Original Release: I’Max, 1995, SNES
An odd turn-based wargame that resembles paintball or Airsoft.
Ball Bullet Gun (SNES, I’Max, 1995)
Where to Buy: Play-Asia
How to Emulate: SNES Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
I guess you could fairly call Ball Bullet Gun an Airsoft simulator, even though it doesn’t have the brand name. For the unfamiliar, it’s basically a war game a la paintball, except you fire little plastic pellets or rubber balls instead of paint.
You’d expect action given the format, but BBG is actually a turn-based strategy game! You control a team of two to four players on small maps in which you initially can’t see the enemies. They only become “uncovered” when you either happen to walk near them, or they walk across your field of vision while you’re stationary during their turn (you choose the direction each player faces at the end of their turn, and they can only see directly ahead of them in a certain range.)
Before all that, though, you have to create a team, which is a fairly simple procedure given the limited options. Though maps generally only allow 2 to 4 team members, your team has 8 slots to allow for flexibility in different scenarios. You fill these slots with 4 different types of your choosing – Attacker (the balanced class), Scout (higher movement but weaker attack), Defender (lower movement but higher attack and defense), or Sniper (low movement and defense but can see and fire much farther than anyone else.)
I actually think this is a pretty decent concept, but somehow BBG doesn’t quite click. Part of it is the aesthetically threadbare presentation and design of it, put out by tiny publisher I’Max on what I’m sure was a shoestring budget. Part of it is the tiny maps, and the fact that cover and terrain never feel particularly useful in any way. Part of it is the goofiness of a turn-based system that allows for enemies to walk out in front of two of your guys, shoot one to death, then walk back into the mists while the other just stands there watching the whole thing. It’s not to say the game isn’t some fun, or basically well put together, but you get the feeling a whole lot more could have been done with this idea.
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