Back in 1992 Microsoft came out with a new game called JezzBall.  Essentially, it was their take on the Xonix style genre.  In JezzBall, you were faced with an enclosed room, with balls  (often referred to as atoms) bouncing within it.  Your job is to confine these balls to increasingly smaller spaces until a predefined amount of the board has been blocked off.  This was a relatively interesting game, which Microsoft stopped supporting over a decade ago (in 1996).  Despite this lack of support, however, the game has maintained a fairly loyal and consistent following.  Numerous online JezzBall games and related clones can be found across the web. 

Well, here we are, more than a decade after the original JezBall was supposed to have died.  I think it is about time this game come back down out of the Cloud.  And our friends at Birdsoft (aka Crazy Bird in the iTunes store) agreed.  Of course, in the time since we last saw an official release of JezzBall, the world of computers have changed.  Rather than bringing the game back to your desktop, Birdsoft has brought it to your palmtop…specifically, to your iPhone.  Let’s take a closer look at this fully updated and revived variation of this classic game.

The cool thing about this game is that Birdsoft has not just redistributed the game, they have fully updated it, and added a whole new dimension.  This time around, those balls are bouncing with a purpose.  You see in Jezster, all of the action takes place in Shiny Happy World.  This is a world which is usually filled with rainbows and unicorns (I swear this was developed by a guy, though I have no idea how he came up with this backstory.)  Anyway, the evil lord Jezster and his band of “hench balls” have invaded and taken over Shiny Happy World.  Now, all those shiny happy people are no longer holding hands or laughing.  Uh-oh…we had better help them out. 

There are two modes of play in this game.  Classic Mode simulates the original JezBall game.  There are no levels and worlds or big bosses to defeat.  And the game never ends.  All you need to do is complete one screen after another until you run out of lives.  This is a great place to practice your gameplay and learn new tactics.

The story really comes in when you play Adventure Mode.  This is where you can set out to free shiny Happy World from its oppressors.  There are six levels in the game, each of which contains 5 segments.  A big boss with special powers lurks in the last segment of each level.  Solve all six levels (30 segments) to defeat Jezster and bring quarter for all those unicorns and rainbows.

When you start, only the first level will be unlocked.  As you defeat each level, however, the next will be opened up for you.  You can start a new game from the beginning of any unlocked level.

So, now that you know the story, let’s take a look at how the game is played.  Like I said, each segment consists of a box, with a few of those hench balls bouncing around.  So far so good.  Your job is to trap them in, confine them in a tiny box.  Once you have blocked them off from a predesignated amount of the board, you will advance to the next segment.  You control a device that I call a beam thrower.  Place it by tapping the screen (at times, I found the screen taps to be a bit unresponsive, hesitating before taking action.)  when activated, a beam will be cast ahead and behind.  Once these beams connect to a wall, they will solidify, creating a new wall.  If one of the hench balls hits the beam before it reaches the edge, then your beam will be destroyed, costing you a life in the process.

You can switch your beam from vertical to horizontal before you cast it by using the two buttons in the lower corners.  I found these buttons to be a bit too small and out of the way.  I had trouble touching them consistently.  The alternative is to switch to the HUD view (above).  In this view, tap and hold anywhere on the screen to reveal the switching mechanism.  Spin it to control the direction of the beam.  Really, though, I did not find this to be a much more satisfactory method for switching the angle.  What I really wanted was  a simple, large button on the side of the screen, just press it to switch the orientation of the beams.  That is all we would have needed.

Anytime you seal off an empty section of the room, it will be filled with blocks and tallied.  If one of the hench balls is in the new block, however, then it will not be filled.  The hench ball, however, will be trapped in the smaller cell and out of the way.  As I mentioned, fill 80% of the room with blocks, and you will advance to the next level. 

This all sounds easy enough.  So,Birdsoft threw another wrinkle into the mix.  You only have 60 seconds to complete each level.  To be honest, I found the clock to be a bit unnecessary.  Especially on the lower levels.  I wish there had been an untimed mode to play.

In addition to everything we have discussed so far, there are also 10 power ups in the game.  Though I will admit that power up is a bit of a misnomer. A number of these power ups will actually harm you by eating your time or exploding and taking your bricks with you.  Still, there are plenty that can help you by freezing the balls, giving you an extra life, and plenty more.  Tap any of the power ups to activate/deactivate it.

Finally are the game goals.  There are six of them, giving you six pretty difficult in-game challenges.  See if you can complete all six.  I have not gotten there yet.

I was a bit leery when I started playing Jezster.  I had tried the original Jezzball back in the day and was never terribly impressed by it.  I played it from time to time, but always found it to be a bit lacking.  I think what it was lacking was an appropriate challenge.  So, I was pretty impressed that Birdsoft seems to have offered exactly the challenges that the game required.  Just adding a few levels and in-game goals makes this a whole new game.  Then again, I do think we all could have done without the rainbows and unicorns…

What I Liked:

• In-game goals
• Special items
• Levels and bosses

What Needs Improvement:

• Rainbows and Unicorns
• Orientation control was a bit difficult to use

Price: $1.99

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