Overall 7.2 - This is a review on Ballz the over the top humor filled fighting game for the sega genesis.  In this game the player will choose one of ten characters to take on the challenge of defeating the Jester.  Along the way there will be interim bosses that will be quite difficult to dispatch of, but will raise the players belt level.

Graphics 7 - The graphics in the game are rather nicely put together for the time period that the game came out during (1994).  The characters are 3d models made entirely out of balls, thus the name of the game.  As for the arenas that you fight in during the game they are rather bland and nothing too exciting.  The only cool feature that I found while playing this game as far as the backgrounds go was the jumbotron that displays the action of the fight.

Sound 4 - The sounds in this game are flat out annoying from the whiny mercy gestures to the boy yeah uh huh intro.  The music is fairly catchy in spite of this though.  The striking sounds are flat as well though I can't honestly say exactly what balls hitting up against other balls should sound like I don't think a muffled thud represents it accurately.

Addictiveness 5 - The game is fairly shallow.  There isn't much in the way of replay value other than honing your abilities with the different characters.  Learning the special moves can be a good bit of fun however the novelty of farting at your opponent or turning them into a baseball and hitting them out of the park grows old after a while.  There are also finishing moves for the characters which helps to add a little to the overall replayability of the game.

Story 2 - The story centers mainly around the jester's challenge to beat him and to quote one of the opening lines of the game "become the champion if you have the balls", get it.  If you defeated the jester then you would be granted your wish.  What the wish is I won't say you'll just have to play and beat the game to find out.  The story for most of the fighting games from that period wasn't particularly strong however I feel this one stands out in particular for not really even trying to develop any kind of story or real attachment to any of the characters that you'll play in the game.

Depth 5 - As for depth this game is not very deep at all, but it will take some time to beat it due in large part to the overall difficulty of the game.  As mentioned above there are also finishing moves for each of the characters as well as them having their own set of special moves depending on the characters theme.  For example there is a character with the theme of being a superhero and one of his special moves is to blow his opponent away literally.  There is also a ballerina which can frustrate you half to death with her spins and twirls making her one of the best characters to play in the game or the cheapest one to beat your friends with.

Difficulty 9 - If you have your heart set on beating this game you'd better be really good at video game because if you are of average skill like myself you will need to work on your timing and special moves as well as figuring out which character works best for you.  The bosses ramp up appropriately in difficulty reaching a pinnacle with the jester.  Be prepared for some frustration due to the overall cheapness of the moves that will surely block a new player from finding out what the wish is.

Conclusion - I can't say I didn't have some good fun playing this game especially with friends, and the fact is that when it came out I was a prepubescent teen that still chuckled at the innuendo behind the game.  Ballz ha ha.  In retrospect I can see that this game was really lacking in some areas.  I still give the game an overall 7 in spite of its flaws just for the fact that I remember it being quite an innovative idea for the time and also as listed above it was fun to play for a while.