Ludography
Fizzball cover

2009 · Replay Games · Arcade · Breakout clone

Fizzball

Nintendo console exclusive

Everyone has fled the islands; there isn't a person in sight! But they left all the animals behind. Who will feed them? And who will find out what scared all the people away?

Released
21 October 2009
Platforms
LinuxWiiWindowsmacOS
Genres
ArcadeBreakout clone
Developers
Replay GamesGrubby Games
Publishers
Conspiracy Entertainment
Modes
Single-player
Themes
Action
Country
United States

About

Fizzball is a Breakout-style video game by American studio Grubby Games. It was released for Microsoft Windows in 2006, then OS X and Linux. A Wii version was published in 2009 under the name Doctor Fizzwizzle's Animal Rescue. Fizzball was a finalist for an award at the 2007 Independent Games Festival.

Keywords

  • block-breaking

Media

Fizzball screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Story

All of the island's animals have been acting strange lately. Professor Fizzwizzle takes on the task of capturing them all in his newly invented magic bubble. The animals are then kept in a nursery and fed using the coins he has collected throughout the island's levels.

Players obtain coins by completing a series of levels in which the bubble is bounced upward, toward a playfield filled with animals. Different stages feature breakable objects such as fences which must be destroyed to reach some animals. The animals come in a variety of sizes, some of which cannot be collected with the bubble at its initial size; the bubble starts out small, allowing only the smallest animals to be collected, but as more are captured, the bubble increases in size, making larger animals available. Along with the animals, stages are populated with hazards such as barrels of toxic waste. For avoiding these hazards, players are awarded bonus points.

Reception

The game had a generally positive reception. In their 9.0/10 review, Inside Mac Games called the graphics "absolutely amazing for a game that runs [so] fast", said "the music is pretty smooth and works well" and overall the game was "well worth it!" Jay is Games said "the simple, light-hearted gameplay won me over immediately" and that it was "a joy to play". However, some criticism was directed at the game's low level of difficulty. Jay is Games lamented that "the one problem I had with it, and it's a big one, is that [it] takes a long time to ramp up in difficulty."

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Windows25 October 2006Worldwide
macOS25 October 2006Worldwide
Linux25 October 2006Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Ported as
Doctor Fizzwizzle's Animal Rescue
Built on it
Doctor Fizzwizzle's Animal Rescue

Games like this

Collections1 collection

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.