Lucky me a written review doesn’t show moving pictures. Otherwise, I would have to add an Epilepsy Warning at the beginning, because if you get triggered by visual stimuli, BallystiX would be the absolute visual overkill for you. The action arcade game from “Alternative Dreams” plays in the year 2100, where you steer a super-anti-virus, Ballystix, through infected systems to save humanity. If the future looks like this, we’ll need a spare pair of eyeballs. 🙂

This is the first level. Yep, the first one.

Faster! Harder! Scooter!

Let’s take a look at the one side of the coin: The futuristic scenario of BallystiX is really cool and the story is even carried by the gameplay, in which you disinfect all computer systems of the world, beginning with the oldest one.

Moreover, BallystiX is an amazing demonstration of what you can do with visual effects. It’s shiny, glossy, dynamic, impressive, full of explosions and flying particles all over the place. Just the gorgeous transformation process of the infected computer systems is a class for itself, as you overgrow them with the healing power of nature… or something like that. Well, you can’t always say what happens on the screen, because you simply can’t see it. Which directly leads me to the other side of the coin.

The Question Is What Is the Question?

Seriously, playing BallystiX is like steering a space shuttle without knowing anything of astrophysics or astronautics. Do you know this feeling, when you ain’t got the faintest idea what you have to do, so you just click all buttons and see what happens? And – against all odds – you’re still successful with that approach? Yeah, welcome to BallystiX.

“Yes, this is dog!”

Of course, you could read through the endless tutorial, consisting of countless interstitials with S-L-O-W W-R-I-T-T-E-N C-A-P-S L-O-C-K text, but even if you would, do you still think, you’ll gain the capability to identify enemies, bonuses or anything in this mess effect? Nope.

You’re daily source of ADHD.

The Verdict

Ballystix is a gorgeous game, that only needs one thing: Simplification, all along. A shorter tutorial with less redundant information, less functions, less details, less animations. But – as this game is still alpha, I am 100% sure, that Alternative Dreams will use the remaining time to make the absolute best out of it. But not too much of “best”, please! 🙂

Download the demo here.

All pictures are in-game screenshots. The meme has been taken from knowyourmeme.com.