started: 2/24/23 | finished: 3/2/23 | reviewed: 3/3/23
played on: wii (physical) | release year: 2009
a beloved game from my childhood!! ❤️ i used to play this on a sketchy game launcher called big fish games. im not sure if i ever actually bought it or if i just played the one hour free trial over and over again. when i found out there was a wii version, i was so happy!! i kinda thought it would just be a nice brief nostalgia trip, after playing through the entire game i can say it holds up really well!! the basic idea is that its katamari combined with breakout. each level is full of animals you need to rescue. (yes they look like theyre fine and theyre just minding their business, but theyre actually in danger of being abducted by aliens.) you bounce a ball around and start by picking up small objects like apples, then you work your way up from small animals to the biggest animals as the ball increases in size.
its very fun and addictive! i wasnt bored throughout my entire playthrough. there is a hard mode thats like regular breakout, and an easy mode where theres a barrier and you cant lose the ball (i used this as i just wanted to chill out esp. since i was sick for a good portion of my playthrough ;n;) there are powerups you can collect like increasing the ball size, having the ball act as a magnet, and letting the ball bulldoze objects instead of bouncing off them.
now for some of the nitpicks i have: each level starts with a little animal quiz that can give you bonus points if you get it right! this is a fun idea but it wasnt long before i had seen every question and was getting repeats. they were only about specific terms for animal babies/groups of animals and i feel like they could have had way more interesting animal trivia. you discover species of animals as you progress through the game, which i especially loved as a kid, but once youve reached the last third of the game, youve pretty much discovered 60 out of the 65 species and there isnt much left to find. and a level editor seems like a no-brainer for this game since each level is objects and animals placed into a rectangular area, but there isnt one!! >:( its ok though. i really did have a lot of fun with this :) (side note: i kept forgetting the name of this game and calling it things such as "mr fizzwizzles magic ball" and "doctor whatshisnames fuckin thing")
score: 8/10