Wizorb - The air hockey loving wizard

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Hello everyone! Are you having fun with the fan-made adventures of Capcom´s famous Blue Bomber that introduced you in the last entry? In case all those games were not enough to satisfy your “Blue Thirst”, remember you can always buy also the replica of Mega Man´s helmet that Capcom has made available through their website, although keep in mind that some started like that, and ended up making some of us think that the “Mega Man” (note I added the quotation because I sill doubt if you really can call him that) from Street Fighter X Tekken was not so bad after all... Anyway, do you remember Arkanoid? I´m sure the most veteran players out there will remember the simple but addictive classic arcade that Taito released in the 80s inspired in the yet even more classic Breakout of Atari, in which we controlled some kind of bar-shaped space ship in order to make a ball bounce around the stage to destroy all the blocks so that we could access the next stage. I still remember those whole afternoons I used to spend playing this game with my parents in our old Amstrad CPC 464, well that, and the tripping faces of some of my friends after following the ball through the screen for hours... But in this new entry I will not to talk about Arkanoid, but about a rather recent indie game that follows on the steps of Taito´s timeless classic. The game I´m talking about is the charming Wizorb. Ready to bounce around?

Map of the game

Developed by the indie team Tribute Games, a small team based in Montreal made up by former Ubisoft Montreal members of the team behind the A-W-E-S-O-M-E Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game, and that has recently published the no less awesome Mercenary Kings of which someday I will talk about in this blog, Wizorb was the first title developed by this team after abandoning the discipline of the French-Canadian video games giant. As I said before, Wizorb follows on the steps of Arkanoid and Breakout while adding some little RPG elements here and there such as a village in which we will be able to interact with its villagers, a map to move around the game´s world, or even shops where we will be able to buy several items, although, except for the shops, the rest of the features will be merely decorative and will barely have any impact in the gameplay, which is surely a pity. However, it surely does help to give the game a pretty charming presentation. The story of Wizorb starts when the protagonist, a master wizard called Cyrus, arrives to a village that it´s been attacked by monsters. After defeating the monsters, Cyrus finds out that the village is completely destroyed, so the villagers ask him to help them get rid of the evil demons that roam their lands... and while he's at it, help them gather the money they need to reconstruct their village... I mean, asking can never hurt, right? Anyway, Cyrus says “you can all go to hell together with you stinky village”, as every other altruist hero from the 8-bit era that this game pays tribute to did before it, decides to go on an adventure to help the poor villagers vanquish evil and save the village of Gorudo from the clutches of evil. To do so, he will make use of his powerful spell know as Wizorb, which on top of serving as the name of the game, allows Cyrus to use his magical staff to make the orb attached to it bounce around in order to destroy the blocks and enemies that will appear on his way. Gandalf? Harry what? I´m sorry Harry/Gandalf fans, but your heroes are just rookies next THE wizard. Yes, I know what some of you might be thinking: if he is such a powerful wizard, then why the hell he doesn´t just use some kind of magical beam and destroys everything all instead of making it so complicated? Well, I guess it´s because wizards also have the right to play some air hockey, right? Why you guys must just complain always about everything...

We will help to rebuild the town of Gorudo with our donations to the villagers.

One of the game´s bosses.

About the gameplay itself, the game will be divided in 5 areas, each composed of 12 stages, so the game will have a total of 60 stages. The stages of each area will be inspired in the typical places we used to visit in the classic RPG games, such as towns, dungeons or caves. Just like we had to do in Arkanoid or Breakout, in order to be able to complete a stage we will have to destroy first all the blocks in it, advancing then to the next stage to do the same, till we finally arrive to the last stage where we will have to defeat the typical final boss in order to be able to complete the area and unlock the next one. In order to complete each area we will be able to use up to 3 continues of 3 lives each, amount that will reset every time we start an area. If we run out of continues, we will have the possibility of buying extra continues for 250 coins each, other ways, we will have to restart the area again from the beginning. During the stages we will have the possibility to access secret bonus stages in which we will be able to obtain huge amounts of gold and other items, or shops in which we will be able to buy items that will grant us certain special abilities. While sometimes it will be enough to hit the door that gives access to these areas with the orb in order to gain access to them, some other times we will first need to activate a switch or obtain a key in order to be able to open them. Opposite to what we saw in Arkanoid, in which we could obtain all kind of power-ups just by destroying the blocks in the stages, in Wizorb we will have to use the gold we obtained to buy those power-ups in the shops we will find in the stages. The items available in the shops will be:


- Long Wand: it will extend the length of your staff/paddle.

- Slow Orb: it reduces the starting speed of the orb/ball by half, making it take much longer for the orb's speed to get out of hand.

- Magnet: it causes the orb to stick to your paddle each time it touches it. The orb only leaves the paddle once you press the button to launch it.

- Strong Orb: it causes the orb to deal twice the damage as normal, allowing you to quickly dispatch enemies and quickly destroy blocks that would normally take multiple hits to do so.

- Multi-Orb: it gives you 3 orbs instead of one. When this power-up is active, you only lose a life if all 3 orbs get past your paddle.

- Magic Potion: it will restore the MP of Cyrus so that he can keep casting spells.

- Extra Live: it will add one life to our lives counter.

Bonus stage

Tribute to the shops in The Legend of Zelda series.

As you can see, the power-ups are identical to those we could find in Arkanoid, and their effects will last till we lose a live or obtain a different power-up. On top of these items, we will also be able to cast several spells while playing the stage that will, among others, allow us to shoot fire balls that will destroy the enemies and blocks, change the direction of the wind to change the direction of the ball, or control the direction of the ball at our will for a few moments, all of which will make the things easier when there is the typical block left that requires you to be the Roger Federer of Arkanoid in order to give the right spin to ball to destroy the block. Every time we use a spell we will use part of our MP, and once this one depletes completely, we won´t be able to use any more spells till we refill it, which we will be able to do with the magic potions we will find while we destroy blocks or by buying them in the shops we will find in the stages. Regarding the difficulty of the game, Wizorb has 3 different difficulty levels, and although in these kind of games is all really up to player skills and reflexes, you could say that Wizorb´s difficulty level is pretty well-balanced, making the game fit even for even the clumsiest ones out there, so don´t worry, not need to be a Jedi apprentice here. In fact, just like it happened in this kind of arcade games, the most skillful players will be able to finish the game in just one session. As for the graphics, those of you who have already played some of the games of Tribute Games will know the passion that these guys process for pixels, and Wizorb is no different in this aspect, with a charming and colorful graphic style that imitates perfectly the 8-bit era classics thanks to the well animated and detailed sprites, which on the other hand comes with no surprise since the game counts with the collaboration of Paul Robertson, a veteran pixel artist of the game industry that is THE MAN when it comes to put pixels together the way it should be.

It´s nice to see some still care about designing a proper in-game manual...

Anyway, Wizorb is definitely a more than respectable tribute to arcade classics such as Arkanoid and Breakout, and although the “RPG side” of the game is not as developed as it could have been, in fact, as I said is almost merely related to the presentation of the game, it´s still a unique mix that will surely please the fans of classic arcade games which are really hard to come by in these days of “1080p madness”, specially when you think about the more than fair price at which the game is available in Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade), PS3/PSP/PS Vita (PlayStation Store), iOS and PC (Steam). Enjoy the bouncing!


GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-arJkbEB_c