We’ve known Magic Cube for years as makers of simple but fun mobile games like the Infect Them All series, Call of Snakes ($0.99) and its various spinoffs, and plenty more. This week however they’ve launched their first game as a publisher, called Karma Ball Z ($0.99). The game is developed by MinjeongKim (36) Studio who previously released 4Legs (Free), a completely absurd “art jump performance game" where you play as a centaur trying to jump high into space while collecting carrots and radishes and avoiding getting killed by an enemy wearing a horse head and a sombrero. Um, yeah. Karma Ball Z is the follow-up to that game, and it’s basically just as crazy. You play as the same centaur character, named Super Karma Centa, who must defend the planet against the evil horse aliens who are invading Earth. You do this by thinking dumb thoughts which allow you to gather energy in your hands and shoot powerful Super Karma Bombs at those pesky horse aliens. Also you have a combat wig. Here’s the nonsensical trailer.
The actual gameplay in Karma Ball Z is tapping either your dot or dash buttons to mimic the string of morse code that pops up on the screen. It’s twitchy and requires coordination similar to something like Timberman ($0.99) or Critter Panic! ($1.99). You’re timed on how quickly you can complete each sequence, and as you progress the sequences get faster and more complex. Do well enough and you’ll earn yourself a prize of carrots after the game, which go towards unlocking a wide variety of different combat wigs for your centaur, some of which have helpful attributes associated with them like an increase in life or a score multiplier. The whole affair is set to some intense techno music which reminds me of Techno Kitten Adventure (Free), an old favorite of mine.
Anyway, everything about Karma Ball Z is totally weird, but it’s also surprisingly fun trying to nail the morse code sequences, and is sufficiently satisfying when you get into the higher levels and start hitting complex combos like a finger ninja. It’s not going to win any game of the year awards, but it’s a buck with no IAP so if you like strange, twitchy games it’s probably worth checking out and leaving your thoughts in the forum thread.
