King Oddball (PS4) Review by Jason Bonnar

Game Review: King Oddball (PS4)

King Oddball is a puzzle game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. King Oddball is a fun puzzle game that sees you attacking enemy targets, which is more different than the Angry Birds franchise than you may initially believe.

There are over 120 levels to play and as you progress through the normal levels; you will earn more levels to be played in the unlockable game modes, such as the diamond and grenade game modes. The decision to have unlockable game modes that you earn as you progress further through the game is a wise choice that certainly freshens up the gameplay.

The diamond game mode is called Hall of Diamonds and sees you having to complete each level with two boulders as the third boulder has been replaced with the diamond and if you have not destroyed all of the targets with two boulders; you will have to throw the diamond, which would result in you having to replay the level to attempt to earn the diamond. The grenade game mode is called The Boom

Challenge and sees you having to complete each level with the two or more grenades you are provided with, which are in place of the boulders and explode rather abruptly wherever they land.

You take on the role of The King; who likes to pick-up boulders with his tongue and swing them rather viciously at any target that he does not like. The premise may sound simple, but you only get three boulders per level, although you do have the chance to earn more boulders by destroying three or more targets with only one boulder. To complicate matters further; if you hit one of the targets too lightly, then it will only crack rather than being completely destroyed. This places you in a scenario were you have to think about your strategy before just randomly throwing a boulder; as you have to anticipate the bounce and roll of the boulder based upon the surface or target you are throwing it at and the angle you are throwing it at too.

There are descriptions of your performance, which are displayed after you have completed each level. The descriptions range from “No epic win”, “Destruction failed” or “Out of rocks” for an unsuccessful performance to “Not bad” for a reasonable performance to “Spectacular”, “Superior” and “Epic win!” for a great or outstanding performance. While the descriptions may not seem to be that important; they actually provide a sense of accomplishment when your performance is praised and a sense of comedy when it is ridiculed, which successfully provides another layer of charm to the game.

King Oddball supports the share feature that allows you to upload a video clip to Facebook or Twitter; upload a screen shot to Facebook or Twitter; and broadcast live gameplay footage via Twitch or

Ustream as you are experiencing the game with a simple tap of the share button and selecting the option of your choice. The PS4’s hard-drive continuously stores your most recent fifteen minutes of gameplay footage, so you still have the chance to decide if you would like to share something amazing a few minutes after it has taken place. The share feature is a next-gen revolution that will only continue to prosper and flourish as it matures with additional features and further experimentation.

King Oddball supports cross-buy between the PS4 and Vita, although it unfortunately does not support cross-save, so you will not be able to continue from your previous progression on the Vita version when playing the PS4 version and vice versa, however as King Oddball is also remote play; you can technically continue on playing the PS4 version anywhere you want to with the same save file during remote play. Cross-buy presents a superb amount of value as it means that you will be purchasing both the PS4 and Vita versions of the game with just a single purchase.

The controls are rather basic and therefore quite easy to learn, but unfortunately lacks the multiple control schemes of the Vita version. The control scheme consists of pressing X to release a boulder, pressing triangle to restart the level in case you have made a mistake; pressing the share button takes you to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu. There is unfortunately no support for the touch pad, which is disappointing as I anticipated the touch pad to take the place of the touch screen control scheme of the PlayStation Vita version of King Oddball, while the colour of the light bar on the DualShock 4 controller remains the same standard colour throughout the game, which is a bit of a surprise as I thought there would have been some experimentation in this area of the controller too as a neutral colour such as green could have been assigned when the boulder was being swung back and forth with enough boulders left to realistically complete the level, an additional colour could have been assigned for when you have destroyed an enemy such as orange and the light bar could have changed to red to represent when you have run out of boulders to destroy enemies with. There is also no vibration from the DualShock 4 controller either, which I expected to feature heavily considering the amount of explosions taking place throughout each level as you destroy enemies.

