Math Ball:

In Brief:
Math Ball starts off ideal for children aged around eight years old, but the difficulty quickly ramps up to much more difficult expressions to solve. In my opinion becoming more for someone is is approaching a genius level maths prodigy. The only other way to progress is to take a guess with the higher level calculations. That said, the subtraction and addition expressions are much easier to solve. If you are able to quickly calculate multiplication expressions in your head such as 32x30, (which I can do in my head fairly quickly, i.e. 32 x 30 = 960, that took me approximately five second to figure out) or a slightly more difficult one such as 37x21 = 777; (this one took me a little longer at just under 20 seconds i.e. 37 x 21 = ( 37 x 10 x 2 = 740) + (1 x 37 = 37) = 740+37 = 777. ). See the foot note at the end of the review.

Your maths ball is initially stationary and when you are given an expression to solve, you navigate your math ball towards the correct answer by using your mouse pointer and dragging it away, directly opposite from where the correct answer is floating; you'll see a line appear with a directional arrow. This is the direction the math ball will move once you release your left mouse button. When the math ball touches the correct answer you are given a reply; which, depending on how long it took to answer the question, may be perfect, correct, excellent or good or if you took too long and run out of the allotted time the game ends. You start with 30 seconds to answer the expression correctly, if you manage to do so, the timer resets and continues to reset to 30 seconds so long as you continue to get the correct answers within the time limit.

The game was released on Steam almost six weeks ago HERE; however, it hasn't garnered any Steam community reviews yet. The Steam store says "Math Ball" - a game where you can relax and hone your math skills by solving challenging problems on the go, dodging wrong decisions, and running out of time!

Hitting the wrong answer has no effect on the game.

You can see a video of game play HERE

Conclusion:
I did find the game quite reasonable for getting your brain in gear and, thankfully as I've tried to keep up my mental arithmetic over the years, I was reasonably successful. Ignore the game over image posted below. I was initially trying to figure out how to move math ball, and found that the floating answers would randomly hit the math ball. Incorrect answers came about when you spent too long calculating the correct answer.

The main issue I had once I'd figured out how to move math ball was that it was like playing a game of pool; but, with constantly moving balls, so you needed to figure out where the correct answer would be in advance for you to be able to hit it. Dragging the mouse pointer further away from math ball once you'd figured out a rough trajectory enables math ball to move faster. dragging it only a short distance makes it move slower.

When you restart the game it starts from level 1 again, with different easy expressions to solve, so, if you wanted your younger children to play this game I would recommend restarting the game after level 8 to ensure they get easier problems to solve (unless of course your child has good mental arithmetic skills)

Overall Math Ball is a reasonable maths puzzle game, but once you get past level 7/8 or higher, the expressions become a lot more difficult to calculate quickly, especially if you're not good at mental arithmetic; however, I would assume practice at the game would improve your mental gymnastics somewhat.

The movement of the various answers is random and, if you leave the game without moving Math Ball, sometimes the correct answer will hit the Math Ball without you doing anything and gives you credit for it as well.

The game is definitely a keeper for me. It's easy to use with only the mouse required to play the game apart from when you initially boot up the game and access the menu items.
As with other games with the same menu system you can use a controller to access the menu items, but cannot step back and the game itself doesn't support a controller.

Notes on Security
I scanned a zipped copy of the installed game using Virus Total and it found zero hits from 63 antimalware engines. You can see the scan results HERE.

Footnote
We weren't allowed to use calculators when I was at school back in the early 70's when the earliest Casio calculators became available, so log books, slip sticks (slide rules) and mental arithmetic were the norm. I bought a commodore calculator around the late 70's that could do quadratic equations and other complex math problems, which I used to check my calculations when doing my A level maths course (which I took in my mid 20's to gain entrance to university as a mature student). I was an early 70's kid who though dropping out of college at 18 (just before my A level examinations) was a cool thing to do, more fool me and something I've regretted all my life apart from the fact I wouldn't have met my wife if I'd attended university earlier. :).

During my teaching career I was primarily a science teacher focusing on Biology and Chemistry but I did teach Mathematics up to GCSE (11 to 16 year olds)