In Wizball, you play as a wizard, who takes the form of a strange green ball. His objective is to "paint" the game - Every level starts off in drab, grayscale colours, but by collecting colour droplets, he will be able to recolour everything until it's fully coloured.
The game has rightfully earned a high spot in the top game lists of many C64 fans - It's very fun to play, the gameplay is unique, and what music there is is great.
It's also noteworthy that this is the first game originally developed by Sensible Software to be on its way to VC - Sensible Software was one of the largest UK videogame developers and made many great games across a variety of systems. Here's hoping for more!
Comments (35)
I haven't managed to download any C64 games just yet (though I wouldn't mind Uridium and Boulder Dash), but I've heard lots of good news about this one so shall definitely be looking into a purchase. The concept as described above sounds a bit De Blib, don't you agree?
^ I agree
Ha! Now I'M the one to post after YOUR message!
I also haven't found any C64 game yet that caught my interest, and the only ones that do seem to get released as their better NES versions
Holy Jesus its wizball! I mean, holy crap! This is big.
Interesting... because it's the first non-Commodore owned (non liquidation) game to be announced. All the others so far were included on the 30-in-1 joysticks. And what a game to start with!
Yeah the artwork and game are a bit weird... it's a thinking shooter really. And I own the original artwork to this. Shows my devotion
@WiiLoveItOnline - yeah it is quite like de Blob, just 20 years earlier. You have to capture the paint droplets and mix and match the primary colours to form the target colour wanted.
I hope the C64 comes over to North America sometime soon, or at least at some point. This Wizball game sounds pretty cool.
They should make a sequel called speedball where you are some cracked up junkie who sees stuff with funny colours. Anyway, as I started my gaming with a c64 its always nice to see the console get such love, but I never even heard of this game until now
Badknux, why not give it a chance first...oh, I see.
Yeeeeah! Wizball kicks ass! Forget Mega Man 3, this is the game of the week!
Im thinkin we'll prolly get the C64 system by the end of this year.. maybe around December or something, but who knows!
That's ok Betagam7, I don't want to waste the Wii Points or the time. I just have no interest.
I agree with you Badknux, it does look like a boring game, but I'm only basing my opinion on the screenshots, I never actually played this game before.
C64 in NA VC,
pleaaaaaaaaaasssse!
Edit:
v
@Twilight Crow
C64 in AU VC,
pleaaaaaaaaaasssse!
This game looks interesting, well to me it is... if we had the C64 system and if this game came out in the wii shop channel, i definitely get it and try it out just like that other game called "Jumpman.".. that game looks interesting too and cool.
I buy European consoles my entire life, and America gets better games.
I buy an American Wii, and Europe gets better games.
What are the odds?
The description sounds like an older version of De Blob. Any relation?
Am I going crazy, or does that look like the basis of de Blob?
Guys being 33 i had a c64 when it was around and you can forget your last ninjas and everyting else - this was the best game on the c64 by a mile - hope it has the 2 player co-op that the original had
Sounds awesome. I heard a lot of great stuff about this game.
Sounds interesting, I'll look forward to this.
Owait! <_<'
This game is awesome. And the C64 version is pure magic. The sound-effects alone are so fantastic, that you cannot believe that it is from the C64's SID Chip. The title and game over music sound like an E-Guitar solo from outer space.
At the beginning of the game, Wizworld is gray and gloomy. Wiz is a magician, who has transformed himself into a green ball which moves through the landscape with big jumps. He can also shoot and there are upgrades which can be obtained by defeating enemies and collecting their "remains".
To rid the world from the grey veil, our hero needs to fill a kettle with paint. On his task he is supported by his faithful cat "Catelite". The Catelite works almost like a satellite-shield in R-Type and is also used to collect drops of paint. The Catelite can be controlled separately. When using the joystick normally, you control Wiz and Cat follows. When holding a certain button, you control the cat alone, which is necessary in order to shoot Colour-Balls and collect their precious content.
Wizworld consists of several floors which are connected through tubes. On each floor, you can collect drops of one of the fundamental colours red, green and blue. And there are also some special drops which can be good or bad. Some bestow an extra life on you and some, when collected, make the Catelite go crazy or even the background invisible. To mention just a very few things. There are many, many more. Wizball is an addictive game. It requires skill and dexterity but also strategy. And it is very innovative and varied.
Highly recommended.
(I just wonder how they implemented the "wiggle joystick to select" on the Virtual Console. It would be perfect if this is done by shaking the Wiimote.)
u guys are lucky this was 1 of the few games i liked 4 the c64 when are we gonna get c64 games?????
yeah, i remember this as a kid. i remember really liking it but it might be the game that i melted the disk for one day by accident.
good old 5 1/4 disks
@Kenji510
Jumpman is pretty fun. I have a copy of it on my Commodore 64 in my room. The weird thing is, up until it got unveiled on this site, I always thought those things he had to collect were donuts instead of bombs. I remember it took forever to load too...but it was worth the wait definitely. Now it seems like we're waiting forever for it to get on to our NA VC!
This game looks pretty good too. And now we know where de Blob got most (if not all) of its ideas now. Hah! They've been exposed! And this close to its launch...
Sensible Software! Great stuff - here's hoping the SNES version of Sensible Soccer makes an appearence, probably my most played game of all time
@ WiiMan192 and other Australians.
Just change your region and you can get all the C64 games you want. Its not rocket science, I did it to get Axelay which we for some reason don't have in the UK.
This must be the game that inspired de Blob. Though De Blob looks 10x more exciting. At least.
@ Mr. Cheez: This doesn't even look that interesting. I don't understand why people call it a good game. It looks like junk to me.
Wizball was developed in 1986. This is already 22 years ago. For a C64 game from that time, the graphic is extremely good and the animation sequences are impressive. It uses very difficult to program "raster interrupts" to display fascinating colour effects and way more sprites than the system originally allowed. And the music makes the C64 sound like a very expensive synthesizer.
This gem is retro gaming at it's best. It shows in astonishing ways, what's possible with a 1 Mhz CPU and 64 Kilobytes of memory. The whole game fits into the C64's memory without further loading from tape or floppy disk. But most important: The game concept is still very imaginative and entertaining. Whee!
Maybe this is not for you, if you've never owned a real C64 or if you are not really interested in classic games. Then you better go with some SNES or PC-Engine games because they look more like on the Gameboy Advance. Otherwise it is a must-have.
Wonder if the VC will ever see the Amiga sequel to this - Wizkid. That game was excellent.....
Wizball is great, but I hope that this means that Sensible Soccer is on its way!
No Amiga titles on the VC yet... maybe C64 Microprose Soccer then?
Well, Sensible Soccer was released on SNES
Wizball is still one of the finest pieces of software ever produced. The music, the atmosphere, the imagination... I mean, digitised Mt Rushmore? Genius. I've even dragged it out recently and it's just as playable as it was back then. Just like another fave game of mine, Impossible Mission, it manages to blend thinking and strategy with out-and-out twitch action.
Interesting Fact: my cousin used to be able to play that rad Game Over lick on his guitar.
Exactly, there were versions of Sensi on SNES, Mega Drive and Master System, so while I'd obviously prefer the Amiga version, there are possibilities!
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