As a fan of the marble maze game Screwball Scramble, and a lover of clever contraptions from The Goonies and The Incredible Machine, I came to Super Blowfish Castle hoping for something that would scratch an oddly specific itch. This is a physics-based obstacle course game that tasks you with pushing a blowfish down 100 obstacle courses made out of toy parts. Whilst it’s minimalist, dare I say stock asset approach to graphics, didn’t draw me in, the concept did. A few hours later, and I’m not sure I should have bothered.
Super Blowfish Castle is a one button game. Pressing or holding the space bar changes the state of all the interactive objects in a level. That might be making hammers swing, or plastic marble paths swap tracks, or flick a spoon to launch the blowfish across gaps. Some levels are quite straightforward, introducing new ideas like dodging fidget spinners, bouncing on tambourines, or unlocking doors with keys. Then randomly, a far longer, more complicated level involving racing a ball bearing, knocking down dominoes to block your path might appear. The difficulty curve is like a wavy line, and whilst the levels hint at some satisfying contraptions, the clever factor rarely appears. Instead, Super Blowfish Castle settles in on its most frustrating elements and artificially cranks up the frustration and difficulty levels.
You see, the physics in this game are incredibly vague. Players only have one button to press, yet you can time things identically and get very different results. Spoons are one of the main objects in the game, and they are the prime example of frustrating design. The blowfish may not always come to rest in the centre of the spoon. When you flick it, the blowfish will fly off course, meaning you’ll need to restart the level. Sometimes the blowfish will rest in the middle, and the button press will strangely arc the blowfish, missing the goal entirely. The game isn’t tracking touch sensitivity, so I’m not sure what the problem is aside from wonky physics, but it utterly plagued my playtime. Levels that should be quite simple end up becoming slogs, taking 20 attempts to pass something that felt out of my control. Then the game introduces flippers and direction changes, and the physics struggle to handle that, too. My blood boiled. Not because the game is hard, but because it didn’t feel fair or accurate.
That sense of “something’s off” extends to the game assets, key art, and general sluggishness of the entire game and its UI. It certainly doesn’t feel optimised. For me, I tapped out at halfway because I found the enjoyment of success was dwarfed by the incredibly frustrating potluck approach to physics. Whilst not quite a like-for-like replica, Super Rolling Heroes Deluxe barrels over this and will placate your skill-based rolling ball chaos generator fix with plenty more fun. A generous 5/10. Recommended for the masocists only.
Higher Plain Games is part of the Higher Plain Network. If you like what I do, please consider supporting me via Patreon for as little as $1/£1 a month. There are additional perks for supporting me, such as behind-the-scenes content and downloads. You can also share the website or use the affiliate buy now links on reviews. Buying credit from CD Keys using my affiliate link means I get a couple of pence per sale. All your support will enable me to produce better content, more often. Thank you.
