''Sticky Balls'' is a 2005

puzzle video game Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, Sequence, sequence solving, Spatial ability, spatial recognition, ...

developed by Gizmondo Studios in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and released on the

Gizmondo The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console developed by Gizmondo Europe. Its development was led by Swedish entrepreneur Carl Freer, who served as chairman of its parent company, Tiger Telematics. The device was originally launched on 19 Marc ...

handheld system. The game was originally designed by Ste and John Pickford and was developed for various platforms, but at the end only the Gizmondo version materialized, and the Pickford brothers had no involvement in this version. ''Sticky Balls'' was

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desig ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

in 2014.

Gameplay

''Sticky Balls'' uses a pool-like interface where the player utilizes a spring-loaded rod to shoot brightly colored balls at each other. Bouncing the balls against the table walls doubles the score of the shot but hitting a ball of a different color, or failing to hit anything causes the player to lose a turn. Rather than pocketing the balls in a pocket like in a traditional pool game, the balls must be stuck together in groups of seven to win the stage. As the game progresses, additional power-ups, bonuses and stage designs offer new challenges.

Development and release

It was initially developed by Zed Two for

Pocket PC A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile operating system, which is based on Windows Embedded Compact, Windows CE/Windows Embedded Compact, and that has some of the abilities of modern ...

s. After Zed Two was bought out by Warthog, a version was in development for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

, until Warthog was bought out by

Tiger Telematics Tiger Telematics, or Tiger, was a Swedish electronics company, best known for the failed Gizmondo handheld game console. History In 2000, Carl Freer formed Eagle Eye Scandinavian, a small electronics distribution business in Sweden. In 2002 th ...

and development was switched to the Gizmondo, eventually releasing on May 24, 2005. It became the most popular game on the Gizmondo platform.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Team Soho was a British video game developer based in Soho, London. It was formerly the video game development division of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe before being spun off to develop ''The Getaway'' series; a second unit at Cambridge ...

expressed interest in publishing a version for the

, and although development on a PSP version began, the release failed to materialize before Zed Two's closure. On May 23, 2014, Fast Pixel Games Ltd released ''Sticky Balls'' on iOS devices under the name ''Sticky Balls Classic''. It was popular enough to spawn a sequel, ''Sticky Balls Soccer'', released on June 29, 2014. Four versions of ''Sticky Balls'' ultimately existed before the title was initially commercially released. Two distinct versions, one for Pocket PCs and one for personal computers, although both completed, never released, while a third for PlayStation Portable was cancelled. The fourth version for Gizmondo was the one ultimately released, although the Pickford Brothers were not involved in the Gizmondo version as Zed Two had been sold to Warthog prior to the decision to develop a Gizmondo version being made. The decision to implement the 'golf-like gameplay' was made after the Pickford Brothers left development.

References

External links

2005 video games Cancelled PlayStation Portable games Gizmondo games IOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Puzzle video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Zed Two games {{Puzzle-videogame-stub