3D SAN JIGEN KAKUTÔ BARUZU
( 3D BallZ )
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(c)1994 ACCOLADE INC.
(c)1995 MEDIA RINGS CORPORATION
CREATED BY PF.MAGIC
Cartridge SHVC-ABZJ-JPN
Fighting game
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Released in America as
3D BALLZ - FIGHTING AT ITS BALLZIEST
( SNS-ABZE-USA )
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3D Ballz is an unusual fighting game developed by PF.Magic and
published by Media Rings in Japan (Accolade in America).
Like with any fighting game, a list of playable fighters are available for the
start. However, unlike most fighting games, they range from a
a Caveman, a Ballerina to a Mad Clown and
a Rhinoceros. All in all, the game features a grand total of
eight characters and four bosses. Interestingly, each character is made of colored
balls (or, I should say, Ballz) that give an unusual and incredibly smooth
3D feel to the game. Each fighter can punch and kick or use special moves
directly related to their personality - for instance, the rhinoceros can charge
right into his opponents and spear them with his horn, or the caveman can roll
his opponents into a ball and hit them with his club as he would do with a baseball bat.
Other special moves can be triggered using both shoulder buttons, or when two fighters
get in close range. 3D Ballz also features a traditional versus mode
against another human opponent.
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Ballz was originally developed by PF Magic and published by Accolabe
for the Sega Genesis (1994). As a side note, the game was called BallZ 3D : Fighting At Its
Ballziest in the US, but was interestingly called BallZ 3D : Fighting Of The BallZ
is the UK (I wonder how this title actually made it to the shelves).
It then later came out for the Super Famicom (1995).
Interestingly, a 3DO version was also released in 1995 as a director's cut.
As a side note, PF Magic was of course responsible for other games and would
usually mark their titles with the characteristic letter 'Z' :
Catz & Dogz (1995), Oddballz(1996), Babyz (1999) etc...
most of their games also use the ball technique featured in Ballz and
all the virtual pets from Catz and Dogz are clearly made out of disc/sphere primitives.
PF Magic later became part of Ubisoft Entertainment.
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
O
V
s
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3D Ballz is sadly the kind of title that feels more like a
technical demo than a game. It nevertheless displays some
amazing technical candies and the pseudo-3D made out of cleverly
designed sprite scaling and some amazing Mode-7 moments.
The music tracks are also technically amazing
but the tunes and melodies are sadly forgettable. The rest of
the game, and especially the gameplay, is sadly poorly designed. The
worse offender is probably the terrible and unfair way the
CPU controlled characters behave - because of that the one player
versus mode often becomes a frustrating and cheap experience. 3D Ballz
is unique and very original, no doubt about it,
but the gameplay and controls are terrible and the overall design tasteless.
This is a shame as the game shows a lot of potential... unfortunately potential
just leaves you craving for more...
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