Black Ball

Black Ball drops you right into a patch of wild terrain. The ball's glossy and sort of bouncy—there's a strange-looking stump nearby, and some red gems scattered all around. Doesn't take long to bump into a spiky pit or see a golden key wedged behind a stacked crate. Each level in Black Ball swaps the backdrop—sometimes it's a frozen glen where jumps feel slower, sometimes it's a dark corridor with only the ball's shine to light the steps. You'll spot platforms set at odd heights, narrow ledges, and hidden switches tucked in spots you wouldn't check if you were rushing. I missed one the first time myself.

How to play?

So you steer the ball across each scene, timing your hops over broken boards and landing clean on the safer spots. In the game Black Ball, you're always searching for that final golden key—it's the thing that gets doors open and moves you to the next stage. Picking up ruby blocks along the way is handy: snag enough, and you can swap the black shell for something new, or grab another chance if you fall one too many times. Sometimes a puzzle blocks your path—a row of tiles you need to nudge in the right order, for example. If you hit spikes or roll off a ledge, you just bounce back to the start of that checkpoint. There is not much else to it. It is pretty simple once you get the hang of the jumps. I still can't tell if the winter grove's ice makes the ball roll faster, or if it's just my nerves.