Something mysterious is scaring the hungry animals that inhabit East, South and West islands. Professor Fizzwizzle and his invention, a bubble-ball machine, can save the animals and transfer them to the safe Animal Sanctuary.
FizzBall combines Breakout (brick-breaking style game), Chuzzle, and Mario Bros. with helping the animals and the environment added to the mix to keep it exciting. At the start of each level, you answer questions about an animal or guess which animal makes the sound that's played.
My three-year-old may not have the coordination to play the game, but he is captivated by the game's gorgeous interface and rhythmic music. He helps me figure out which animal makes a specific sound and gets excited when he's right. Having the music turned off won't affect the game play. You may not get all 2000 bonus points for answering the sound-related questions, but that's not a big deal.
The round begins and Fizzwizzle's ball starts small. It can only pick up a butterfly, a small food item like an acorn, or coins. As the ball absorbs several small objects, it grows and can take in bigger animals. Not only do you have to try to get the right-sized animals at the right time, but you want to avoid hitting the skunk until the ball can pick it up otherwise it reacts to the ball's hit with the spray no animal wants to smell.
Barrels of chemical appear in some scenes and Fizzwizzle's ball needs to avoid hitting them otherwise he pollutes the environment. Scenes change with each round as it can be stormy and then peaceful snow appears in the next round. In some scenes, objects like crates and barrels line up to create a familiar shape like a heart, letter "F," or a star.
The goal for each round is to capture all the animals. A bonus round appears every few rounds with different objectives to keep the game from getting monotonous. As you complete rounds on an island, you hop to the next island until you get through all three islands. I played the game in an entire weekend as I couldn't stop until I finished it. And, I'm not one to have free time on my hands as a mom of three.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
From your description, it sounds as if this might have a little in common with Katamari Damacy as well. There you have to roll up the world, starting small, and you can only roll up objects that are smaller than the Katamari is.
2 - Meryl
I haven't seen Katamari yet, though my kids have it on the PS2 (I stick to the PC or handhelds). I'll check it out. Thanks, Phillip.