Spectraball
- October 20, 2008
- Shorebound Studios
- 2h median play time
Get on Steam"Spectraball is a single-player platformer game with excellent mechanics, awesome visuals, and stellar music, but can have bugs. It offers addictive gameplay with diverse environments, online leaderboards, achievements, and unlockable content. The game also includes a map editor, controller support, and free content updates, providing hours of entertainment."
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- Spectraball offers a fun and challenging experience reminiscent of classic marble games, with engaging level design and beautiful environments.
- The game features a variety of themed stages and mini-games, providing a decent amount of content for its price, especially when on sale.
- Many players appreciate the nostalgic feel and the potential for speedrunning and leaderboard competition, making it enjoyable for fans of the genre.
- The game suffers from frustrating controls, awkward camera angles, and inconsistent physics, leading to a challenging experience that can feel unfair at times.
- Level design is often criticized for being linear and uninspired, with some players finding the puzzles to be too simplistic or poorly executed.
- Many reviews mention bugs and glitches that detract from the overall experience, including issues with checkpoints and the game's responsiveness.
- graphics41 mentions
- 51 % positive mentions
- 41 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The graphics of Spectraball receive mixed reviews, with some players praising the appealing art style and decent visuals, while others criticize the overall quality as mediocre or reminiscent of older gaming eras. Many users note that adjusting the settings can enhance the visual experience, but issues like camera clipping and low-resolution textures detract from the overall presentation. Despite these shortcomings, the game's graphics are often described as nice, contributing to an enjoyable atmosphere, though they may not meet the highest standards.
“Spectraball is an indie game that combines elements of platforming, puzzle solving, addictive gameplay, and stunning visuals to deliver an experience that sets a new standard for the genre.”
“The visuals are amazing, the gameplay is smooth and fast-paced, the controls work well, and the music is good.”
“Graphics are awesome, music is very breathtaking.”
“The camera clips through walls; there aren't even any screen transitions when you change rooms. Most of the graphics are so rudimentary they could easily be a student project that got a D-.”
“The graphics are rather crude - while the actual ball itself looks nice enough, everything else in the levels looks like something from the PS2 era, with crude models and low-res textures being the rule rather than the exception.”
“Graphics from around the millennium.”
- gameplay37 mentions
- 32 % positive mentions
- 59 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
Gameplay reviews are mixed, with many users criticizing the controls and maneuverability, particularly with keyboard and mouse, leading to frustrating experiences. While some appreciate the beautiful environments and the potential for engaging puzzle mechanics, others find the gameplay repetitive and lacking in depth, with issues like poor level design and bugs detracting from the overall experience. Despite these drawbacks, a segment of players enjoys the simple, addictive nature of the gameplay, especially when using a gamepad, though many feel the game is too short and not worth the price.
“Immersed in this world, you find yourself lost in hours of gameplay as you, a significant sphere, make your way through the diverse worlds of obstacles ahead.”
“The camera control is pretty spot on when you are playing, and each level introduces a new map mechanic that can make the game more challenging.”
“Visually amazing and simple but entertaining gameplay.”
“Horrible gameplay and maneuverability with keyboard and mouse, often doesn't respond to keypress.”
“No gameplay diversity, no puzzles, no skills required, and in the end the game quickly starts becoming boring.”
“The gameplay is way too short.”
- music30 mentions
- 47 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players finding it generic and uninspired, while others appreciate its atmospheric qualities and thematic diversity across levels. While a few users describe the soundtrack as frustrating or forgettable, others highlight it as a redeeming feature that enhances the overall experience. Overall, the music is seen as decent but could benefit from more memorable compositions.
“Has a nice soundtrack and a nice diversity of themed stages.”
“The game is definitely fun on its own, but even if you don't even like these games, buy it for the music in the later levels.”
“It presents a relaxing, ethereal soundtrack and pleasing scenery which create a relaxed, calming atmosphere.”
“The music feels, to my ear, equally uninspired, as well as the visual style, which features cliche environments and sterile level backgrounds.”
“So annoying that the music started to frustrate me after a while.”
“Music that sounds like it was made in one day.”
