Xbox Live Arcade has long been a source of new and interesting games, the platform allowing developers to take a chance on titles that might be too risky to sell as at retail. Interestingly enough however, select XBLA titles are starting to compete with their retail counterparts, featuring more content, more levels, and more complexity.

Enter developer Playbrain’s Madballs in Babo: Invasion! (MIBI). As a downloadable title MIBI takes the normal expectations of what is an appropriate level of content in an 800 pt XBLA release and blows those expectations out of the water. MIBI features over 21 multiplayer levels (which double what most retail player titles provide), and a fully fledged 10 level single player campaigns. There are 5 different asymmetrical classes each with 2 special abilities, and 10 different insanely fun weapons each with 2 different firing modes. As it this weren’t enough the game also includes full stats tracking via leaderboards, in game avatar support, 4-player co-op in the single player campaign, and a map editor that is unlike anything ever seen before in any XBLA multiplayer centric title.

Of course all of the features in the world wouldn’t make a difference if the game weren’t an engaging, enjoyable experience. The game is the direct successor of the freeware PC title Babo Violence 2 an old school fragger, which to this day retains a large multiplayer community. It’s a small miracle the game is appearing on XBLA, and silly Madballs tie in aside the game feels very true to its predecessor. The game is not only fun to play; MIBI is probably one of the more original and refreshing games to hit XBLA in recent memory, and unquestionably a ridiculously good value for the price.

Gameplay:

The core gameplay behind MIBI is unashamedly old school while still incorporating some very new and fresh ideas into the fragging scene. In MIBI players control a rolling ball, a Madball, armed with an assortment of deadly weaponry. There are 10 different weapons to unlock throughout gameplay each with two different firing modes. Weaponry fires 4 different types of projectiles, energy based, projectile based, heat and cold based. The Madball’s each play completely differently, with different special abilities, armour, strengths and weaknesses to different weapon fire types.

When written down above it may seem simple, but in the madness of battle, the way in which special abilities, various weapons and weapon fire types interact with each other creates a deep metagame of strategy underneath the top layer of what may appear to be a simple shooter at first glance. Hardcore fans of the original Babo Violence 2 will love the amount of thought that has gone into the gameplay mechanics, while players new to the series will pick up quickly the addiction that made the original Babo Violence 2 so successful.

It’s worth noting that each of the two factions (BDI and Scorched Militia) are asymmetrical meaning that each of the five equivalent classes have wildly different abilities from the other team and completely different weaponry. Generally in titles like this it’s a miracle if play balance can be maintained, yet from our playtime it appears that Playbrains has managed to do the job very well. It’s refreshing to see a multiplayer title that allows two teams to have completely different play styles while not giving any one team an advantage over the other.

Graphics:

Each of the maps, whether single player or multiplayer modes can be played from a “over the shoulder” 3d perspective or from a traditional top down “classic” perspective that will be most familiar to fans of the original Babo Violent 2. Being fans of the original we weren’t sure which view we would use the most, but actually found both viewpoints to be effective depending on our mood. Graphically speaking the game looks far better with far more detail when playing in 3d mode.

The maps are gorgeous with 4 different highly detailed environments ranging from vibrantly lush jungles to the cold industrial halls of abandoned spaceships. It’s obvious when running through these maps that a ton of effort and thought has been put into making each map aesthetically pleasing.

In terms of graphical effects, each individual weapon looks and feels amazing when shooting at hostiles, and the explosion effects of splattering an enemy Babo is extremely satisfying. More importantly provided the host of a match has a good connection, there is very little slowdown despite the amount of firepower, babo’s and explosions happening on the player’s screen. While playing in a 4 ply co-op we ended up with a player from Australia (we were hosting in Toronto Canada). The Australian reported no lag, or slowdown at all when playing with NA players both with us as well as in multiplayer. Gorgeous graphics for an XBLA title combined with good net code make this game a winner in our books.

Sound:

In terms of the audio included the music in the game itself is adequate like most XBLA titles. The weapon and death audio effects however are top notch and we felt fitted well with how these effects should sound to the player. There is also the inclusion of voice clips both in single player and multiplayer modes, which still proves amusing every time Magmor kicks the bucket.

While the in game soundtrack won’t win any awards we felt that it got the job done.

Longevity:

Single player/co-op campaign and multiplayer game types play very differently from each other and will provide hours upon hours of entertainment. The Single player/co-op campaign features 10 huge levels that require the player to progress from one point to another, blasting a ton of enemies along the way, discovering a metric ton of secrets, and solving a number of puzzles to open up new areas to explore. We felt the single player/co-op portion of the game seemed to have influences from a wide range of old school titles ranging from Gauntlet, Marble Madness, and Smash TV. While the storyline seemed fairly disposable we still felt that there is absolutely nothing like this experience on any console at all this generation and it’s well worth checking out. The ending of the campaign also gives players a small taste of what to expect in Multiplayer Invasion mode. Overall the campaign is worth running through to help unlock weaponry and abilities that will be used in the multiplayer portion of the game. If playing with friends via co-op one should also note that the difficulty scales up and down depending on how many buddies you have playing with you at any one time. A nice touch, one of many in the game.

Multiplayer on the other hand is arena based and features multiple game modes, Invasion, CTF, Skirmish, Team Skirmish and Avatar Attack. While Team Skirmish, Skirmish and CTF are traditional modes and fairly self explanatory, there are over 21 maps to choose from, a mind-boggling selection for a “small” downloadable title. Invasion and Avatar attack on the other hand are different from traditional game types in a number of ways. Avatar mode allows players to take their Xbox avatar, shrink the head of their avatar into a ball and then go online and blow each other away. One can only wonder how in the world the concept of destroying each other’s avatars in a shower of confetti made it through the approval process at Microsoft; however, we can assure you it is most awesome to play in one of these matches. Invasion mode we feel represents the biggest innovations in the game from a multiplayer perspective. While Invasion plays out in some ways like tradition “capture the base” modes from other games, the big difference is that the map is created in it’s entirety in a 1 minute pre match session that plays out something like the XBLA title Carcassonne. Each player on both teams gets the chance to lay down a square “piece” of the map on their team’s side of the map. Once the map is put together players vote on where their base will be as well as nodes (which power their bases shield). It’s a really novel map creation process and also means that no two Invasion matches will ever be the same.

The game features also a robust unlock system that will no doubt have players spending every waking moment unlocking the myriad of characters, weapons, secondary fire modes and special abilities. While this can be done in a week or so of casual play, the game also has a ranking system (tied into achievements as well) that gives players the chance to “start all over again” several times, having to unlock everything all over again in order to gain a higher ranking that shows by their name via a medal icon. Completionists will appreciate this added touch, and will no doubt run through the unlocking process multiple times to make the highest rank possible.

Overall:

When it’s all said and done, MIBI is a blast to play. The single player mode is robust, and the competitive multiplayer portion of the title will keep players coming back for more. The game has a free demo up on XBLA, which allows players to play 3 multiplayer matches (up to an hour in length each) as well as the first level from the campaign, so we suggest anyone on the fence give the game a try. It won’t take long to realize that Madballs In Babo: Invasion! aka Babo Violent 3 is a must buy title.

We’ve seen retail titles with less content than MIBI and costing way more money. The amount of content included with MIBI is staggering, particularly given the low price point and the fact that it’s an XBLA title. At 800 pts the game is a no brainer purchase, and probably one of the best values available on XBLA to date.