Red Ball 3 Review

Red Ball 3 is an exciting, yet frustrating, physics based platformer tasking players with an Angry Birds like level progression. Each level consists of complex puzzles that need to be solved by using the body of the ball to solve, from button and lever combinations to balance and jumping trials. Levels are played using an on screen directional pad and jump button.

Red Ball 3 is frustrating for a few reasons. The first is a great reason. The puzzle difficulty is such that many of the designs took several attempts to finally finish. The second reason is less enjoyable. The jumping feature of the ball on ledges tends to favor falling over jumping. Being a child of Mario, I approached jumping off of ledges in that method and found myself falling off of cliffs more than making the jumps. This might be more of a personal issue, but it became increasingly frustrating. A couple of the reviews on the iTunes page complained about issues with freezing and resetting, but I got through level 17 without any issue.

One of the most enjoyable experiences was the throw back level in Red Ball 3 which is modeled after Doodle Jump. It’s a little different trying to use an on screen directional pad to jump back and forth as the level progresses, but it was pleasant to see the respect given to an extremely popular title.

There isn’t anything excessively new and shocking in Red Ball 3, but the combination of concepts combined from similar titles makes an enjoyable experience. Game Center, Crystal, Achievements, and hidden gifts compliment the game nicely. You can check out Red Ball 3 now for $0.99.