Skip to content
Antonball Deluxe is an 8-bit-style game – or rather, two games in one, starting with the titular Antonball, which is sideways Breakout with platforms, jumping and guns. It’s compilmented with Punchball: basically, a copy of the ’80s Mario Bros game, in the sewers where Mario and Luigi would deal with all the creatures that hang out down there.
You can also play as different characters, with many unlockable if you want to go through all of those, and there are 30 levels apiece for each game, as I understand it, although I didn’t get that far, as I tired of it rather early, hence why this is more a ‘first impressions’ piece.
But the game doesn’t stop there at trying to show its roots in the Italian plumber since, any time you beat one of the stages in these games, an offscreen character bleats in a Mario-style voice, “THERE!” It’s so blatant!
Other modes includes “Vs Antonball” which, I’m guessing, is local multiplayer, but since I was on my own, I couldn’t select two characters to play. Plus, there’s online multiplayer if that’s your bag, but since I was playing this prior to release, naturally, there was no-one else online, and despite it being out now, I’m not too fussed to go back to it.
In the Extras section, you can ‘spend’ the points you’ve earned in the games on random items in the Lottery – such as brief music pieces and images, before going to the Rec Room to listen to them. It’s pretty basic and nothing I was in a rush to return to.
Overall, Antonball Deluxe is fun for about an hour but that was enough for me.
If you want to get deep into this, then the price is £15.49, with a 20% discount until Friday March 12th.
Antonball Deluxe is out now on PC/Steam.
Important info:
- Developer: Summitsphere
- Publisher: Proponent Games
- Players: Single player campaign, 2-player local multiplayer, online multiplayer
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.