'Battle Balls'
[ARC] [USA] [MAGAZINE] [1996]
"Amid a flurry of industry presentations and more than a few snowflakes in the Chicagoland area last month, Fabtek presented its newest offering, Battle Balls, which the company says should bring a whole new group of players back into the arena. The game, which challenges players to connect four balls of the same color as they stack on top of one another, features two competitive modes: player vs. player and player vs. the game’s computer. Battle Balls was developed by Seibu Kaihatsu, the maker of Raiden, Raiden II, and Raiden DX. The game will be sold as a full kit with an AB board system so it will be convertible in the future. “There’s been a whole cross section of people who played it,” said the company’s Steve Ward. “Women really liked it because of the puzzle activity. It’s predominantly a single player game for the first four to six weeks and then you see that competition start up.” Four balls of the same color can be connected horizontally, vertically, or at angles. The ultimate goal for players is to create a chain reaction where waves of balls connect and drop off the screen. Each time a player connects four balls of the same color the game also sends a blocker ball to their opponent’s side of the screen, be it another competitor or the machine. To remove a blocker ball players must connect four balls of that ball’s same color and situate them next to the blocker. “It’s a very addictive game, and our tests have shown that earnings are not effected by the fluctuations of a location or arcade,” Ward added. Battle Balls was scheduled to ship late last month." ~Play Meter Magazine, February 1996 (Vol. 22, #03)
Source: Play Meter Magazine, February 1996 (Vol. 22, #03) || Gaming Alexandria; Dustin Hubbard (via the Internet Archive)
