LockBall

LockBall is a 2D challenging sports simulator just right for one player. A one-of-a-kind here on RMN, LockBall pits the player against several opponents in either exhibition mode or tournament mode (the official campaign). Familiarize yourself with the simple rules and jump right into the game as either male or female. Raise the strength, trickery, and junction of your character as you play. Additionally, unlock new characters to play in exhibition mode by beating opponents in tournament mode.

Become a tournament champion, the gameplay


Choose between male and female!

You start out in a lobby-like area where you can choose to view the rules of the game, play an exhibition match, start up the tournament mode, and view your win/lose ratio. It is a good idea to first read the rules, even if the rules are pretty simple and straightforward. You can move around with the arrow keys, and just running into the ball will push it in that direction. You can hold down the action key to lock down your goal, making it much harder for your opponent to score. In both an exhibition mode and the tournament mode, you can play as either male or female. There's even a code that you can take and use it in World's Dawn.

Warning: You can kick the ball into your own goal and that point will count toward your opponent racking up his or her 5 points (maybe this is a bug, or perhaps it's meant to be this way)!


Woo! I'm wining!

In exhibition mode, you begin as either a male or female and face an opponent. It's a great way to practice, and I especially needed to. I was terrible at this game for a long time, until I caught onto a way to easily beat the first few opponents. As you beat opponents in tournament mode, you can play as them in exhibition mode. In tournament mode, you can still play as either a male or female. You face up to 6 or 7 opponents, each one getting more difficult. As you beat your opponent, you can unlock new characters and skins in exhibition mode. Your skills (strength, trickery, and junction) will increase the longer you play.

Graphics


No title screen?

The graphics are superb. Hand-drawn, colorful, and all around visually appealing. There are no mapping errors or glitches that I can tell of. There are a wide range of character outfits. Emotional bubbles display above the heads of the characters when someone scores. And the animations are spot-on. The one thing, the only thing, that is odd to me is that there is not a title screen. How come?

Music
Um. There's not a lot of music at all. There is a disco, techno, whatever theme-song playing on the main menu. Additionally, there are some sound effects when kicking the ball, tackling your opponent, and when scoring.

Conclusion
Just as it is now, this sports simulator is epically awesome. It gives you all that you need to jump right in and begin playing in either mode that it offers. The only thing I would recommend to the developer is to maybe pitch in some dialogue between matches. Perhaps a "Good game, man!" or a "What a game, huh?". Just something that would add a bit more to it.

Verdict: Awesome! 4/5