FastBall 2 Review

Remember Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros back in the day when we didn't really care about their motivation? When we simply wanted to hop across platforms as quickly as possible and simply beat the increasingly tough levels? Then that damn storyline kept encroaching on the territory and distracting us from simply leaping around. To an extent FastBall 2 returns to those early days. It's not as pretty to look at as either Sonic or Mario but it does hark back to those joyful days of simply leaping.

You control a rolling red ball as it glides across each level. Your sole input is via tapping the screen in order to jump over the many, many obstacles in your way. Hit anything and it's back to the start of the level you go. Fortunately each level is very brief so you'll never be too frustrated. It's excellent fun too. As the game progresses, you come across blocks that make you fly into the air and direction signs that affect which way you roll. Stars can be collected as you roll in order to boost your high score. It's tremendously addictive as FastBall 2 is so easy to drop into for a few minutes at a time. Except it won't just be for a few minutes, you'll find 30 minutes are gone before you know it. If you check out the video below, you'll see just how fast paced it is (which explains the lack of good screenshots unfortunately).

If you do truly get stuck on a level, you can use a token (collected after completing 5 levels) to skip the level so it's never too frustrating. There are three difficulty modes available too with easy being suitably easy and hard making you want to tear your hair out. It's satisfying though so you'll give it a whirl despite your better judgement. There's also the addition of two graphical themes - Cartoon and Futuristic which affect the music as well as the look of the game. A small but neat touch.

With 105 levels in all, FastBall 2 is a heck of a lot of fun. Simple yet devilishly addictive, it's the kind of game that deserves to stick around on your iOS device for a while to come. If you've got plenty of friends on OpenFeint, there's the added delight of getting competitive over each other's scores too. Here's hoping that the developers continue to support FastBall 2 as there's a real chance of this game being a big hit.