Rival Ball

Rival Ball
The logo for Rival Ball, as presented on its website
Developer(s)	Longbow Digital Arts
Publisher(s)	Longbow Digital Arts
Programmer(s)	Tom Hubina Rob McConnell
Composer(s)	SideWinder
Platform(s)	Windows 9x, NT, 2K, XP, Vista, 7 / Mac OS 8.6–9, OS X with CarbonLib 1.4 or later
Release date(s)	March 19, 2001
Genre(s)	Brick buster
Mode(s)	Single-player, hotseat, online multiplayer

Rival Ball is the direct sequel to the PC brick buster classic DX-Ball 2, adding a new branch to the series of DX-Ball games on the side of Longbow Digital Arts. Released on March 19, 2001, the game features the new dimensions of square shaped bricks and online split-screen multiplayer for 1-on-1 action. As an upgrade from DX-Ball 2, it also introduces a cursor-based layout with buttons for navigation; two new power-ups; the ability to save and resume games; and game options for randomising board order, setting timers, repeating board-sets, and choosing between four difficulty levels. As an added bonus, the game will also play all the original DX-Ball 2 boards, offering the experience of a classic game with rectangular bricks. With the addition of a Mac version announced on April 3, 2002,Rival Ball was eventually succeeded by Rival Ball Tournament in 2004. Rival Ball was also the first game from Longbow Games to succeed the passing of Seumas McNally (1979–2000), the company's founder and lead programmer.

The object of the game is to clear a field of bricks using a paddle and a ball. Most bricks are cleared upon impact with the ball, while some bricks may take multiple hits, be invisible, blast surrounding bricks, or appear unbreakable. Once all breakable bricks on the board have been cleared, the player advances to the next board. As bricks are being cleared, power-ups will frequently launch onto the screen (see Power-ups). The player may choose to catch these with the paddle, which in turn will bring about various effects in the game. For instance, some power-ups may speed up the brick-breaking process by introducing laser guns and explosives into play, while others may affect the difficulty by shrinking the paddle and speeding up the ball.

Standard Game offers the classic brick busting experience. The player may select a desired set of boards to play, whereas the game initially comes with two freeware board-sets of 4 boards each. As an added bonus, Rival Ball also includes the six demo board-sets from DX-Ball 2, with support for the five respective board packs from the game. Before a game starts, the player may set additional game options, including difficulty, time limits, randomised board order, and board-set repeat. The difficulty levels range from Easy to Medium, Hard and Impossible, and will determine several factors for the game. As the game's default setting, Medium implies a standard game with no specific alterations. On the other hand, Easy lets the player start with a big ball and expanded paddle, with the paddle size being fixed to not contract beyond the initial width. Easy also excludes three of the game's Power-Ups, including Death, Tiny Ball and Mega Shrink. If the chosen difficulty is Hard, the game starts with the regular paddle size, but a small ball. While the paddle cannot be expanded beyond its initial width in this mode, the ball can only grow to its regular size. Hard is also the only difficulty setting to introduce timed power-ups, where the effects from Blitz Ball, Laser, Fire Ball, Ice Ball and Catch are only temporary. The last difficulty setting is Impossible. While all power-ups are absent in this mode, the game starts with the most narrow paddle size and a tiny ball fixed at the highest speed. The additional game options are optional and can be used in conjunction with one another. By enabling Time Limit, the player may compete against the clock with settings of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 minutes to complete a board-set. Random Boards will randomise the order of the boards in the chosen board-set. Lastly, Repeat Board-Set will repeat the total set of boards up to ten times in a row. When the player has completed a board, a Board Bonus will be added to the total score. Constituted by three elements, the player may earn a 'Balls Left' bonus rewarding 50 points for each additional ball left on the screen; a 'Perfect Ball' bonus rewarding 500 points if no balls were lost during the board; and a 'Perfect Brick' bonus of 250 points if all bricks were cleared. In addition to the Board Bonus, the completion of a board-set will also be summarised by a Set Bonus, consisting of a 'Paddles' bonus rewarding 250 points for each remaining paddle left; a 'Perfect Bricks' bonus rewarding 3000 points if all bricks were cleared across the entire set; and a secondary 'Perfect Ball' bonus rewarding 4,000 points if the board-set was completed without losing a single ball. Aside from single player, Standard Game also features a Hot-Seat multiplayer mode. In this mode, players take turns to clear a board-set, playing through the same boards successively, while competing to achieve the highest score. Turns are changed either when one player completes a board or loses a life, and the game goes on until all players have either finished the board-set or lost all spare paddles.