Are your balls mad? Well, they should be! At least that’s what the Summer of the Arcade is telling you with Madballs in Babo: Invasion. Does the Madballs name sound familiar to you? Well, if you do recall there was a toy line from about twenty years ago that featured ugly rubber balls that went by that name. This game has very little to do with that defunct toy series, but it’s fun to say, right? Peculiar name and theme aside, neither takes away from the fact that this game is a lot of fun! Then again that’s what the Summer of the Arcade is supposed to be all about.

Babo: Invasion features some straightforward deathmatch style gameplay. You basically play as a ball and roll around shooting other balls and blowing stuff up. As you play you’ll unlock other balls and be able to customize them further with upgrades and whatnot. This simple system creates a lot of depth and variety, and as you’d imagine it adds a whole lot of mayhem to the multiplayer modes. Then again, this title isn’t just about going online and blasting your buddies. There’s a meaty single player campaign as well and it’s arguably the first place you’ll want to start if you hope to have any chance of doing anything online other than dying a lot.

As far as that single player experience is concerned you basically start out with only a couple of balls in your employ and weapons in your arsenal. There’s a story that accompanies everything, but as I’m sure you’ve already surmised there’s not much point to it. Basically you just roll around alien-like levels shooting stuff, finding your way to bosses, and unlocking things as you progress. It’s nothing special really, and for all intents and purposes this feature becomes a tutorial for the online multiplayer. However, there’s a decent amount and variety of levels that helps break up the pacing quite a bit and it’s fun to play through regardless. Adding to that sense of fun is the fact that you can blast through this component with some friends as well! Up to three other people can join you as you play through the campaign and the co-op feature is pretty solid all around.

Once you’re done with co-op and single player it’s time to take your balls online and see what their made of. There’s a variety of modes to play through such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag. These may be standard, but thanks in large part to the quality gameplay they are quite fun. Rolling around, blowing up opponents, swapping weapons, using grenades, and collecting power ups makes everything frantic. It feels like a top-down rolling version of Unreal complete with that addictive arcade feel. With the sheer amount of people that can play online the madcap action culminates and reaches a constant boiling point no matter if you’re on a kill streak or just respawning.

One of the more interesting modes in this title is called Invasion, which allows each team to more or less create their half of the map. It gives a certain type of ownership to the battlefield, and thankfully the creative aspects don’t take too long. The game gets you up and running quickly enough and from there it all boils down to the same addictive gameplay, which basically means you’ll just be blasting the crap out of anything that’s not on your team.

While the gameplay engine is very smooth and the game itself is a lot of fun, it’s not a completely perfect experience. The shooting element, which takes up the entire game, feels a tad on the loose side. Targeting can be a pain and you’ll never quite feel that you’re shooting at 100% of what your aiming at. The effectiveness of the game’s weapons are also rather trial and error, so it can lead to some frustrating deaths while attempting to get the hang of everything. Otherwise the game is smooth sailing and a heck of a ride that’s worth taking for a spin.

Despite it’s relatively simplistic presentation, Madballs Babo Invasion is actually quite a looker for an Arcade title. The character models (balls) all look nicely rendered, the environments are lush, colorful and full of detail, and the weapons all bring a nice dynamic to the battlefield. Adding to the mayhem is the plethora of explosions that fill the screen and effects that come from when the balls are taken down. Making things better (or worse?) is the fact that you can use your Xbox Live Avatar for added personalization, so have fun getting your face shot up. It’s also worth noting that the framerate is pretty solid as well and slows down on rare occasions.

The sound in Madballs is surprisingly rich which some great weapon effects, use of the soundstage, and the sense that the action carries some weight to it. Sure it’s not as great as something such as Gears of War or Halo, but it’s better than most other Arcade titles so there’re some pleasant surprises here.

With the Summer of the Arcade upon us and so many awesome titles having been released and on the horizon, Madballs Babo Invasion is a welcome addition to my Xbox’s HDD. Everything from the single player campaign to the multiplayer elements is solidly constructed. The game is simply a blast to play and it’s one of those games where you can drop hours into and not even realize it. Give the demo a try, but know that you’ll probably want to download the full title anyways. Consider it strongly recommended!