Furyball: Rogue Revenge features a woman trying to bash her way through Neo Arcadia, a city overrun by violent gangs who are really into sports. Their sport of choice is the titular Furyball. Why do they play it? Who cares? Some games don’t need a premise.
I grew up playing Commodore 64 games. You loaded a game and jumped in. Most arcade games didn’t bother with adding reasons to fight, shoot, or race. It was a game, it has rules, now play. Furyball feels like that.
You step into an arena with your spiked ball and a bat. Enemies fill the space, and your goal is to eliminate them. They’ll try to kill you with your own ball, but with a little auto-activating bullet time and hitting the ball at supersonic speeds, you’re able to create serious issues for your enemies.
Hitting people with the ball gives forceful, satisfying feedback. You hear the squishy flesh and blood sounds augmenting how punchy it feels to slam a ball into an enemy, and the action pauses briefly, making it feel much more powerful. The developers have clearly taken considerable time to make sure it feels good to perform the most common actions.
I’ve mentioned in previous newsletters that games should release their demos in a state that gives a good first impression. Furyball isn’t a perfectly crafted demo. You can aim the ball, but it’s hard to do. When moving to the next stage, items aren’t labeled and don’t tell you what they do. The tutorial explaining the mechanics began, but nothing seemed to happen, or it wasn’t clear how to continue. But at least following the on-screen prompts helps you get started. The game’s main purpose is excellent. That’s a good first impression. The rest will be improved. But if a developer launches a demo and the main gameplay loop is missing core components or doesn’t work, then there’s nothing else to hang on to.
If I didn’t have another demo to write about, I’d go back and play some more right now. It has a strong foundation. I’m hoping the full game doesn’t falter.
Thank you for reading The Daily Demo! Did you play it? What’d you think of it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.