A State of Disequilibrium- Vertigo Reviewed

Many veteran gamers acquired their initial mastery of ball rolling from a modest wooden toy. The simple diversion challenged players to roll a steel ball through a labyrinth littered with drain wells. The entire board rested on two pivots, which players carefully adjusted to influence the balls trajectory. Years later, this pastime was digitally recreated in the form of Super Monkey Ball. Whereas the analog toy presented a single maze, Sega’s videogame offered over ninety levels of increasing difficulty. The title found critical and commercial success, and quickly became ubiquitous thanks to ports to a majority of home consoles, and the more powerful cell phones.

The title has spurned a few imitators from Marble Blast Ultra on the Xbox Live Arcade, to the recently released, Vertigo. The Nintendo Wii title delineates itself from Sega’s popular diversion in two distinct ways. First, players control the title’s sphere, rather than the entire maze, which would seem to simplify the title’s control mechanic. Secondly, players may use the Wii Balance Board, the oft-forsaken peripheral included with WiiFit.

Whether the gamer chooses the Vertigo’s arcade, career, or practice mode, the goal of the game is the same- to navigate a ball through a treacherously elevated course filled with ramps, tunnels, and perilous edges. Variations incorporate time limits and collectables within the game’s 54 tracks, and two multiplayer diversions. Additionally, players can customize their spheres, which the game refers to as “Xorbs.”

Complete control over these globes can be accomplished with the balance board. However, I suspect people of average dexterity will experience difficulty navigating a level with this method. Merely completing the title’s first stage, exceeds the difficulty of the most trying WiiFit’s challenge. Instead, players will likely opt for using the balance board to control forward and back motion, as they use the directional pad on the Wiimote to spin the camera.

Gamers uninterested in using the peripheral for control, can still navigate the game using the Wiimote. With a handy ring around the orb, the player is given immediate feedback on the ball’s direction of momentum. Unfortunately, Vertigo’s camera is extraordinarily passive, requiring the gamer to use either the directional pad or nunchuck to obtain an optimal viewing perspective. While levels are composed to tubes and rails that supportively constrain player movement, there are the occasional sharp drops-offs. While level display portions of fluidity, mid-level teleporters and obscured platforms detract from the title’s sense of gracefulness.

Sadly, Vertigo is graphically inferior to the two year old Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. Lacking the 60 frame-per-second vibrancy, and containing a decidedly medium-resolution texture work, Vertigo relies on a handful of environmental variations to remain visually stimulating. Losing an ball off the side of the track leads to a monochromatic explosion. After the detonation, the xorb’s shadow inexplicably remains as a indicator of the precision that went into the game’s graphical engine.

While Xorb Bowling should have provided an amusing reprieve from Vertigo’s maze mechanic, the mini-game is marred by uninspired coding. The diversion crashed on multiple instances, requiring an AC-adapter pulling reset.  When the contest was working, it errantly referred to a second throw that missed a pin as a “gutterball”, despite the ball staying on the main surface. The remaining two multiplayer activities were a bit uninspired, but at least they proved be be stable.

While Vertigo lacks the programming polish and graphical richness of Super Money Ball: Banana Blitz, the title’s limitations are counterbalanced by a twenty dollar MSRP. Players seeking an inexpensive method to derive additional enjoyment from their WiiFit Balance Boards are the most likely to find contentment in Vertigo.