I remember reading about Iggy’s Reckin Balls in Electronic Gaming Monthly before its release. I followed news on every Nintendo 64 game because, frankly, there wasn’t a whole lot of them. This one looked a little too weird to me and so I passed for more sure-fire hits. Only recently did Iggy’s Reckin Balls come into my possession. Even after putting several hours into it I’m still as unsure about it as I was when I first read about it. Iggy’s Reckin Balls is nothing if not entirely unique.
So the game itself is a combat racer with a dash of platforming mayhem. There’s no real story to speak of (thankfully, given how crazy it is) as you simply start out by selecting a ball and choosing a set of courses on which to race. So you probably get by now that you play as a ball and roll your way to victory, right? So how exactly does that work? Well, Iggy’s Reckin Balls is one of those rare 2.5D games on the Nintendo 64. The environments are rendered in polygons but you can only move left and right. Oh and you can jump too. You view the action from the side as you race against other players (or just the computer if you don’t have friends) to the top.
Each stage is called a ‘tower’ and it’s your job to get to the end of it and destroy the whole thing. You do so by getting to the top faster than the competition. Each ball has an arm that functions like a grappling hook. This serves two purposes. You can use it to reach a higher level (only specific floor materials can be grabbed on to) and it’s also for grabbing and attacking opponents. You can control this arm’s trajectory with the analog stick. Sometimes you’ll need to do so at an angle to maintain your momentum, or just go straight up if the ledge is directly overhead. There’s a fair amount of strategy in it, and the action quickly gets chaotic with a variety of different gameplay scenarios.
The various courses have a lot of gaps you’ll have to jump across as well as speed boosts, warps, etc. There’s certainly enough here to keep gameplay fresh. At times Iggy’s Reckin Balls can feel more like a platformer. Additionally you can pick up items that can be used against your opponents to impede their progress. In this sense Iggy’s Reckin Balls can be likened to Mario Kart, but even so it’s a much more simple form of competition. Gameplay is strictly 2.5D, after all. You’ll encounter enemies on your way to the top but combat is much less complicated. I found that grabbing and throwing them was the most interesting way to dispatch foes. It’s also the fastest means by which to get a friend you’re playing with to start cursing or breaking controllers.
Gameplay is focused around the racing aspect. It’s fine. Iggy’s Reckin Balls might be unique, but is it any fun? Well, sorta. In short bursts the game is mildly enjoyable. It’s not something I could pick up and put hours into. The game feels a little sloppy to be honest. The stage designs are all very simple and feel too similar. With how Iggy’s Reckin Balls is played you will succeed only by memorizing levels. You need to memorize where to go left/right, and at which points you’ll get the most benefit from using the boost. The thing is there are a whole lot of different stages. While variety in general is sorely lacking in this game these courses have just enough differences that you’ll struggle in the first lap of every race. I wish gameplay was more skill based instead of leaning so hard on the memorization aspect.
The Nintendo 64 was the ultimate multiplayer console in its heyday. With Iggy’s Reckin Balls Activision was looking to cash in on this. You have a few different options, but the main mode is your standard race. Up to four players can participate via split screen, and it’s probably the best part of this game. It’s not going to dethrone Mario Kart 64, but Iggy’s Reckin Balls is fairly enjoyable when you have a few friends to play with. What’s nice is that the game has a battle mode as well. It takes place on the same multi-tiered courses but what’s different now is you have little balls that follow as you move around. Each time you’re hit with an item, or thrown by the opponent you lose one. The last one standing wins. It’s pretty basic, but the battle mode is a pretty decent diversion.
Iggy’s Reckin Balls is not a particularly beautiful game. Activision went for that weird ‘extreme’ 90s aesthetic. The characters are all balls with faces, and to be honest, they look like toys you would get from a vending machine back in the day. That is far from a compliment. The game just hasn’t aged particularly well. I don’t even think kids these days will connect with the weird aesthetic. Everything else is pretty bland. The stages have a lot of repeating terrain, and the backgrounds are pretty minimalistic. I’m really not a fan of this one’s visuals. The soundtrack is rather plain but inoffensive. It’s your basic midi quality compositions that try and imitate grungy rock and techno. This isn’t a soundtrack I’ll be tracking down, but there’s nothing offensively bad about it.
