. However, the longer I played, the more frustrated I got. I didnât see much incentive to keep trying when nothing I already accomplished carried over. Nomatter how hard I worked, Iâd always start back at square one if I lost.
That doesnât mean this game isnât good, though. I still had fun with it. I just donât think I have the patience to master the mechanics. With that said, the controls were fluid, smooth, and fast-paced. It was a lot of fun to bump into the enemies as a ball. The music is a bop, and the graphics are easy on the eyes, too. If youâre up for that challenge, then certainly give Go Mecha Ball a try.
