Something mysterious is scaring the hungry animals that inhabit East, South and West islands. Professor Fizzwizzle and his invention, a bubble-ball machine, can save the animals and transfer them to the safe Animal Sanctuary.
FizzBall combines Breakout (brick-breaking style game), Chuzzle, and Mario Bros. with helping the animals and the environment added to the mix to keep it exciting. At the start of each level, you answer questions about an animal or guess which animal makes the sound that’s played.
My three-year-old may not have the coordination to play the game, but he is captivated by the game’s gorgeous interface and rhythmic music. He helps me figure out which animal makes a specific sound and gets excited when he’s right. Having the music turned off won’t affect the game play. You may not get all 2000 bonus points for answering the sound-related questions, but that’s not a big deal.
The round begins and Fizzwizzle’s ball starts small. It can only pick up a butterfly, a small food item like an acorn, or coins. As the ball absorbs several small objects, it grows and can take in bigger animals. Not only do you have to try to get the right-sized animals at the right time, but you want to avoid hitting the skunk until the ball can pick it up otherwise it reacts to the ball’s hit with the spray no animal wants to smell.
Barrels of chemical appear in some scenes and Fizzwizzle’s ball needs to avoid hitting them otherwise he pollutes the environment. Scenes change with each round as it can be stormy and then peaceful snow appears in the next round. In some scenes, objects like crates and barrels line up to create a familiar shape like a heart, letter “F,” or a star.
The goal for each round is to capture all the animals. A bonus round appears every few rounds with different objectives to keep the game from getting monotonous. As you complete rounds on an island, you hop to the next island until you get through all three islands. I played the game in an entire weekend as I couldn’t stop until I finished it. And, I’m not one to have free time on my hands as a mom of three.
The ball rolls around the screen and eventually like in Brickout or pinball, it makes it way down to where Professor Fizzwizzle and his machine wait to prevent it from bouncing out. If the thought of losing a ball stresses you, play the Kids’ mode in which you never lose the ball. I prefer the Kids’ mode as I enjoy the game more and concentrate on other challenges.
When the ball bumps into trees, crates, and barrels, a bonus floats down for Fizzwizzle to catch. The bonus could be money, an added power like a missile to break down objects or a wider bumper, or bonus points. So Fizzwizzle doesn’t just wait for the ball to roll back as he also has to grab as many of these “power ups” as he can.
Some bonus rounds require you keep the ball in play for as long as possible. This is where Kids’ mode won’t help and that’s good because it gives the player something to strive for. Parents whose kids get mad when they lose will appreciate this feature as much as I do especially since my seven-year-old is one who doesn’t like to lose.
As you complete a round, the animals appear in the sanctuary. You can check on them anytime to ensure they have enough food and money for buying food. You can also check your trophies to see what you’ve earned and what you need to work on. Even after completing the game, I’ve yet to earn some of the more challenging ones. That’s my next goal, but it’ll have to wait as I have my own kids to feed.
The game contains 180 levels, 40 bonus levels, and 64 animal species. Like Chuzzle, you earn trophies as you accomplish specific activities such as saving all of the birds, not breaking anything in a round, and saving the baby ducks after rescuing mama duck.
While the animal sounds and trivia is entertaining and makes it possible for my youngest to help me, I get tired of it. Thankfully, you can turn off the animal-related quizzes in the “Settings” menu, but alas my three-year-old makes a mad face when I do that.
This one is a family game and a great discovery for those of us who aren’t into violent games or those that draw many of the hard-core gamers. We take pleasure in the simple games with well-designed cartoon-styled and colorful graphics just like FizzBall. Save the animals, save the environment and have a blast doing it.
System Requirements
- Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP
- Pentium 400MHz or better
- 128MB RAM
- 35MB hard drive space
FizzBall doesn’t have an official rating, but it qualifies for E (Everyone) according to ESRB standards.
Download the demo to try the game and see if you can beat the high scores, which you can import directly from the Internet into the game. Game comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee. Like it? Buy it (Regular price: $19.99; currently on sale).
Filed Under: Arcade Games, Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game Reviews, PC Games, Time Management
You don’t simply take customer orders. You also give them a menu, bake their cakes to their requirements, serve customer, and collect money. Some customers require faster service than others. When you get a new kind of customer, the game tells you about the customer. One example customer is the college student who doesn’t have a lot of money, but has more patience than most customers.
The superbly designed interface makes those cakes look yummy. As you progress through the levels, you get more customers and the game gets more frantic. The early levels are easy and great practice in preparing you for the advanced levels.
The game just misses on one point. Once you get stuck on a level, it seems impossible to get through it with all four lives intact.
