Very funny and original. The music is amazing. Exactly what track from Luke Smith is that one?
Reviews for "WORMBALL"
Very well made, good job!
In the pinball game player gets an indirect control over a ball movement on a slightly sloped surface. His goal is usually to make it hit as many score areas as possible before inevitably falling into a gap in the lower edge of the surface by manipulating two stationary shutters above the gap, slightly distanced from each other. Game relies heavily on chance, but also requires a set of skills from the player, like ability to predict physical trajectories of moving objects, reaction speed, and, above all, promptness.
This game adds several twists to this formula. Firstly, it makes player score go higher every second that the ball stays on the field. This addition alone could have paved a way to the emergence of a dominant strategy, allowing the player to raise the score infinitely by tossing the ball into the nearest corner. So it was supplemented by the life draining mechanic, that forces player to play not only "defensively", but also "offensively", i.e. try to hit as many score objects as fast as possible. Secondly, it complicates the score objects smashing mechanic by allowing player to take benefit from the hit only by collecting small dots that are created from it and possesses the behavior similar to that of the main ball (and thus also replenishing the "hunger" meter and stopping "life" meter from draining). This additional mechanic incentivizes player to use shutters more frequently, but also reduces the requirement for player's promptness dramatically. In order to compensate this, it is balanced with the shutters lengths reduction mechanic: now the shutter's length is reduced every second player keeps it raised. This allows not only to compensate for the promptness requirement reduction, but also to create an interesting dilemma for the player: weather to play safe and only concentrate on reflecting the main ball and ignoring dots, or to reflect dots too, but risk exhausting shutters' length and losing main ball in a critical moment. In combination with the original pinball mechanics this improvements allow for very exciting playtime.
Overall, I think this game does a great job not only by adding new features to the pinball structure, but also by understanding ramifications of these additions very well and balancing them perfectly.
This game is so well designed! The music is amazing and the theme is appropriate for Halloween but not blatantly obvious.
The most amazing thing about this game is that it takes advantage of being a flash game. But Wormball, not only does Wormball combine two classic games, it combines a game designed for computers and a game designed for the physical world. I haven't played many pinball flash games, but from what I've seen most are just cramming a mechanical construct into flash form.
Wormball takes its medium and puts it to use. The life drain mechanic, paddles shrinking as you use them to keep you from spamming, changing teleport nodes, and changing food spawn points. Even the little banner at the bottom that highlights when you can tilt again. All of these features work much better in a flash game and most would be impossible to implement in a physical pinball machine. These are what make Wormball a feat of design.
Amazing.