FastBall 3 Review

[This title was the featured Mini-Review for the Friday News Wrap-Up for the 11th of May, 2012]

The Impossible Game is responsible for opening gamers eyes to the beauty and simplicity of jumping in platformers. Endless runners do much the same, but they can't be as unfair in their design. FastBall by Klik! Games sticks with small levels packed with jumping challenges that eventually require insane feats of precise timing to complete. Unfortunately the third in the series has dropped the ball and seemingly refuses to bring more than a few cursory changes to the table. Despite a slick visual overhaul and 65 new levels, FastBall 3 is ostensibly the same game, right down to the catchy yet repetitive background track. 'Marathon' mode has some potential, featuring Impossible Game-like lengthy stages with no checkpoints, but the stages aren't as lengthy as the name would suggest and there's only three of them to knock-over. There's nothing particularly wrong with what FastBall 3 offers to fans of the series, but it feels more like an expansion than a sequel. If you're after a challenge and you've not yet played a FastBall game, this is a much easier title to recommend, but it's hard to shake the been-there-done-that feeling if you're a returning player.