Strike Ball 2

In Brief

A 3D brick busting breakout game with lots of power ups.

Introduction:

If you played all of the early 3D breakouts such as X-Ray Ball, Smash Ball Frenzy (formerly known as Magic Ball), Action Ball 1 and 2 and Incrediball: The Seven Sapphires, (to name the more popular ones), then apart from the latter two and Strike Ball 3, Strike Ball 2 was one of the best 3D breakouts available at the time of its release and due to its features is still among the best 3D breakouts available (IMO). The three exceptions, Action Ball 2, Strike Ball 3 and Incrediball: The Seven Sapphires had features that surpassed today's game giveaway that improved game play and also looked better. You can get all three of the Strike Ball games via MyPlayCity HERE

Strike Ball 2 was originally given away on the 12th Dec 2006, several days after the game giveaway project was born (though games were given away 2 or 3 times a week on the main site prior to this from when the whole project started back in October 2006). The game received a 91% positive vote from 139 votes and garnered 26 comments that you can read HERE (I've incorporated part of my original comment in the main review below from that day over 12 years ago. The game was given away again on the 10th Dec 2007 where it received a positive 82% rating from 289 votes with 72 comments that you can read HERE. You'll find lots of community members questions about the game, most of which were answered back then; plus there was an interesting legal hack posted(which you can read about in the main review below) that IMO improved the game for those of you who consider themselves adept at break out games and for those who find them difficult. Strike ball 3 was also given away almost six years ago (7th July 2013). You can check it out via the community comments or download it for free via MyPlayCity (it is the best version that includes some additional innovations such as upgrading power ups and with improved graphics due to the use of nVidias' Phys X engine that gave the game board a whole new look when destroying stacked bricks.

Whiterabbit 15th June 2019

Installation:

Strike Ball 2 downloads to a 15.3 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper the set-up file and a read me). The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed if you wish. The installed game is approximately 22.4 MB in size.

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Strike Ball 2

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop; the shortcut to the game, plus three others ''Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and a shortcut to a free online game. These latter three shortcuts can be deleted once the game has been installed. The Themida wrapper may alert your security and even block the installation; there are details about this issue in the read me that unpacks from the downloaded zip file.

The Game:

I purchased this game when Alawar released it over 10 years ago. I used to play it a lot back then as apart from the two games mentioned in the intro it was one of the best 3D breakouts available at the time. Unfortunately as with most games even the best can become tedious to play after awhile; so when Strike Ball 2 was given away for the second time a community member called Magic Man gave an interesting tip that would give the game a new boost of life for me and enable those of you who find the ball speed either too slow or too fast to increase or decrease the ball speed via the ball.ini file that can be found in the data folder (see the last image at the end of this review). Just open up the installed Strike Ball 2 folder to find the data folder. If you do decide to change the ball speed, please do make a back up of the original ini file just in case you want to revert back to the original). It definitely works as I doubled the ball speed and it was manic.

The original version only had 23 power ups, but another six were added when the two expansion packs were released. Both expansion packs were later incorporated into the original game and the name changed to Strike Ball 2 Deluxe. The deluxe version (v2.15) updated the game to include the battery, which has to be charged up by collecting multiple copies, which are randomly dropped. At the start of the game you can charge the battery by collecting only two or three battery power ups, but as you progress, you have to collect more. It can take several levels to fill the battery indicator (located in the top left hand corner of the game board)

The battery is a powerful addition as when activated it has the the ability to destroy more than half of the board by producing an earthquake. The battery power up is the only power up that can be carried forwards to later levels until it is full. There's also a bomber that flies over occasionally dropping more power-ups and is also used via one of the power ups to drop bombs on the bricks. Also added when the add-on packs were incorporated were score enhancers, an ion cannon, double ball and hexagon ball. There's more but I'll let you discover that for yourselves. (or check out the images I've posted). What is missing from today's version compared to the original Strike Ball are difficulty settings, of which the original had three settings; however, the ball speed power ups or the ability to edit the ball.ini file effectively replace those.

You can change the camera view angle of the breakout board by using the Right Mouse Button and keeping it depressed while moving your mouse along its X and Y axis to reduce or increase the viewing angle. You can even change it to to look like a 2D version. You'll also find you can angle it on both axis to increase the difficulty of the game. To zoom in closer or zoom out you can use the mouse wheel.

Strikeball 3 is an excellent game, well worth downloading, especially if you're an arkanoid fan like me as it's up there with the best 3D games. It may be 10 years old and the graphics look a little dated now, but it still looks decent and there are 200 levels split into two selections, the original and deluxe levels. The latter used to be sold as two 50 pack expansions, but were incorporated into the original game by Alawar when they licensed the game out to other distributors about 6 months after the last expansion was released. You'll find the level designs interesting and diverse, from flora and fauna to every day life scenes and man made objects such as tanks and planes :)

Other Reviews and Videos of Strike Ball 2:

You can read a short review of Strike Ball 2 HERE and see several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE (Italiano/Italiana), HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, you have a game to offer the community, or are unable to download the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve you can do so HERE

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If Strike Ball 2 doesn't interest you, but you still want something to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and elsewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums). Also, check out the free games available via Indie Gala HERE , the latest additions include Last Horizon, Snowball and song of the Myrne: What Lies Beneath. The previous latest additions are no longer available (i.e. PoTaToMAN seeks the TROOF, Glorkian Warrior: The Trials of Glork and Rex: Another Island). The latest game from Epic Games is Enter the Gungeon a bullet hell dungeon crawler (worth £10.99/$15.99/€14.99/₽349). This will change to Rebel Galaxy a game of action-packed combat, exploration, discovery, trade, and “negotiation” with the outlandish denizens at the edge of the known universe on the 20th June 19 (worth £14.99/$19.99/€16.79/₽419); also, there are nine pages (15 games per page) of free games available via Steam HERE