Have You Played... VIDEOBALL?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.

VIDEOBALL is no Rocket League, but it is a pretty neat take on multiplayer ball-wrangling, breaking down various rulesets to make a game that is just sort of Sport rather than any particular sport.

There's a goal, some players and a ball. Oh, and a field that varies from round to round, with obstacles, shape and goal sizes all liable to change. Rather than dribbling the ball, you shoot it, sort of juggling it from afar, and you can charge up a shot to really blast the ball across the pitch/court/oblong. Hold the button that charges the shot for too long (or just long enough, depending on your plan) and you'll make a barrier instead of firing a shot.

Basically, you're dropping down barriers, blasting the ball around the place and trying to score goals. Tactics emerge as you realise you can use your abstract little avatar to block, to nudge and to stun, and if you can get four people together for teamplay, you'll almost certainly have a good time.

That said, I played for three days and then dropped the VIDEOBALL and haven't been back. It's one of those games that had a quiet buzz around it before release, and I'm not sure if that came from critics who had played it at events, or from developers who had played it during its production. Either way, the conversation around it seemed louder before release and died down a little after release, which isn't ideal for a multiplayer game. it's best played as a local party game though, I feel.

Essentially, I'm wondering if anyone here is or has been playing VIDEOBALL?