Joystiq hands-on: Switchball

18 Comments by Ross Miller Jul 16th 2007 5:40PM
Filed under: Arcade, Microsoft Xbox 360, E3, Casual

It's the age-old story of a ball trying to find its home, retold in high-definition visuals for the Xbox 360 and PC. Our two-level demo for Switchball had us traversing over wooden planks, building bridges out of crates, and plowing into metal boxes with our metalball upgrade. It's a simple "get from point A to point B" title with simple controls but still a fun, casual game.

What impressed us most is the physics of the game, particularly in one area where we had to roll on a hanging piece of cloth. There are six levels spanning five worlds, for a total of 30. We were told there will be multiplayer options for up to 8 players, both co-op and competitive modes. Switchball is already out on PC and due out in August for Xbox Live Arcade.

Gallery: Switchball

Tags: atomicelbow, e3, e307, handson, impressions, sierra, switchball

(Page 1) Reader Comments

eldee: Jul 16th 2007; 5:43PM

sweet.. I love labyrinth/marble madness type games.

waynski1457: Jul 16th 2007; 5:46PM

next-gen marble madness ftw!!

Zertoss: Jul 16th 2007; 5:49PM

Samus, is that you?

Shagittarius: Jul 16th 2007; 5:56PM

This was one of the first games to use the Aegia Physics card. I am told that the physics were just as good without the card.

Chris: Jul 16th 2007; 6:24PM

DUDE! The screenshot w/ the metalball next to the metal crates... in the background to the left... IT'S THE STARGATE!!! :-)

Sceren: Jul 16th 2007; 6:37PM

I hope the co-op is fun. This game looks pretty good. Amazing some of the detail being put into these XBLA titles.

GaryM: Jul 16th 2007; 6:43PM

Reminds me of that game Ballance from a couple of years back.

Ska Oreo: Jul 16th 2007; 6:46PM

Woah. This game looks amazing!

Tony: Jul 16th 2007; 7:41PM

There's a PC demo of it out there if people want to try it. It's quite good and has some puzzle aspects.

Poiple: Jul 16th 2007; 8:48PM

If the PC demo is any indication, the game is much more a puzzle game than a shiny version of Marble Madness.

stoik: Jul 16th 2007; 9:55PM

"Are you too good for your home? Answer me! Suck my..." you know the rest :)

Matthew: Jul 16th 2007; 10:28PM

As much as I love ball rolling games, it seems silly that it is on the only system without tilt control.

eldee: Jul 17th 2007; 1:19AM

Depends on what you consider 'tilt' control. I tilt my analog sticks and they do the job nicely.. I don't need to enlist the help of my entire upper body to play a game, and the wii-mote/sixaxis crap is inspiring a tired trend in games these days.

Not everybody thinks tilting controllers is a good idea :)

Mr Mobius: Jul 16th 2007; 10:34PM

I'll be surprised if this doesn't come out on Wii at some stage with more levels and tilt control to justify a higher price.

Cody S.: Jul 16th 2007; 11:08PM

I was bored to death with the demo of this game. More of a tech demo than an actual game in my opinion. I love Marble Blast but this is nothing like it.

Eganome: Jul 18th 2007; 3:04AM

Sounds like you tried the over one year old demo. not the new one released this summer.

Anonymous: Jul 18th 2007; 3:18AM

Looks cool.

Eganome: Jul 18th 2007; 7:12AM

Sounds like you tried the over one year old demo. not the new one released this summer.

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