Squeeballs Party (Wii) Review

Posted by Adam Larck on 10.24.2009

Does destroying cute balls make for a good game, or just a repetitious one? Find out inside.


Title: Squeeballs Party
Publisher: Aksys Games
Developer: Eiconic Games
Genre: Minigame Compilation
Players: 1-4
Rated: E 10+ for Everyone ages 10 and up

Squeeballs Party was a game that I had never heard of until it got sent for me to review. However, after first starting up the game and seeing what it was about, I got a bit disturbed. Basically, you try to destroy these little balls anyway you can. Only the strongest survive, just to be sold in stores. So the game’s based all around you doing various tasks to these things. However, how does it play? Read on to find out.

Gameplay:

When I first started the game, I got a bit confused. I tried to move the remote up and down to select options, but it just moved the screen view around slightly. This has to be the first game I’ve seen where the only option to select things is by the D-Pad. It just feels different and weird on the Wii. Plus, most games have you doing the same control style as well to select.

That aside, Squeeballs Party has four different game types: Challenge Ladder, Single Game, Party Game and Head to Head. Challenge Ladder is the main type, and will be talked about more in the next paragraph. Single Game lets you play one of the minigames at a time. Some of them have various types, such as the Cannon. Party Game lets up to four players play with one remote to see who can win the most. You can choose from premade game lists to play or make your own to play. The final game, Head to Head, has two players playing simultaneously to see who can win the most. Once again, you choose from either a premade set of games to play or make your own set.

Challenge Ladder starts you off with just four minigames, and has you unlock the final seven to play. Once you unlock one, it also becomes available to play in Single Game as well. Each has multiple challenges to complete in it; each one gets a bit harder than the last. However, most of them are still easy to play. Overall, there are around 150 challenges to beat.

There are 11 total minigames to play here: Bowling, Cooking, Paint, Cannon, Shock, Stampede, Crazy Lanes, Feeding Frenzy, Pumping, Golf and Testing Belt. Each one has you doing various things to hit, maim, cut, cook, shoot, etc. to the Squeeballs. It really is a weird game in that it wants you to destroy things that apparently love you and just want to be sold. I kind of felt bad for killing almost an entire population of these things just because the game wants me to.

Before you play each minigame, a tutorial and short cutscene pop up for each one. The tutorial is nice the first time you see it, and the cutscene is fun to watch for a few times, but is there any reason both should pop up every time you start a different minigame? Even if you jump between them in the same sitting it pops both of these back up. Thankfully, they can be skipped.

I’ve been putting off talking about the actual minigames themselves because, well, they’re disappointing. In a game that had a lot of interesting premise for destroying these Squeeballs in various ways, the controls have been seen before in a lot of other games. Bowling controls the way you would think, but lets you put a bit of after-spin on by spinning the remote. Golf also uses the spinning motion to build up power before you launch the ball towards a target. Golf also caused a bit of pain in my elbow, because to get a decent shot off you have to spin pretty quickly to build any power.

Paint, Feeding Frenzy and Stampede all have you launching Squeeballs at different things to color, feed or destroy, respectively. It was weird destroying them in Stampede, as the game actually tells you they want to “show their love,” yet you fire Crabooms (bombs) at them to blow them up.

The other ones all compare closely to something else seen before. Cannon feels like tennis, hitting the things with a racket to launch them to gain points. Cooking is just like Cooking Mama with its events. Crazy Lanes is just bowling but you can control the ball down a swerving lane. Shock is almost the same as the old PlayStation 1 game Irritating Stick. However, instead of guiding a rod through two lanes of wires you guide a circle in between one wire. Testing Belt just has you performing motions to finish Squeeballs off in various ways, much like how you finished enemies in No More Heroes.

Even though the game borrows a lot from other minigames, it doesn’t mean its own minigames are good. With only 11 minigames to play, going through challenges gets repetitive quick. The challenges still have you doing the same motion to do something that’s slightly varied from the last challenge. The game got old quick as the repetitiveness set in.

Another problem that most of the games have are over-sensitive controls. Just trying to slightly tilt one direction or another can launch your point all over the place. This is especially frustrating when it comes to games like Shock, where pinpoint accuracy and speed is key to win, yet trying to do simple turns can end the whole challenge by hitting the wire.

