Go Mecha Ball, out today on Steam and Game Pass, is a swish blend of twin-stick shooting and pinball physics

rockpapershotgun.com:

Friends, it is finally time for me to discourse unto you about my great love of balls. The roots of my enthusiasm go back to pinball machines - both the fancier, arcade variety that transmogrify into e.g. screaming robot skulls when you achieve a high-enough multiplier, and the crappy, play-at-home variety that are basically a canted wooden sheet with some numbers drawn on it. But it wasn't till I embraced the holy medium of videogames that I realised the full potential of balldom.

Initiated, of course, by Sonic the Hedgehog, I descended into a frothing ballpit of ball variations, encompassing everything from the squashy rolling UFOs of Exo One through Katamari Damacy to the overcrowded chutes of Marble World and the spectacle of Overwatch's Hammond clearing out a capture point by means of sheer, delicious torque. I am always up for a game in which you either control or become a ball, and Go Mecha Ball looks like one of the better ones.

Out today on Steam and Game Pass from Whale Peak Games and Super Rare Originals, it mixes pinball physics with twin stick shooting on colourful, isometric-style levels full of ramps, chutes, tunnels and bouncepads. If you are similarly carried away, and you're not on Game Pass, you might want to try the Steam demo in the few hours remaining before release - developers often remove them after launch (update: it appears they've literally just pulled the demo as I was writing this).

Adulterating the thrill of a rolling ball is a dangerous business. Graft on too many flourishes, and like an inexpertly blown marble, your creation may struggle to build momentum, hitch on the scenery and provoke the contempt of other ballaficionadoes. But Go Mecha Ball seems to have pulled it off. There's probably a plot in here somewhere, but the key things to know are that you play one of four transforming ball-mechs, each of which has access to around 25 guns, 20 abilities and 50 upgrades, obtained by means of a roguelike progression system.

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