NOTE - this is for the Commodore 64 version.
Wizball is a game that definitely wants to apply some interesting creativity to the shmup formula but just ends up with something that controls awkwardly and is somewhat cruel.
Wizball is a cute little concept - after the evil Zark has deprived Wizworld (which looks like a galaxy filled with abstract moon surfaces), Wizard Wiz and his cat Nifta launch in ball satellites to gain enough color drops to color Wizworld once more.
The method of movement starts out horrendous at first - the player bounces around wildly without much movement control and needs two powerups off the bat to gain a semblance of movement. It's still not the most precise, as the player will have to deal with many tiny one-hit pixel dots and roll around in scenery that doesn't feel like it was designed for the player's ship in mind (lots of places where they can't reach, tight corridors where they'll almost certainly get killed, etc).
The other necessary powerup they have to get (three powerups!) to complete the game is the cat's satellite (the Catellite!). The Catellite can move much more freely and can even shoot on its own, as well as collect color drops from specific enemies. The Catellite can be controlled by another player but in single player the player must hold down the fire button to move the Catellite around, resulting in more finnicky movement and leaving the player's main ball a sitting duck for enemy fire. The Catellite can also take a few hits (nine lives, heh) but once destroyed the player must get three powerups again to resurrect. Some of the color drops also have ifferent effects like extra lives and unfortunately losing control of the Catellite, dark screens, and a wave of unnecessary enemies.
Mainly the player will be moving from layer to layer in tubes that are more trial and error than specific in where the player will go, enforcing a bit of memorization along each path. Color combinations to clear each layer three times (8 layers for a total of 24 clears) aren't obvious and the player has to jump around layers to get a feel of how much color they need for each level. There are a set number of enemies on each layer that recharge when the player kills the last enemy - most of them, aggravatingly enough, are not color drops, meaning there's a lot of running around and backtracking and repetition to even get a tiny bit of color. Once the player has enough color, they play a small minigame where they kill enemies on the way back to the color mixing laboratory - it's a little bit of fun to rack up points and more powerups until the player gets hit but things like the Catellite can still get killed in this minigame, making it honestly frustrating to partake in.
Wizball has ideas and is a little cool looking - the font is elegant and the adding of color to moon surfaces of abstract blobs (and Mount Rushmore??) with stars rushing in the background is graphically impressive for a C64, as well as music that's relatively light amidst the action but catchy. That said, its controls are awkward, death is imminent, and design is dull and repetitive to try to search for color on each layer. As an arcade style game it takes much too long to finish and it's a bit too frustrating to repeatedly complete.
