Video games - Wizball

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	Video games - Wizball

Wizball is a computer game written by Jon Hare and Chris Yates (who together formed the company Sensible Software) and released in 1987 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. Versions for the Amiga, Atari ST and PC were also released. The music in the Commodore 64 version was composed by Martin Galway.

The theme of Wizball is somewhat unusual. It is a horizontally-scrolling game, which involves navigating around a landscape and shooting at sprites. However, the aim of the game is to collect droplets of coloured paint to colour the level. Each level starts off as monochromatic, drawn in three shades of grey, and needs three colours to be collected to complete it. The player has access to three levels at a time, and can navigate between them through portals. Each level has droplets of a different primary colour which may be collected. At the same time, each level needs a different colour to be added, which can be composed by collecting sufficient quantities of the correct primary colours.

The player's sprite itself is not capable of collecting paint droplets, and is initially capable of very limited movement, bouncing up and down at a fixed rate, with the player only controlling a speed of rotation, and thus how fast it will move horizontally after next touching the ground. Collecting bubbles (which appear when some sprites have been shot) gives the player tokens which can be used to "buy" enhancements, such as greater control over movement and improved firepower, and also an additional sprite known as Catellite. Catellite (effectively your cat Nifta) is a spherical sprite which follows the player's sprite, and can also be moved independently by holding down the fire button whilst moving the joystick (which also renders the player's sprite uncontrollable). Only Catellite is capable of collecting paint droplets; the player has to use it to do so. In the two-player mode, Catellite is controlled by the second player.

Despite its somewhat unusual theme, Wizball achieves a high level of playability which, when coupled with its memorable concept and well-designed graphics and sound, ensure it a place in many lists of classic 8-bit computer games.

Wizball's more comical sequel, Wizkid
, was released in the early 1990s for the Amiga and the Atari ST. Category: 1987 computer and video games Category:Commodore 64 games Category:ZX Spectrum games Category: Amstrad CPC games Category:Amiga games Category:Atari ST games Category:DOS games

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