by Carrie Schutrick

Created on: November 12, 2008   Last Updated: February 06, 2009

I've just tried the downloadable game Somersault, and I give it an allover rating of 3/5-entertaining, and worth it for a few hours of diversion, but nothing terribly original. Kids will probably love it for the bright colors and amusing protagonist.

The game is a sidescroller in which the player's task is to guide a cute little creature called Bally through an obstacle course. Of course Bally's out to rescue his friends from an unspecified awful fate, but that storyline, so far as it goes, seems to be mostly for form's sake. Not that there's any problem with that; not every game needs an in-depth story, especially one that's pretty much an excuse to have fun with physics.

Bally's method of travel is unique: he bounces. The player's job is to guide his bouncing around obstacles through the use of a board or plank drawn under him; the longer the plank, the higher the bounce, and each new plank erases the last one. The interface is a little clunky, though useable. What's really handy is the rainbow that shows Bally's projected course from each plank; this makes it a lot easier to work out how to get him around the obstacles and into the bonuses-rings for extra points, hearts for more "energy" or health. Though the downloadable trial comes with a limited set of levels, there are 21 in the full version of the game. The first level's a matter of getting Bally through a kitchen, complete with toasters shooting toast and a block full of knives.

The graphics are cartoony, but bright and well-done. Bally spends most of his time curled up in a ball-hence his name-and is therefore not much to look at, though he and his environment get more detail at higher graphics levels (and there are a surprising number of those levels, about 7). The music and sound effects are the typical annoying fare, but fortunately they're easy to turn off.

At its base the game is pretty normal fare: navigate a cute character through a series of obstacles so it can save its equally cute friends. You've seen it before, and the only big innovation is Bally's unique method of travel. Still, there's nothing wrong with a new twist on an old classic.

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