Nintendo Switch – Skee-Ball #141

Let’s just say it isn’t very good…

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Skee-Ball – Nintendo Switch – Released: Date – $19.99

Short Review (Review copy provided by Ocean Media)

Just read the full review there isn’t a ton to talk about. I would give this game a 2 out of 10!

The icon is pretty nice which is the only redeeming factor:

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Story

There is no story it is only playing Skee-Ball.

Gameplay

While Skee-ball has never been a complex game, controls are always frustrating. You have two options you can either use the buttons or the touch screen. Using the buttons lets you move left and right, adjust shooting angle, and then use the trigger to shoot. Touch screen controls are very loose though, I feel as though each time I flick it feels different every time. Randomly there will be challenges that give you special balls or a set amount of tickets. There are unlockables but you have to acquire a ton of tickets and tickets are not easy to obtain. During gameplay you have the option to buy different types of balls that grant more points, ability to change a hole to be worth more, add more balls or a ball that goes directly into the highest point hole.

The modes included are classic, call your shot, speed ball, horse, hangman, ring the bell, countdown, and wipe out. I was only able to three extra modes and went with speed ball first which is unlimited balls for two minutes, Ring the bell, and Countdown. Call your shot seems to be a hole may light up or you pick the hole and try to get it in that hole. Horse each hole will be a letter and you will need to spell out HORSE. Hangman seems to be much like Call your shot but the game tells you which ones to land in. Ring the bell you have to score 1000 points with 25 balls then after that remaining balls are extra points. Countdown starts with 1000 and you need to get to zero without going over. Finally Wipe Out is hit all holes at least once then the rest of the balls give bonus points.

Personal Experience

Most of my frustration with this game is tickets are required to get anything beyond the classic mode and playing field. Modes all cost 750 tickets which doesn’t seem that had but most matches of Skee-ball will get you 5-15 tickets. The challenges are great but most are really hard like get an exact number. When you have a set number of balls and no idea how the physics will treat you, it will give you a very hard time to get enough to afford one extra mode. After an hour of play I was able to get a little under 500 tickets which included two challenges that gave me 300 tickets combined. After another hour I was able to afford another mode and I purchased “Speed Ball” which is much better since it timed and grant more tickets. After 5 hours of playing I couldn’t do it anymore. I was able to purchase Countdown and Ring the Bell but neither were much fun and I knew I couldn’t afford any of the new fields which cost 2000 tickets.

Final Thoughts

Skee-ball isn’t a hard concept but they make it incredibly hard to want to get any of the extra stuff. The price is very high for something that should be under $10 and have everything unlocked or at least have the modes unlocked. If you are playing offline it will constantly try to connect to the internet to update your score as well. I have to give this game a 2 out of 10 for its painful physic, high cost for unlocks, and being too expensive for such a simple game with everything locked.

My Gameplay Footage:

Trailer:

End Credits

I didn’t have high hopes for this game and didn’t request it when I did. I was really looking forward to Zotrix, which is a great little game and the review will be coming out tomorrow, but got both games in my email. I didn’t want to really review the game because I knew it wouldn’t do well but they requested me to review it so I gave my thoughts. I don’t like to give bad reviews or request games I may not like because of personal reasons. Reviews are personal no matter how you look at them so I may give this game a bad score but someone who loves Skee-ball might love it. Every reviewer will put their two cents into the game they are never looking at them without prior knowledge or love/hate for the series as a whole.

I finally saw Avengers Infinity War so no spoilers here but I didn’t like the movie as much as everyone else. Black Panther is still a much better movie. I have no clue why so many Marvel movies want to be a joke fest lately, maybe it was after the success of Guardians of the Galaxy. Thanos is a very big deal so having a joke every 5 minutes is painful. Thanos is just not very threatening since they don’t showcase how terrifying he can be, he is just a big bad guy with a little humanity in the movie.