There is nothing new about the hardcore puzzle platformer. There’s nothing new about taking in that genre as a ball either. Hell, there’s nothing new really in Ball laB II for that matter, the clue being in the title; this is a sequel.
But that’s what we’ve got here with Ball laB II from Eastasiasoft and Viktor Yurchuk – a hardcore ball-rolling sequel of a puzzle platformer. If you were a fan of the original Ball laB from 2021 (spoiler: we weren’t), then you might find some pleasure in battling your way through the fifty stages on offer in this sequel. If you didn’t, step away right now. Unless of course you want some easy Gamerscore to boost your tally.
Ball laB II (and yes, I’m already hating the way that is written) is the sequel to the original Ball laB; a game that tested your skills – and patience – as you attempted to manoeuvre a small ball through a series of levels.
That’s exactly the case again here and now. You are a little white ball and you need to make your way to the glowing red end portal of each single-screen stage. Fifty levels await, each of which gets progressively more tricky, as stages fill themselves with spikes, spikes and more spikes. Frankly, fun it is not. At least not once you get through the initial, fairly easy, first twenty levels or so. From there on out, it’s a battle of the fingers, reflexes and mind. It’s usually the mind that goes first.
Delivered in a fairly minimalistic fashion, there’s absolutely nothing in Ball laB II that screams quality. The music is bad enough to warrant turning off from the initial main menu screen, whilst the singular sound of death/destruction grates as soon as your kill count starts moving towards triple figures. And let me tell you, that won’t be long at all.
It’s fairly basic visually too. Created in Unity, there’s a white ball set on a single screen of reds, blacks and blues, each complete with obstacles. With most of those traps and obstacles being some kind of play on a triangular spike. You might get single spikes that you can gracefully leap over, or strips of spikes that require a bit of a double jump. You’ll have spikes on ceilings, spikes on floors, spikes on walls and spikes in water. Just let it be known that if you hit one (or even dare roll up against one), you’ll find yourself respawning right back at the very start of the level, ready to push on again. The safety of a flat platform is all you should have an eye for, and even then, some of those fall through the floor the second you touch them.
Ball laB II is pretty brutal, with precision platforming required at all times. The problem is, the game doesn’t have the necessary mechanics to allow for that precision, with hit detection sometimes off. It is also more than happy to see you need to jump whole rows of spikes that are far too close to the top of the screen for anyone’s liking. Attempting to guess where you are going to land as your little ball careens down from a height is never fun. It does the same with the abyss hiding away at the bottom of your screen too.
To give some credit, Ball laB II lets you get back into the action in a flash. There have been times through my hundreds of deaths (and yes, some of the first achievements that pinged were those for 5, 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 deaths, all within minutes of each other) in which Ball laB II has had me respawned so quickly that I was still attempting – in my mind – to make a jump. There’s certainly no waiting around before you get back to it.
Further credit must also go to the inclusion of three difficulty levels. The vast majority of sane people will want to head to the Easy mode from the get-go – you’d do well to stay there once you have too as all progress will be lost should you dare even consider switching difficulty. It’s here where the lack of time limit on stages just means you can crack on at will. Those time limits get added as we move to Normal, with a set clock counting down for each stage. Honestly, the limits on these are absolutely ridiculous, allowing for not a mere second of thought. It gets worse moving to Hard – that clock set to completion of all fifty levels, with collectible stopwatches adding to the time. But what if that time runs out? Back to the start of the game for you. Yeah, Ball laB II is again being brutal. And it doesn’t care.
That really is all there is to say about Ball laB II. Whilst far from the most hardcore of puzzle platformers, even those involving a ball, it’s a game that takes absolutely no prisoners. For those interested in gathering up some easy Gamerscore, the low price point allows just that, but it would be hugely surprising if anyone other than full-on completionists would even bother to test their patience right through to the bitter end.
The real test in Ball laB II is not in how many levels you will actually manage to complete. It’s more to do with how many deaths you’ll be able to take before you switch off and uninstall.
