Possibly I could give this game a score of 3, but it uses the rotational control method which I personally find is not that well suited to an isometric arcade game. I therefore find that the playability is hampered somewhat.
In this fast-action game you play a ball-like spacecraft which continually bounces along the surface of an alien planet. You can move the ball in eight directions at several different speeds and even come to a stop. Despite your Terrorball name, you actually have good intentions. Your mission is to collect parts of a crashed spacraft, assemble it and then rescue stranded spacemen, returning them to the craft. You use a mini-radar display at the bottom of the screen to locate the currently needed object. Some objects like "detectors" are quite easy to grab as they just remain stationary on the ground, but parts of the craft itself have been picked up by enemy droids which must destroyed, causing them to drop the needed item. Luckily you can fire an unlimited number of missiles (well, more like pellets really). The game is made very difficult by various antagonists all serving to drain your energy bar or deflect you off course and there are even holes in the ground that cause you to instantly die should you have the misfortune to fall in.
The game does have quite a decent selection of isometric sprites and the scrolling and sprite routines are well implemented. The whole game runs very smoothly.
Negative points for me though are the fact that there's often so much going on in the play area it looks very cluttered. The game's also very difficult. Even on "Novice" level, it tends towards somewhat frustrating, particularly when tracking down an opponent droid. There are just so many obstacles in the way, you'll just keep getting knocked back off course as you attempt to catch up at breakneck speed. The fact that you can't see all that far ahead in your direction of travel doesn't exactly help here. Like many other games, you also move at effectively 1.4 times normal speed in the diagonal directions, which is a natural consequence of the scrolling routines. I can't help but wonder if this could not have been slightly corrected in this case though, given that the game does already implement variable scrolling speeds.
Overall though, I just don't think the playability is that good, despite being a potentially involving and impressive-looking title, it's just on the side of frustratingly difficult and awkward for me. Of course, I'm sure there's people out there who are actually good at it!
Orbix the Terrorball, released by Streetwise and programmed by John Pragnell, owns a pretty good title, but it's not only that, it's actually a playable and good looking game. It's another 3D affair, but in scrolling fashion, reminding of Durell's Critical Mass and even Tranz Am by Ultimate. You have to wander across a wide area looking for cubes improving your radar scope, survivors and pieces of their spacecraft, while avoiding alien infrastructures and shooting droids which in turn drop spheres of energy. It belongs to the Bouncing Ball kind of games too, which makes it similar to Vortex's Revolution too [while the cubes and the survivors remind of another Costa Panayi's masterpiece, Cyclone]. It's nice, only rather repetitive and dull.
3/5
