Sport games are few and far in-between in indie gaming, and since I'm a huge sports fan, I was happy to take a look at the nearly ready for release Sportball Challenge.

This game is actually not a true sport game in many respects, but the game play is definitely based on sport competition and I think it will please all sport fans.

The game play works as you control a pad at the bottom of the screen that is somewhat reminiscent of an arkanoid pad.  However instead of breaking bricks, you use the pad to catch balls.  The balls fly in from the side of the screen in an arc.  If you let a ball get by you it counts as points for the computer, if you catch them all, then the computer opponent does not get any points.  As you catch the balls, you use them to fire at targets.  The targets come in different varieties.  There are actual targets, ones that move, and some that open and close.  As you move on through the game the game play becomes a bit more difficult in multiple ways.  I won't get into it too much here as this is a preview, but suffice it to say that HipSoft does plenty to mix things up and keep the game feeling fresh even if you're still doing basically the same thing. 

One of the main ways they made that happen was through the use of themed levels.  There are actually 10 themes in all, including Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, and Tennis.  When you begin the game, only 3 levels are available to you.  Each round you complete one of the challenges on each level and then a new sport is unlocked.  So you play 3 sports the first round, 4 the next, 5 the third and so on.  Each of the levels are well drawn, with the respective playing fields of each sport perfectly recreated, which adds to the sport competition feel of the game. 

As you complete your game, you are able to enter your name into a high score list that is kept online.  In addition to an overall ranking, there is a daily ranking as well. 

As if that wasn't enough, Sportball challenge has included a single-player mode that is actually a arkanoid game.  The game stands on its own fairly well, though fans of that genre might not appreciate it as much as they appreciate the main attraction.  There are so few sport games available in the Indie world that you could say that Sportball Challenge looks like it will be the best of the bunch without that really meaning much.  However in this case, this was a game that was a joy to play, and with a few more tweaks I think it will ensnare many sports fans when it becomes available.

Written by Russell Carroll