- stability9 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is frequently criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and unpredictable physics that hinder gameplay. While some players note improvements in the extended edition, many still find the overall experience frustrating due to persistent issues. Despite these problems, a few users mention enjoying the game, albeit with reservations about its stability.
“The red boosters often used are very buggy, leading to not getting the speed and failing a jump.”
“Gameplay is decent enough for a cheap puzzle game; however, glitches on the Mac version prevent achievements from being unlocked, ever.”
“Even if you manage to orient yourself in this mess, the game will throw graphical glitches, game-changing bugs, and unpredictable physics at you, requiring you to have godlike reactions.”
- story6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's story aspect is largely criticized for its lack of depth and narrative, with many reviewers noting that it feels unpolished and offers no substantial backstory. While some enjoy the fun of the story mode and custom maps, the overall consensus is that the game fails to deliver a compelling storyline, making it more of a frustrating experience than an engaging one.
“Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today.”
“The minigames that come packed in are a short little time waster, but the story mode is a lot of fun with quite a few levels, and the custom maps that people have made are insane!”
“By today's standards, it can feel unpolished, and there isn't any narrative or a story with it.”
“By today's standards, it can feel unpolished, and there isn't any narrative or story with it.”
“Nice soundtrack, nice graphics, no storyline, and a bit too much precision required.”
“Spectraball offers no backstory and will only take two or three hours per playthrough.”
- atmosphere5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 40 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is initially engaging with interesting levels and a pleasant soundtrack, creating a friendly and relaxing environment. However, as the game progresses, the atmosphere becomes repetitive and is marred by poor graphics and lackluster mini-games, detracting from the overall experience.
“The music is nice and atmospheric, and the graphics... do I even need to say it?”
“Cheery atmosphere and funny, old-school ball tracks outweigh terrible mini games and overall shortness.”
“It presents a relaxing, ethereal soundtrack and pleasing scenery which create a relaxed, calming atmosphere.”
“The atmosphere is friendly but the graphics are really poor.”
“It presents a relaxing, ethereal soundtrack and pleasing scenery, which create a calming atmosphere.”
- replayability4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability due to its engaging gameplay, user-generated content, and a level editor, allowing players to create and explore new challenges. Despite its short length, many users find it fun and worth revisiting multiple times.
“Though short, it is really fun and has tons of replay value.”
“User-made levels and the level editor add more replayability to the game.”
“In short, this game was hours of fun for a very low price and it has the potential for tons of replayability.”
“The lack of variety in gameplay makes it hard to find reasons to replay the game.”
“Once you've completed the main story, there isn't much incentive to go back and play again.”
“The game feels repetitive after the first playthrough, and I didn't find any new experiences on subsequent runs.”
- humor3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Spectraball is noted for its humor, stemming from its linear design and quirky, plasticy visuals. The cheery atmosphere and amusing old-school ball tracks help to compensate for the game's shortcomings, such as subpar mini-games and brevity.
“Spectraball is a funny game.”
“It's funny because the game is very linear, plasticky looking, and movement isn't all that great.”
“Cheery atmosphere and funny, old-school ball tracks outweigh terrible mini games and overall shortness.”
- grinding3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game frustrating due to infrequent checkpoints, which force them to repeatedly navigate the same sections after failures. This design choice leads to a tedious experience, as players must often redo challenging areas multiple times, detracting from overall enjoyment. Many reviewers suggest that increasing the number of checkpoints could significantly improve the gameplay experience.
“What I do mind is that the nearest checkpoint in time is some thirty seconds back, requiring me to do a tedious bit that I had no problem with over and over and over just to get back to the part where I failed so I can give it another go.”
“Somehow, the makers of Spectraball seemingly wanted to make a game that was just slightly more tedious and painful than getting teeth pulled, and they succeeded; every time you think you might've gotten somewhere, you're met with a rotating wall that wants you to stand around and hop 26,000 times in order to progress.”
“I have changed my review from not recommended to recommended, but I would urge the developers to consider adding about twice as many checkpoints. Redoing the same area fifty times over until you can get all the way through it perfectly becomes tedious very quickly...”
- optimization1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is reported to be well optimized for Linux, indicating smooth performance and efficient resource management on that platform.
“+ Well optimized for Linux”
