Game Review: Squeeballs Party (Wii, DS)

SQUEE_BOXSqueeballs are fictional living plush toys (think Madballs from the 80’s only much less disgusting), and they are manufactured and produced on a far off island. Before they can be shipped off to toy stores around the world, Squeeballs must go through some rigorous testing. In Squeeballs Party (Wii version reviewed here), YOU are the tester and must toss, squish, and splat these little guys in this mini-game collection for the Wii and DS.

 

There are nearly a dozen challenges in Squeeballs Party. Swing the Wii remote like a bowling ball to mow down Squeeballs in 10 Pin Bowling, or flick the remote like a racket to smack Squeeballs coming out of a cannon. Make chopping and stirring motions to bake the Squeeballs in Cooking Mama inspired challenges. Or pull the remote back and let go to fling Squeeballs onto a paintboard and splat them to color a picture. Aim the Wii remote at the screen to fire at Squeeballs in shooting gallery games, among other surprises.

In Challenge Mode, you play each mini-game and must pass a challenge to climb the ladder. Complete enough challenges to unlock more mini-games and other goodies. These challenges start off simple at first, but become devastatingly hard later on in the game. Once you unlock a game, you can play it separately in Single Mode to get a high score. There are also multiplayer modes for a whole group of would-be toy testers to enjoy.

Play control is simple to learn and there are words and pictures cues to let you know what to do before and during each game. Aside from there being a glut of mini-game collections on the Wii already, the only other problem with this game is the box is a bit misleading. It says 150+ games but that’s not entirely true. There are really only almost a dozen games, but lots of challenges in each game. So maybe that’s how they got the 150 number. But for the low price, the game should provide sufficient entertainment for a while.

SQUEE_SCREEN

Kid Factor:

Squeeballs Party is rated E-10 for Everyone 10 and up with an ESRB descriptor of Cartoon Violence. These living plush toys get smacked, shocked, splatted, and shot at. Probably the most traumatic is the cooking games, where the cute little guys get grinded, fried, chopped, and boiled alive before being eaten by a bigger Squeeball toy. But there is no blood, only the assorted protests and cries from the plushies. But all in all, the violence is only the Looney Tunes slapstick variety, and I’d be OK with any kid playing this game.

Reading skill is helpful for the text instructions, but not always required as most games have pictures cues to show you what to do. The challenges get tougher the higher you get on the ladder, so younger players might get frustrated, especially since beating these games is how to unlock new ones. Even I had a hard time with some of the challenges. But maybe by beating and bashing up the Squeeballs toys, kids won’t be as tempted to break their real life playthings.

Discussion Area - Leave a Comment




Tired of typing this out each time? Register as a subscriber!