My little brother’s birthday is coming this month, and that has led me to reminisce. Our parents would bring us to the rental store almost every other weekend, and when he was finally old enough they allowed him to choose any game he wanted for the days away from school. Admittedly I would try to steer him toward something I knew I would enjoy, but he was a bit bullheaded. This was of course during the mascot craze of the 90s, and that is precisely when he chose a curious title called Smart Ball as his choice multiple times. I remember enjoying it, and I know he did, and that’s why I added this game to my library when I started collecting. I’ve since learned that it was actually created by now famous developer Game Freak, and with his big day coming up I thought I would give it another try. I haven’t played it since I was a wee lad. It’s better than your run of the mill third party bargain bin title, but it just doesn’t hold the same appeal it did.
There’s very little story exposition here. I actually had to look it up because there’s no introductory sequence. You play as a prince named Jerry after he has been transformed by an evil witch into a blob of jelly. Jelly… Jerry. It’s obviously a case of mistranslation on the publisher Sony’s part, but that’s probably why it’s called Smart Ball instead of the original title ‘Jerry Boy.’ Stuff like this was commonplace in the eight and sixteen bit eras, but it’s kind of funny in my opinion. Either way, this is a fairly traditional side scrolling platformer. You control a blob that can walk, run, and jump by default. He’s loaded with significantly more abilities, but I will get to those later. Your goal is to make your way from the beginning of each stage to the end. Levels are divided into two parts, and at the end of the second you face off against a boss character. It may sound a bit on the ordinary side but Game Freak has a track record proving they’re anything but. Smart Ball is no exception to the developer’s long standing pedigree of unique concepts.
Jerry is armed with a ton of different abilities. The first of these is his body manipulation. He can make himself tall by concentrating his mass upward, and squeeze down as well. This is your basic method for attack throughout the game. What I always found interesting about this title is the fact that you can ride on most of your enemies’ heads without taking damage. This reminds of Super Mario Bros. 2, and it must have been a source of inspiration because many of the gameplay scenarios take similar advantage of this ability. You’ll have to ride across some pits using this, and can also reach higher platforms that would normally be out of reach by utilizing this skill. While riding a foe you can defeat them simply by pressing down, but for the most part enemy placement is helpful for reaching power-ups and new areas. Another memorable ability is Jerry’s ability to cling to walls. Jumping into and holding the direction of any surface will allow him to stick to it. Holding Y allows Jerry to hold his position and even move on the wall or ceiling. It’s a pretty cool idea in my opinion, and you’ll have to get used to it because you’re forced to use this skill a lot.
That’s a significant number of abilities for sure, but you also have several power-ups. These are hidden within flowers and enhance Jerry’s skills in numerous ways. The standard item is a red ball that can be thrown with the shoulder button. This damages enemies, but they’re finite and I found myself running through them quickly. Next up is the iron ball. This is used like the red variety, but can be picked up again after being thrown. It also reduces Jerry’s jumping skills a great deal, but it’s very handy to have against a boss. The jump ball is also very useful. This increases his altitude with every jump, and it’s often hidden and can be used for shortcuts or to evade enemies. Finally we have the seed ball. This is strictly single use, but causes a vine to grow that raises Jerry up in a stage. I never actually found a good use for it to be honest. It was probably included only just so they could brag about the number of power-ups included.
My main complaint with this game is the level design. It’s a title aimed at children and yet it’s fairly difficult even for my adult self. This is largely due to the fact that the platforming is very demanding. You need to make frequent use of Jerry’s cling ability, and I found myself struggling with it. The whole system is a little clunky because I found myself using the character’s stretch skill when I meant to stick to a wall far too often. To make matters worse some areas are very labyrinthine by platformer standards. There are too many areas where you have to travel by pipe, and despite the fact that you can change your direction I still found it tedious. The boss encounters are also a little disappointing. As opposed to the rest of the game they aren’t very difficult requiring only a few hits apiece. That just makes for an uneven experience. These encounters don’t require intricate use of Jerry’s skills; just get used to the dodge and stretch function and you’re golden. At least you have checkpoints but these are the letters that spell out “JERRY.” Why Sony didn’t translate these to ‘jelly’ is beyond me considering they already robbed us of a storyline.
On the surface Smart Ball looks like a typical mid-generation 16-bit title. It’s plenty colorful and features decent animation, but for the most part it’s nothing special. Jerry himself features more frames of animation than your typical mascot due to his large list of abilities. Unfortunately power-ups just change the color of his cheek which I found to be a little weak. There’s also very little parallax scrolling, but I’m assuming that this is because most of us were over this effect by this time. One of the levels actually sends Jerry to space, and it is during these stages that I found the game to be at its best graphically. On the moon there’s a ton of rotations and great use of Mode 7. I was only disappointing that the rest of the game isn’t like this, and that this world is so short lived. The soundtrack is quite nice. The outdoor grassy plain stages feature an uplifting theme that will get stuck in your head. The rest is a little dark to be honest, but it’s all competently composed and enjoyable. The music is well composed, but I wouldn’t buy the soundtrack.
