Bang-On Balls: Chronicles – Review

Over on PC Bang-On Balls has built up an amazing 97% of Overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam during early-access, but with the game nearing full release and launching on Xbox, it’s time to see if this is Bang-On or just a load of Balls.

Bang-On Balls see’s you take control of an Intern called Bob, who’s joined the local Bang-On film studio for some adventure and hijinx.

Starting off at the studio, you’ll move around with the left thumb stock, jump with A, and dash forward using right trigger, there’s also a ground pound using B when airborne and straight away you’re free to wander around as you please, knocking over everything in sight as you begin to explore, you also have a shield but in over 15 hours of gameplay I don’t think I used more than a few times, as I preferred to use the dash to get away if I was taking too much damage.

Straight away, there’s a rewarding flow, as you pound and dash stunned enemies, and bounce between targets with ease, knocking over everything on sight never gets old, but when it’s done with such fluidity it makes it all the more enjoyable as you bounce, dash and destroy from one enemy to the next.

Soon enough you’ll find your way outside and while there’s quite a large central hub to explore, packed with plenty of things to knock over, and other balls to smash into, the main gameplay starts when you enter the first film set, Viking Invasion.

On this movie, everything matches the Viking theme, (with a few other areas thrown in the more you explore). You’ll be free to discover, smash around friendly and not-so friendly balls, and destroy pretty much anything you come across and you’ll soon start collecting blue orbs which act as the in-game currency and while not essential, you’ll find some merchant balls, that you have to pay a set amount of orb’s, to unlock a special cosmetic or trigger an event. There are also green orbs which replenish a ball of health, and you can hit LB to vacuum nearby orb’s if you don’t grab them automatically.

Each world is packed with things to do, with the main storyline tasking you with travelling to set locations to destroy certain items or enemies there’s steady progression within each world which can be rushed through, or you can work on mini-quests and events for film reels.

Working through these challenges are pretty straight forward thanks to yellow markers that show you where you need to go with the tap of the view button, you’ll eventually come to a final boss battle, before returning to the movie studio ready for tackle the next world.

Currently there’s four main movies, Cold race to Space, sees the battle between USA and USSR as you choose a side in the space race. Krakens lost coins is a pirate themed adventurer, and the fourth world Time trouble on Kaiju Island is a very impressive Japanese themed world which takes you across different areas of Japan at different times, with the grand finale a battle against a giant Kaiju ball, there’s also a 5th movie (6th world) with a Wild-West theme already in development, which won’t be available at launch, but will be added as a free update post-release.

As well as their own theming, unique mainline quests and dozens of additional themed cosmetics to unlock, each of the four movies contains 15 film reels and 18 captive balls to find, you can search for these at any time, but if you’re returning to an already complete world, you’ll find those helpful yellow markers are now pointing towards these unlocks which makes life a lot easier.

Film reels are usually scattered around near mini-bosses, or may be a reward for a side-quest or event, while the captive balls are hidden away in cages with a large red padlock. Releasing them is as simple as bashing the lock to break it, but some of these cages will require some searching or careful platforming to reach.

Working through the main game with just a few side quests is likely to take about 8-10 hours, but even once you’ve completed all the main challenges, you can revisit a world at any time to search for those reels, cages and cosmetics, there’s around 50-100 cosmetics in each area, and some you’ll need to return for later, when you’ve unlocked certain other items.

Customising your very own Bob is pretty straight forward, you can find a tattoo chair in various locations to switch certain details like skin colour, or a flag overlay or tattoo if that’s your thing, but pressing down on the D-pad at any time will let you change your Bob’s weapon, shield and outfit.

Most of the items you’ll pick up are purely cosmetic, but those marked with a star have some form of additional power. Defeating the first boss on the Viking world will reward you with a Mjolnir style hammer that causes an electrifying aoe stun when you ground pound, while the Jetpack from Moon 2, will let you hover long distances which helps with reaching those tough areas and cosmetics.

There’s plenty of variety on offer, and you’re free to switch at any time, regardless of whether you want a themed outfit, a mish-mash of different styles for a comic mix, or purely gameplay-based bonuses such as a gun fired with X, or mini-grenades released with B.

