''Airburst'' is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

Strange Flavour Strange Flavour is an independent computer game software developer based in United Kingdom. They are currently (2017) developing and publishing games for iOS, AppleTV and MacOS systems, with games on the iOS, AppleTV and Mac App Stores. Previousl ...

and published by

Freeverse Freeverse Inc. (originally Freeverse Software) was a developer of computer and video game and desktop software based in New York City which was acquired by Ngmoco in 2010. Ngmoco was itself acquired later that year, and shut down in 2016. Hist ...

for

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded "M ...

. On October 25, 2007, it was announced for

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...

game for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

. There is currently no release date for the Xbox 360 release but the game is available for testing on Partnernet, the private Xbox 360 developer site.

Gameplay

The game has been described as "an inverted version of ''

Pong ''Pong'' is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcor ...

''", in which players divert a "deadly chainsaw-bladed burster ball" with a paddle towards other players' platforms, which are made of

balloons A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the per ...

. Each player is armed with a bat which can be used to deflect the ball away from their balloons and towards their opponents. There are also a host of power-ups that affect gameplay. The XBLA version uses

ReplicaNet Introduction Distributed computing and distributed object systems are designed to allow software modules or objects to work together where the objects can be located on different computers connected by a network. Interactive computer simulations ...

for online play.

''AirBurst Extreme''

An enhanced version was released in 2004 for

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

as ''Airburst Extreme''. There are four playable

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

s, and six additional characters (four new

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

s and two new

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist. Etymology The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, riv ...

s) in ''Airburst Extreme''.

In other media

On July 27, 2014, an animated short named ''AirBurst: The Soda of Doom'' screened at the San Diego Children's Film Festival at

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...

and featured characters from the games ''AirBurst'' and ''AirBurst: Extreme''.

References

Reviews

ATPM.com
(Original)
Inside Mac Games
(Extreme)

External links