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| | Gameplay
Sound
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Value
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| | Genre: Arcade | | Min OS X: 10.2  CPU: G3 @ 400 MHz RAM: 128 MB Hard Disk: 35 MB |
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Sound: Is That a Rhino in the Underbrush? Every item in Fizball that has an animation also has a sound. There are hundreds of sounds ranging from a cow's moo to a rattlesnake's rattling tail. When you send your ball bouncing up the center of the animals, you'll be treated to a series of sounds that would only be heard if you rammed multiple animals with a car. This is quite entertaining.The music is of equal quality and consists of about five music tracks. The normal four will randomly play as each level's theme, but the fifth requires contact with an extraterrestrial. In general, the music is pretty smooth and works well as background music. What's especially good about it, however, is that it can be turned off in favor of your own selection. The environment also makes various noises as you impact your way across the level. The wooden objects make various crunch, crack, and crash sounds as they are reduced slowly to rubble, and the metal objects like the waste canisters clang convincingly as they're dented inwards and finally smashed open. There are also quite a few sounds for score, combos, and bonus notifiers. For instance, if you catch multiple animals without letting the fizzball hit your paddle, a tone will play that gets higher pitch with each animal past the first. This heightens the excitement a little as you try for the tenth animal in a row. Overall, there's nothing to be complained about in the sound. You may find the music a little repetitive after the 99th level, but you can always turn it off and replace it with the tunes from your own collection. Value: Well Worth It! Fizzball is very cheap for the time you can spend on it. It costs $20, which is a very good price for a week's entertainment. This game also tends to last much longer than a single week, as it's easy to get obsessive about finding the hidden badges and beating your high score. (There's an online high score for those who want a real challenge.) As always, it comes down to a single question. Would you like a week or more of quality entertainment or a couple pizzas? The choice is yours, but I would definitely take Fizzball over food.
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