The graphics are simplistic yet effective with an eccentric graphical art style. The King that you control; the enemy targets you are swinging the boulders at; the platforms and obstacles, alongside the backgrounds all look rather basic, but despite that they have their own charm to them.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the level selection menu and options menu with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, right analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the touch pad, although that is not an issue considering the other methods of navigation that are available. The background of the menu screens consists of a backdrop of a landscape with pyramids and varying shades of blue skies contrasting from light to dark.

The audio consists of original music by Jonathan Geer and sporadic sound effects. The frantic music adds some comedic tension and provides the sense of a build up to a climax, while the sound effects although basic; actually work quite well and still add another layer to the sound. The sound effects mostly include explosions from the enemy tanks and helicopters that you destroy as you progress through with incidental additions, such as when The King collects the boulders with his tongue before swinging them and the sound that is made as the boulders have been released as they begin to hurtle towards the target. There is unfortunately no use of the DualShock 4’s speaker, which is disappointing as I believe that there were some great possibilities, such as using the speaker to provide sound effects, such as the sound of the explosion when you have destroyed an enemy, incidental sound effects or perhaps even playing the music through the speaker.

The trophy list includes sixteen trophies with fifteen bronze trophies and one gold trophy. There are a number of trophies that are technically easier trophies as they are accumulative figures or will be achieved naturally as you progress through the game, such as the Destroyer of a Thousand bronze trophy for destroying a thousand enemies and the Thousand Throws bronze trophy for throwing a thousand projectiles. The harder trophies require you to destroy a certain number of enemies with one throw of the boulder, such as the Four for One bronze trophy for destroying four enemies with one throw of the boulder; the Six Pack bronze trophy for destroying six enemies with one throw of the boulder; and the Golden Five bronze trophy for gaining five extra rocks during a level. The hardest trophy is most probably the Full of Diamonds gold trophy for collecting all of the diamonds in the Hall of Diamonds game mode, which requires you to complete each of the Hall of Diamonds levels with at least one boulder spare. I would estimate depending upon skill, your ability to judge the angles you are throwing the boulders at appropriately and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take around ten hours to 100% the trophy list.

There are no difficulty levels, but each level will technically become harder as you have more targets or a lower number of targets spread further apart requiring pinpoint precision and strategic thinking; as you will only have the same number of boulders to use unless your performance is exceptional enough to earn additional boulders for scoring a significant multiplier by destroying three or more targets with only one boulder.

There is no online multiplayer component or online leaderboards, although I believe that competitive online multiplayer for two players to compete to achieve the quickest time for destroying the targets in any given level would have been a great addition; as would have been a co-operative online multiplayer for two players to take turns attempting to destroy targets, which would have also worked well as a hot seat game mode. As for the online leaderboards, I could see King Oddball benefiting from having leaderboards for the quickest times across each level and the overall completion game, alongside the highest multipliers for each level and the overall game; although unfortunately none of these features are present.

The replayability of King Oddball comes from the range of content as there are more than 120 levels, multiple game modes and secrets that are on offer throughout the game. The fact that this is a simple yet addictive game will certainly have you giving it just one more try over and over until you realise how much time has passed you by.

Overall, King Oddball is a simple yet fun and addictive game that is accessible enough to be played in short bursts, but is addictive enough to have you playing for long periods too and with over 120 levels, multiple game modes and secrets to find; £5.99 is a good price for a cross-buy package that includes both the PS4 and Vita versions of the game as the content and value merge together to make this a must

purchase for fans of puzzle games. There are not as many DualShock 4 controller enhancements as I anticipated with no support for the touch pad, light bar or vibration functions, but the share feature allows you to share any fun and interesting combos you have achieved with the world and the remote play feature allows you to continue on playing were you left off on PS4, while playing the PS4 version portably on the Vita. King Oddball can be looked upon as being in the same mould as Angry Birds, but the game certainly involves more strategic elements, which carves the game a path in a new direction away from the Angry Birds franchise, while being just as charming, addictive and fun to play.

Jason Bonnar

8 out of 10

Analysis