Overall, the gameplay really offers nothing here that you haven’t seen before. The minigames are fun for a bit, but lose that fun quick as you play the same minigame for the 15th time. If you’re looking for innovation in a Wii game, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Graphics:

The graphics for the game aren’t bad actually. I was pretty surprised by how the environment looked. The background changes for each minigame but stay the same throughout them.

Also, after you beat or fail a challenge, you get a screen with either happy Squeeballs or sad ones. These never change, and are even the same images used for winning in the party mode. The images aren’t bad, but why not let a few of the Squeeballs jump around the screen?

Speaking of the Squeeballs, they really help to make the game (somewhat) enjoyable. While there aren’t a ton of Squeeballs, they each have their own unique look. While there are some recolor jobs that happen to a few of them, namely the El Toro’s, they still look nice. But, their cute, happy demeanor changes quickly once you start chopping them up or hitting them with paddles. I’ll be honest, I felt a bit guilty destroying these things when the game told me to once I saw their faces.

Overall, the graphics really aren’t bad. Probably one of the better graphics I’ve seen in a while for a minigame collection. The cast of characters really help give this game some personality and enjoy-ability while playing it.

Sound:

As good as the graphics may be, the sound is just bad. The music is at least lighthearted and feels cartoony to fit the mood of the game, but the little music that is in the game loops through the whole game. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a challenge or on the main menu screen, the song just keeps looping. It got old quick.

Outside of the music, the sound effects are cartoonish as well, offering various splats and such through the minigames. They help add to the mood, but, like the music, can get old quick when you have to keep playing the same minigames over and over.

Finally, I want to talk about the squeaks. While the Squeeballs look cute, they have high-pitched squeaks and other noises when you hit them. When you have to destroy hundreds of these little things, the noises they make just start grating on you. I finally ended up having to mute them just so I no longer had to hear their squeaks of terror and agony as I cooked and hit them.

Lasting Appeal:

The game has you unlocking half of the minigames by completing challenges, which gives players a reason to keep playing. However, I have to question this method, especially considering that the instructions list all the minigames.

Besides the minigames, the only other things to unlock are bios for each Squeeball to view.

Outside of unlocking things, the game features about 150 challenges to do in the minigames, but never really offers you a great reason to keep playing. Also, the game keeps track of the number of Squeeballs you’ve killed and how you’ve killed them.

The minigames just got repetitive, as you do the same thing just to complete different tasks. I never found a reason to go into Single Game mode, and the multiplayer modes are nice to try with friends a few times but get boring quickly. There really is nothing to hold your interest for a long time in this game.

Fun Factor:

The Squeeballs themselves really help keep this game fun. If it wasn’t for them and their little videos that and personalities, the game would really get old quick.

As it is, the repetitive nature of the little number of minigames really hurts the fun that could be had. Not only that, but the fun while playing is really just had in the Challenge mode. The other modes just don’t offer enough for fun. Even the multiplayer mode just seems lackluster.

The 411:

Overall, the minigames are average, but have all been seen before elsewhere. Plus, they’re often hampered by touchy controls. The challenge mode makes up the meat of the game, but it’s disappointing that you can’t play the challenges in multiplayer, as the other modes just leave something to be desired. It’s a fun weekend rental if you’re bored and need something new for the Wii, but can easily be looked over for other games.

Graphics	7.0	The environments look good, but it’s really the Squeeballs that help this game overall. The design on them is cute and lighthearted and works well with the game.
Gameplay	6.0	The 11 minigames are interesting, but their repetitive nature and touchy controls really hamper them. Plus, the Challenge is really the only interesting mode in the game.
Sound	5.0	The sound did not help this game out. The few tracks that loop and the annoying Squeeball squeaks were hard to listen to. Thankfully, you can mute them if you want.
Lasting Appeal	6.0	The minigames and challenges are fun for a while, but the repetitive motions and limited minigames just get boring. Even the multiplayer mode isn’t much better.
Fun Factor	6.0	The Squeeballs make the game fun to play, but it still can’t help the minigames in the long run.
Overall	6.0   [ Average ]