Action Ball 2

Action Ball 2
N/A
Metacritic
92
Steam
62.25
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$6.99
Release date
7 February 2020
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
92 (13 votes)

Take to the skies with the thrilling, brick-busting excitement of Action Ball 2, the electrifying sequel to the hit arcade game! Soar above the clouds in your paddle-equipped ship and fight back the relentless robots in level after level of eye-popping fun.

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Action Ball 2 system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7/8.1/10
  • Processor: Intel Core i3
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM
  • Graphics: GeForce GT 730
  • DirectX: Version 8.1
  • Storage: 128 MB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
1186340
Platforms
Windows PC
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Mike9090
Mike9090

It's a solid breakout game. It's not just breakout. There's power ups, robots and bossfights too. I felt nostalgic playing this because it's so familiar to the 1st game. The collisions and graphics are better, the music is better and there's even upgrades for your paddle that stick around untill you die.

Whiterabbit-uk
Whiterabbit-uk

I originally purchased this from Alawar over a decade ago after loving the original Action Ball and was not disappointed with the challenging game play when I purchased it. It was quite a surprise to see it appear in the Steam store considering its age, however, I immediately bought it because it is one of my all time favourite 3D breakouts and also I wanted to convey my thanks and support to the developer for including it on Steam; as well as suggest a few additions that may improve the re-playability, or even see a new version created by the developer, that may incorporate some of the suggestions I've made at the end of this review and in the comments section.

The game mechanics are similar to most 3D breakouts; however, compared to most 3D versions of breakout, this one is quite challenging, in part due to the addition of the robots, boss battles & invader like mini game, but also because the ball speeds are a tad faster than most other 3D breakouts, where ball speeds in those breakouts start off very sluggish and rarely get any better; also, the shape of each arena differs slightly making angle shots more difficult to estimate.

If you do lose all of your lives, you can choose to continue where you lost your last ball, by restarting the level with the same number of lives you started out with at the beginning of that particular level. If you're lucky, you'll have a full complement, or even more if you've managed to gain extra lives though power up's or destroying enough robots to earn an extra life; however, if you only had the one life left at the beginning of the failed level, (likely if you've just completed a boss battle), that's all you'll get when continuing. The advantage of not starting a new game is that you retain your score. If you do choose to start with a score of zero, you can still select any level you've previously unlocked. (I'm not sure if this is actually possible as the game saves your progress when you leave the game).

You can earn more lives by collecting the infrequent life power-up or destroy 25 robots. The ball physics are acceptable, though I'd like to see the ball ricochet off at more acute angles as it seems to be limited to specific angles, though this does not affect game play at all. I think the different shaped arena that changes each level helps to counter the lack of more acute angle ricochets. I'd also like to see the ability to spin the ball to make it curve. The overall speed of the game is good compared to many other 3D breakouts, where the balls always seem really sluggish; making those games easy to beat. Also, when the last few hard to get bricks are left, the rocket launchers, that are usually placed along the top of the arena come into play and soon dispatch them to oblivion. I think this may also include any robots that are still lurking.

Unless you are an expert breakout player you will need as many lives as you can muster to survive the boss levels, especially the later ones, which are more difficult to beat. There are five different boss types, but you will usually only face one or two at a time. Both can be quite hard to beat, especially the dual boss levels. As you have one facing off against you frequently, while the other is firing missiles (and later bricks) at you. Usually you do get several machine gun or laser power ups in the boss rounds which does help somewhat, but trying to pick these up can often lead to you losing lives. You can see your progress against the boss levels via the boss's health bar located at the top of the game arena.

As with most breakouts, Action Ball 2 includes a wide variety of power ups totalling thirty one; some of which are rarely seen in breakouts, for example freeze robots, lightning bolts, bombing raids, grenades and meteorite showers. There are four types of robots to contend with (not counting the boss robots), these include a supply robot that replaces destroyed bricks, a repair robot that repairs damaged bricks; sentinel robots that fire rockets at your bat and Kamikase robots that try to destroy your paddle by dive bombing you.. Each robot when destroyed is added to a counter (located to the right of the arena) that, as mentioned above, adds a new life once you reach 25 kills.

A nice touch to this game which I've only seen in a few other Alawar based breakouts is the upgrade system (e.g. Strike Ball 3), where you earn upgrade points after scoring a specific amount of points. These upgrade points can be added to either the size of your bat, the amount of ammo your bat can carry, the power of your bat and the defence of your bat. Each of these can be upgraded up to four times. You can also select from four different paddle styles once they are unlocked. Most power ups are time limited. An indicator at the left side of the arena will appear whenever you pick up a useful or negative power up. Different power ups are stack-able, but not the same power up, though the new one will cancel the part used one if you pick up the same power up while one is still live. (personally I'd like to see them stack-able). Every fifth level you get either a boss battle or an invaders like mini game that alternate throughout the game.

There are 13 achievements available with the Steam version, most of which are easily earned. I got the first eight or nine within 25 minutes of playing the game for the first time.

Suggestions for the developer - part 1

I would consider revamping the achievements. As they stand I think they are far too easy to achieve and are not in that sense achievements. I'd consider scrapping most of the ones already included or at least supplementing them with others such as level markers e.g. attaining level 10, 20, 30 etc (after beating boss levels) also being able to survive a boss battle without losing a life, and/or not using any power ups to beat the boss, achieving your first extra life for killing 25 robots, collecting 200 or more power-ups in the mini game (space invader like levels), Beating all boss levels without using power ups etc. I'd also like to see trading cards added. These could include images of the boss robots as well as images of the rarer power ups and different paddles etc.

please see other suggestions in the comments below.

yaddlezap
yaddlezap

What can I say -- I like Breakout-likes.

Er@nKrief
Er@nKrief

it will be nice if you add the first game too. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ https://youtu.be/X5vhL77fHrU

Heebs
Heebs

This is a fun game, I hope more people find it.