[This title was the featured Mini-Review for the Friday News Wrap-Up for the 11th of May, 2012]
The Impossible Game is responsible for opening gamers eyes to the beauty and simplicity of jumping in platformers. Endless runners do much the same, but they can't be as unfair in their design. FastBall by Klik! Games sticks with small levels packed with jumping challenges that eventually require insane feats of precise timing to complete. Unfortunately the third in the series has dropped the ball and seemingly refuses to bring more than a few cursory changes to the table. Despite a slick visual overhaul and 65 new levels, FastBall 3 is ostensibly the same game, right down to the catchy yet repetitive background track. 'Marathon' mode has some potential, featuring Impossible Game-like lengthy stages with no checkpoints, but the stages aren't as lengthy as the name would suggest and there's only three of them to knock-over. There's nothing particularly wrong with what FastBall 3 offers to fans of the series, but it feels more like an expansion than a sequel. If you're after a challenge and you've not yet played a FastBall game, this is a much easier title to recommend, but it's hard to shake the been-there-done-that feeling if you're a returning player.
Description
Fastest ball on the planet, addicted by 5 million players, is back with it's 3rd installment and is now bigger, better and faster than ever. With this version, you'll have the ultimate FastBall experience with state of the art graphics, animation, music/SFX and new game mechanics such as gravity and
multi speed zones.
In FastBall, you control a rolling ball. In his way, there are many obstacles and his only ability is to jump. This is where he needs you, you'll make him jump by tapping the screen. With this simple mechanic, you'll journey through engaging areas in different game modes. 'Levels' is where you go through regular levels, a total of 90 of them spawned across 2 level packs. 'Marathon', as the name implies, are special levels with enormous sizes. This is where you'll test your skills to it's limits through 3 specially designed levels. 'Originals' includes the original levels which made FastBall so famous. More game modes are coming in the followings days...
Through your journey, you'll collect stars. Yellow stars are the regular ones and Blue stars are special which is equal to 5 Yellow stars. You'll be able to spend all those collected stars in the 'Store' section.
Store section is where you can spend your stars on different items to maximize your enjoyment. You can buy new themes to change the look of the game totally with your preference. Initially there are 3 themes which are 'Cartoon' (default), 'Futuristic' and 'Doodle'. Each theme also comes with it's unique music. Another thing you can buy is the 'Ball Types'. Now you can play the whole game with your preferred ball type. Initially, there are 8 different ball types including 'FastBall' (default), 'BasketBall', 'FootBall', 'BaseBall', 'BeachBall', 'FireBall', 'HippieBall' and 'TechBall'. Furthermore, you can also buy different features such as 'Tokens'. Tokens are used to skip any level you like. You'll earn them in every 10 level but if you feel you need more, you can buy them anytime. Look out for more items to be added in the future updates...
Feature list of FastBall 3 is as follows :
- A one tap easy mechanic addicted by millions of players.
- State of the art Graphics and animations.
- Marvellous soundtrack and SFX composed by industry leaders with specific tunes to each theme.
- Customization options including new themes, ball types and more.
- Global leaderboards and achievements through GameCenter.
Thanks to everybody who made FastBall such a huge success and enjoy this ultimate experience.
What's New in Version 1.4.3
- Full iOS 14 support.