First Impressions: Cyberball 2072 (XBLA)

by: Chuck - posted: 9/5/2007 11:27:00 PM

"Welcome to Cyberball"

Those magical words takes me back to the dusty back area of Crazy Cats, the arcade I used to frequent while I was still in High School.  I spent a lot of nights sitting on barstools in front of a Cyberball 2072 tournament machine playing against the other regulars.  I have a lot invested in the game and so it was with a bit of trepidation I spent the 400 points to purchase the game as soon as I got home from work.  I had only intended to play the trial and then pick up the game after I had finished and reviewed Bioshock but after seeing the visages of the coaches in the game I was immediately drawn back in to the game and plunked over the points to buy the game.

After playing through one full game I can say that the game is a fairly good translation of the arcade experience.  I do miss the straight joystick which made the game a lot easier to play in the arcade but the thumbsticks do a decent enough job.  Graphically the game is untouched and retains its classic look and feel.  I did find a few audio glitches in the game but if memory serves at least one of two of them were in the original game, I'm not sure about the others (a stuck tone here or there, nothing major or overly annoying).  The game play and plays from the original are all there (including the wonderful little cheats I remember pulling in the arcade version).  I haven't tried playing a game online yet and I'm hoping the net code is solid and lag free.

The only real criticism I have is to wonder why Microsoft went with the standard version of the game and not the tournament version which would have allowed for 2 on 2 gameplay, one of the staples of the original.  Kind of an opportunity missed but oh well, it's back to rolling over teams with the Berlin Invasion!