SpaceBall (game)

SpaceBall was a miniature video game appearing on several models of LG brand mobile phones. The game was similar in concept to "Snake", a title that was packaged with many Nokia brand cellular phones.

The cartoonish title scenes and cut screens featured the title character drawn in the Anime style.

Object

The object of the game was to guide a small animal, the head of which resembled a rabbit with the horn of a unicorn, around a playing field gathering colored balls. The player had a set amount of time to clear the board without running into itself or a wall, or letting itself grow too long. If a player did any of these, or ran out of time, he lost a life (referred to as a "fail" in the game) and had to restart the level from the beginning. Failing four times ended the game; no extra lives were offered at any point in the game.

Levels

Each of the game's twenty levels grew progressively harder. The first level simply contained an open field, of which the character could leave one side and re-enter the screen immediately on the other. Later levels introduced borders around the field to prevent such exit and re-entry; walls, blocks, and other obstacles in the middle of the screen; and finally all-out mazes with narrow paths that strictly limited the animal's range of motion.

Rules

A level always began with three red segments attached to the creature's head. Eating any red balls with only these segments attached would not cause the animal to grow. Eating any other colored ball caused it to attach as a segment to the tail end of the creature, as did eating a red ball with segments of any other color already on the animal.

A player could clear segments off the animal by attaching three balls of the same color to its tail. This could be done by simply eating three of the same color in a row, or by eating one or two of one color, eating three of another (clearing them), then eating a third (or a second and a third) of the original color. The importance of shortening the body was twofold: a longer creature ran a more dangerous risk of running into itself and dying immediately; also, if a player cleared the board while the character's body was too long (indicated by a number in the corner of the screen), the player failed (lost a life) and had to restart the level.

Bonus balls

Occasionally, a flashing bonus ball appeared on the playing screen. This ball was white with a red dot in the middle, and its appearance was marked by the player's phone vibrating. If the animal ate the bonus ball, one of four random effects would occur:
* The timer resetting to full
* The character's tail resetting to three red segments
* All remaining balls on the field changing to the color of the last one eaten
* All balls changing color and position.

Two of these bonus balls appeared per life, per level.

ee also

* Snake (video game)