BallShooter BrickSlider 2.0Chris Tilley | Editor-in-Chief Regular visitors to HPC:Factor will likely already be familiar with BallShooter games. The Moscow based company has excelled in specialising in PDA entertainment for some time. Standing amongst but a few companies who's sole aim is to entertain us. ![]() BrickSlider is something a little special. It has not only been developed exclusively for the Windows CE market, but BallShooter also created the game concept themselves. My, oh my. Have they succeeded! BrickSlider excels at its simplicity. Anyone can come along, and so long as they can tap using a stylus. Pick it up in a matter of minutes. The game's closest comparison would be with Tetris. However all similarities end after the fact that you're trying to match sets of blocks. The game arena is surrounded on all four sides by a three-tier layer or assorted colour blocks. With only the innermost row of blocks in play. ![]() Each level will begin with a number of pre-positioned blocks placed within the game arena. You then have to construct a matching set of three or more blocks in a straight line - but not on the diagonal. In doing so you score points and clear said blocks from the screen. Of course it is not quite that simple as you can only introduce blocks from the stores at the edges that have either a pre-positioned block or a block positioned by you in a previous move, directly in their path. ![]() Once you match a set of three or more of the same colour the matched set will vanish and any remaining blocks in the arena will fall into their place - provided the space is in the direction of their gravitation. If there is nothing to stop the block then it will move into the opposite brick store. It may sound complicated written down, but trust me it isn't. Once you get onto the higher levels, the pre-positioned blocks start to make life a lot harder. Help is at hand though with several different types of wild card that can show up in the store. Allowing such things as clearing a 9-block space or randomly changing the colour / direction of blocks. ![]() The game is in essence a combination of strategy, good luck and some serious logic. You can find that you breeze through one level due to a fortunate starting combination, and then grind to a halt in the next while you try desperately to work through clearing your rapidly diminishing free space. Worth pointing out is that like all BallShooter games, they maintain a top score's list on their web site. Currently topping the bill is 'Gold Guy' with a score of 44,773 on level 98. If you can beat that, drop BallShooter an email with a screen capture and they will add you to the list. Once you've got the hang of how the game operates, you will be mastering the arena in no time. BallShooter have provided some useful features in BrickSlider. Most notably of which is the game profiles facility. ![]() The Profiles facility (referred to as multi-player by BallShooter) allows up to 6 different people to play the game, at their own pace - retaining their score, current level and all of the current game activity. This adds to making BrickSlider the perfect commuter companion. You can stop and start at any time, as often as you like and come back to it as you left it. Even after the rest of the HPC:Factor team have had a play! The game is very much orientated around colour. This could easily pose a problem for users who suffer from colour blindness or difficulty with differentiating between tones. ![]() For anyone who does suffer from colour problems, or finds they can't tell the Blue and Pink apart BallShooter have thought of this as well. ![]() Sound effects are present in the game if you wish to use them. Upon first running BrickSlider the sound effects are disabled which I find quite welcoming. A quick trip to the options is all that is required to re-enable them. The effects themselves are there to highlight the movement of block objects and are not required to play the game. The interface of the game is tidy and as one would expect from BallShooter quite attractive. Like others of their games BrickSlider has been compiled as a universal binary. This means that the code will run on the Handheld PC as well as the Pocket PC. This does also leave the application to cater for both user interfaces, with the Pocket PC's having been the first thought. You are left with "Sound" and "Index" in the bottom corners of the grid, which are where the equivalent Pocket PC options would be placed. The Handheld PCs being screen centre. ![]() There is also a product showcase for BallShooter applications within the main help menu. While this is I've no doubt a good marketing tool for the company, as there is no way to shell out to Pocket Internet Explorer to get more information I can't help but feel that this combined with the shared binary are adding unnecessary size to the program, which weight in at approximately 875KB. An active hyperlink to the excellent BallShooter web site would be more appropriate in my opinion. Aside from one or two spelling anomalies; "Combinatoral" instead of "Combinatorial" - for example. The rest of the menus within the game are well thought about.
All in all I have found this to be a true gem of the small games genre. A lot of games made to fit the mobile device image can become quickly tiring and ultimately uninspiring. BrickSlider is a notable exception to this rule. BrickSlider 2.0 has been released as shareware with a 14 day, maximum of 1500 points trial available for download from the BallShooter web site. Registration is $14.95 USD (£8.30 GBP, €11.90 EUD, ¥1660 JPY est.) and comes with lifetime free upgrades.
System RequirementsWindows CE 2.00 and above (Including CE 4.x .net) More information on BallShooter BrickSlider 2.0 can be found at Ratings
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