''Rock'n' Ball'', released in Japan as , is a

Family Computer The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redes ...

video game that was originally released in 1989. The video game was released in both Japan and North America. In the North American version, fictional human characters are used instead of the licensed Namco characters; four male characters and two female characters are at the player's disposal. Compared to the North American version, the bumpers in the Japanese version are separately further and the players have more room to guide their ball around the playing surface. The Japanese version has a higher overall difficulty compared to the North American version despite the latter having bigger arches.

Summary

There are several gameplay options in the game. Some are; "regular

pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

" for up to four players which resembles a game of Pac-Man (

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

in the North American version), "nineball" where balls are knocked into a

Bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** Bi ...

pattern, "battle pinball" (which operates more like ''

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 Al ...

'' instead of pinball), and "sports pinball" where the pinball game becomes more similar to a soccer or

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

field. There are three different variations to the "battle pinball" mode; "thunder," "bomber," and the basic "attack" mode. All three of these options uses specialized flippers and a specialized pinball. For example, the "bomber" mode has a pinball that explodes after a certain time limit has been reached and the player's two target switches have been turned into bombs. A switch on the right-hand side of the board activates the special effects in the "attack" mode. Special guest characters in the Japanese version of the game include the Pac-Man character from the video game of the same name,

Valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ("chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"Orchard (1997: ...

from the video game '' Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu'',

Wonder Momo is a 1987 beat 'em up arcade game that was developed and published by Namco exclusively in Japan. It was ported to the PC-Engine in 1989, with both versions of the game later ported to the Wii Virtual Console. The game was also included in '' ...

and Kai from the '' Babylonian Castle Saga'' series.

Reception

Allgame RhythmOne , previously known as Blinkx, and also known as RhythmOne Group, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went publ ...

gave ''Rock'n' Ball'' a rating of 3.5 stars out of a possible 5.

References

1989 video games KID games Namco games Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo Entertainment System-only games Pinball video games Top-down video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Japan {{pinball-videogame-stub