The best thing is, none of these powers are outlined, you just have to try on any star cosmetics and have a play around to see what works, and how useful they are.

Bang-On Balls is a platforming game at heart, it’s immediately accessible, with a generous learning curve, but the free-roaming, open-world destruction makes exploration fun and with the cosmetics (and some having secret powers), it’s also incredibly rewarding meaning there’s so much more to the game outside of the core platform gameplay.

Graphically it’s incredibly easy on the eyes, bright, colourful, filled with vibrant colours and detailed worlds, it’s hard to pick fault. There are a few occasions when things really step-up, such as the first major boss fight in Viking Invasion, the camera movement, effects and lighting left me in awe of some great design work, which was definitely above what I was expecting from the game, it’s just a shame it wasn’t seen even more frequently.

In trying to be critical, I may have encountered a few frame-rate drops once or twice, I say may, because it was barely noticeable. My only real criticism comes down to the camera.

You’re free to swish your right analogue stick to move the camera around, and on a 3D platformer, you’re always going to get instances where it clips a wall, but I just wish there was an option to maybe zoom a little closer or further away from your Bob, it’s something Roblox can manage, and having a fixed camera length is really my only criticism.

Audio is another area that’s often so difficult to judge, so many games just do what you expect, a mind-numbing background track designed to be discreet enough to prevent distractions, with enough effects to keep your ears warm, but Bang-On Balls just feels like it’s raised the bar from what I’d usually expect from most games, the world has enough atmospheric sounds to feel realistic, while the chatter and mumbles of nearby balls is more than enough to keep your ear drums beating, while providing a little extra humour in line with the visuals. It’s a combination I’m not used to seeing in any game, where the sound seems to perfectly compliment the visuals.

Again, it’s hard to be critical, because there’s really not much wrong with it, but maybe a little more voice acting or possibly a film-trailer style intro to each movie could have been some extra icing on the cake.

I’ll also mention the overall value, while we don’t have an exact release price at the time of writing, it’s believed the final game will retail at around £20-£30, (currently £20.99 on steam in early-access), while I hope it hits that price mark, even if it cost £40 it would still be unbelievable value. You’re easily looking at 10-12 hours of gameplay and if you want to venture through each world, finding all cosmetics, reels and captive balls, you’re moving towards 20+ hours, there’s also a variety of extras like the Arcade you can unlock, complete with extra mini games (the Street Fighter inspired car smashing was my favourite) and it’s not often I say this, but it’s well worth spending more time after you’ve completed the main game, because of the sheer amount of little extra things there is to discover. There are also some flatulence friendly achievements to work through for farting in a variety of different locations. (holding left on the D-pad, the whistle button -usually used to get the attention of nearby balls).

Just to give you an idea of the comical edge, you’ll need to fart in a bubble, and when you do end up in the Vikings mouth, you guessed it, let one rip.

Having spent upwards do 15 hours on Bang-On Balls before drafting this review, Ive kept returning to find a few more cosmetics, and neat little details and touches like the still photos you’ll find scattered around the studio, from the Polaroid camera that snaps a shot when you walk past (saving the game in the process) and the cosmetics keep on coming too, unlike many games where you’ll find what works and stick to it, I’m constantly changing my appearance, which just reinforces the enjoyment of exploration and discovering new unlocks beyond the main quests.

With the promise of a Wild-West movie in the future (and hopefully more), I imagine I’ll keep coming back time and time again.

there’s also co-op play locally and up to 4 players online, this includes those mini-games and you can drop in and out at any time, carrying back and forth any unlocks you earn.

I haven’t been able to test online co-op much pre-release and not at all with a full 4 players, but there’s absolutely nothing to suggest it won’t be another fantastic aspect of an already amazing game.

Over many decades I’ve played just about every major platform game you can think of…. Mario, Sonic, Banjo-Kazooie, Crash bandicoot and Rayman. But the last time I enjoyed a platform game as much as Bang-On Balls, was 25 years ago with Sonic Adventure and Mario 64 a few years before that..

Its high praise to be putting Bang-On Balls: Chronicles on a pedestal beside Mario and Sonic, but there’s no denying this is one of the most fun, accessible and rewarding platform games I’ve played in many, many years.

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