Game Freak before being a video game developer known for making almost exclusively only video games of the Pokemon saga, has in its catalog of video games created a lot that have nothing to do with the saga of the Pocket Monsters. Throughout these years I have made a few reviews of those games also developed by Game Freak, all of them of different genres, but there is always something in common and that is that its "childish" and very colorful aesthetics persists in the vast majority of their games, in addition to its artistic style is part of the recognizable seal of this developer. And how could it be otherwise, the game of which I will talk today keeps all that colorful and childish aesthetics, adapted to a very entertaining platform game.
Today's Retro Review is about: Smart Ball.
The story of this game is quite comical, as the whole plot revolves around jealousy and revenge. Jerry, which is the protagonist of the game, a blue ball, similar to a slime, was previously a prince and ruled a kingdom, however, Jerry's brother, jealous because they both want the love of a princess, Princess Emi. Tom, Jerry's brother, hires a powerful sorcerer, who turns Jerry into this bluish, spherical being. Now Jerry, turned into this blue slime, must find a way to recover his old human form and take revenge on his brother Tom.
Game Freak never disappoints when it comes to the graphic aspect and within the visual simplicity of this game, there is a very careful, dedicated and colorful artistic level, as it stands out in most of the video games developed by this company. If only one word could be used to define this game, it would be "beautiful" and that is basically what Smart Ball's graphics are. A graphically colorful game, very lively, even delicate in certain aspects and scenarios, that despite not being graphically the best of its time, with that simplicity was able to create a good visually striking and pleasant game.
Smart Ball is a game oriented to children and that is something quite obvious due to all its graphic aspect, and even the enemies of our protagonist are pretty and have designs quite consistent with this fantasy world and bright colors, even sometimes it's a little pitiful to eliminate them, but you have to do it. It could not miss a good set of animations, both in our main character, enemies and NPCS, have a good set of movements, quite decent and that reflect very well that "happy" atmosphere that conveys this game.
Is quite accurate what this game manages to do with simple things, and the soundtrack of this game does not have a spectacular symphony or a composition at the height of Final Fantasy, but what it achieves with a well-made musical notes is quite good. The soundtrack of Smart Ball is simply composed for this game, it fits perfectly and enhances even more all that "tender" and "cute" aspect, they are cheerful melodies and even incite us to adventure. But when necessary, in moments where we face final bosses or the scenery is not a meadow or a cheerful forest, the music changes to something a little more "serious", so to speak, thus creating a setting according to what we are seeing and playing.
Smart Ball is a game whose mechanics are very simple, but even so they are so well implemented that it is something extremely entertaining even though it is a fairly easy game because it was developed for a more child audience, even so, it is fun regardless of the age of the player. As a good platform game, the most basic skill of this type of game is jumping, a skill that is assured in this game and that is performed very well, and this is a very important aspect in a platform game, jumping, if a video game has a poor jumping system in the end the result will only be a frustrating and frustrating experience, however, this is not something we should worry about in Smart Ball. Its jumping system is adequate and besides, Jerry, our protagonist, can hold himself up and climb the walls, basically sticking to the walls and crawling over them.
But in addition to these basic skills, in order to eliminate our cute enemies, Jerry can perform some attacks. The most classic of all is the ability to jump over the enemies, which is an ability inherited from the oldest games of mankind, but in addition, Jerry, using his elastic abilities to be a slime, can attack from below the enemies stretching his gelatinous body, this ability also serves to move between pipes. But Jerry can not only do the above mentioned, but also, by obtaining a kind of fruit or something like that, which sprouts from plants that we find in the scenarios, Jerry can use them as a throwing weapon, thus having a distance weapon.
Smart Ball is one of those games that are so easy but entertaining that it is simply worth playing to clear your mind a little, since it really does not have an extremely difficult challenge, it is quite the opposite, an easy game, but it does not get boring at any time, it is also a game with a low duration.
