Iggy's Reckin Balls
Reviewed by Davey Williams
Iggy's Reckin Balls was made to be original and fun. I accomplishes both of those
things fairly well. Iggy's Reckin Balls is like a "vertical racer" where you climb
up and up maze-like tracks and try to get to the top first. You get to choose from
one of eight Reckin Balls, which are little head-like characters, before each race.
Most of the Reckin Balls look a little cute, but this is not a cute game. It is very
frantic and every opponent will do their best to knock you out of the way or throw
you off the side. It's challenging too because if you make one small mistake, you
probably won't get first place. While this game is fun, you have to be a quick-thinker
if you want to win some of the tougher levels.
Graphics 6.4 out of 10
The graphics in this game aren't that great. There are no parts of the game where
you stop to look at the sights. This just isn't one of those games. When your climbing
as fast as you can to the top o a maze trying to avoid all mistakes you could possibly
make, the graphics won't be that important to you. The graphics aren't terrible though.
This is a Nintendo 64 game made in 1998, so they have to be somewhat good. The main
focus when designing this game was probably put into making all of the 100+ courses
different from the others in some way. I'm still not quite sure whether this is a 2D or
3D game.
Music and Sound 7.2 out of 10
The music in this game is average. Nothing too great and nothing that's going to
want to make you mute it. The music is basically techno music. There aren't many
different songs in this game, but you probably won't memorize them because you'll
be too busy trying to make it to the top as fast as you possibly can. The only thing
that might get annoying is the Reckin Balls' voices. they are a little cutesy, but
they aren't that bad, in my opinion. I just ignore them with the exception of their
little phrase they say when they win the race. Still, the voices in the game give
each of the Reckin Balls a little bit of personality, which is good. Hopefully the sound
in this game won't drive you crazy with all the action.
Game Challenge 7.6 out of 10
This game is not too challenging overall, but some of the later courses will get
you playing for a couple hours so you can get them Perfect (getting first place on
all 10 courses). When you begin the game and start at the easy levels, this game
is probably pretty simple if you know how to play and have been through the training
mode. From then on the difficulty starts to come on quick. There is an easy way to
beat each level if you are having trouble though. Just invite over 3 inexperienced
friends. There are only four Reckin balls in each race. You can also start the course
over at any time if you've gotten into a mess with no cost at all. The hardest part
of the game is getting the Perfects, but Time Trials are challenging to. The game
already has some pretty good scores for each level that come with the game. It
will take a few tries to beat them. I think that this game will always be challenging,
even for experts, because if you try to hard, you'll most likely make more mistakes,
that can be very costly
Game Play-Fun 8.6 out of 10
This is what the game was made to be. Choosing a Reckin Ball is fun by itself,
because all of them are different with different personalities. While this game
is quite fun, it is also frustrating. Trying to achieve new Time Trial records and
missing by a few hundredths of a second on some of the longer courses can get you
pretty mad since there is no second place. Trying to get a perfect score and having
someone pass you in the last couple seconds may eve be worse. You can retry the
course you're on, but if you want to retry the last course you'll have to start all
over at the very first course. This adds a little to the challenge of the game, but
takes away from the fun of it, unless you're playing against your friends. There
is a four player versus and battle. The versus is the same as a normal course, but
you get to pick one at a time. Battle is similar to Mario Kart because you get 3
eggs and the last one left with them wins. You get to use different objects like
projectiles and bombs to get rid of your opponents eggs. There is also a Mix Up mode
to let you take ten of your favorite courses and put them together.
Rumble Pak 6 out of 10
The rumble pak doesn't really add much to the game. It shakes when you get bumped
around and when you blow up the towers (Blowing up the towers is the Reckin Balls'
mission. They all want to blow up the course that you race on as a bit of a reward for
the winner). The shaking doesn't help make this a better game though.
Frustration
Like I said earlier, if you get passed on a course at the very end when aiming for a
Perfect, it is frustrating. It is also frustrating to miss a Time Trial by a few hundredths
of a second. You won't go crazy though, because you can always try again.
Replayability 6.5 out of 10
This game is pretty fun for the first couple weeks and until you beat everything.
Once you get a perfect on all of the levels, there isn't much point in playing by
yourself anymore. It will still be fun against other human players, just not very
fun against the computer. You could still play time trials and try to beat your old high
scores, but unless you find a new shortcut, you probably won't keep beating your old scores.
Game Value 9 out of 10
This is one of the cheaper new games you can find. Most places sell it for less
than $50 and the suggested price is $40. It is a fun and original game that probably
worth the price for many people. If you liked Mario Kart 64, you'll probably like this
game. If you think you'll like it, you should probably buy it instead of paying $5 to rent
it. That makes it less of a bargain
Overall 8.3 out of 10
Overall this is a good game for people who like original and fun games like Mario Kart.
It has one of the cheaper prices, so if you buy it and don't like it that much, it won't be
as big of a loss. The sound and graphics aren't the best, but once you get into the game,
that doesn't really matter. It will keep playing it for a while until you've gotten all
the perfects and found all the shortcuts you can find. It won't be a million seller most
likely, but it is one of the better games I've played with a good price.