PlayStation Minis love them or hate them they exist to entertain you in bite size blasts. As mentioned in previous articles, games like; I Must Run and The Impossible Game fit this description perfectly. So how does Beat Shaper’s latest mini compare?

From the outset this game oozes 8-bit love, from the low bit-rate theme to water effect created by three shades of blue pixels. Upon starting you see you are a wizard, with all the clichés in place (long white beard, pointy hat), and the remnants of buildings which made a quaint village. Talking to the villagers in typical RPG fashion will cost you a lot so learning about the story will have to wait at in the early stages of the game.

Exiting the village through the south entrance you are presented with a world map and are asked to choose the next village (similar to the map layout on Sonic the Hedgehog for the Master System). You enter a new town expecting to speak to a whole new bunch of troubled villagers to find that you are in a courtyard with plenty of red boxes blocking your path. Without any input from you Cyrus (The Wizard) transforms into a paddle and ball. I bet you can’t guess what comes next?

This game has many different names and like Shatter, Magic Orbz and Ricochet HD before it, Wizorbs looks to offer something different to the traditional mix. Unfortunately Wizorbs doesn’t. The end of level bosses are nothing new and the fact that they feel like cheap renditions of the bosses seen in The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past only makes things worse. The level structure fails to make sense because there are 14 sub stages before the end of level boss, why? 10 would have been stretching it. Add to that the annoying enemies that roam about every level and you have removed all aspect of fun from a game that should have been left in the 80’s.

It’s not all bad though the nostalgia is there and there are some good power ups, better still is the hidden bonus levels which enrich you with gold and lives. Ultimately though Wizorb needed more fun injected into it. It often felt like a chore to play and at no point did I feel like I was enjoying myself.

As pocket money gaming goes there are far worse examples available but consider that Shatter is a few pounds more and it makes it really hard to recommend this game.

4/10