- "Nitro Ball is a Fast and Furious Action Game. Where the Player Blasts his way therough pinball worlds, collecting points and items while avoiding the goons and their evil devices."
… it also barely contains any plot, but here goes.
Nitro Ball (also known as Gun Ball in Japan) is a Data East action game apparently set inside a pinball machine. And it's an overhead Run-and-Gun-style shooter.
…wait, what?
Set within a game show called Nitro Ball, you are one of three lucky contestants after a lucrative cash reward, where you're transported into an arena built within an environment modeled after the interiors of pinball machines. You get a gun, explosives, and faces off against hordes and hordes of endless mooks, trying to survive as you blast your way ahead while collecting prizes like jewels, wads of money, gold, and assorted goodies.
Stages comes in a variety of different themes and flavours, including Strange Football set inside a Rugby Stadium, Combat Field throwing you into the heart of a warzone, Ghost Town which is entirely supernatural-themed, the sci-fi Aliens World, and the final stage in a robot-occupied Space Station.
The game allows up to three players at once. Where your playable hero is either Gary the Ex-navy sergeant, Harry the Ex-police officer, or Sam the Ex-prize fighter.
See also Smash TV, another arcade top-down shooter with a similar premise.
The game is available for arcades and the Nintendo Switch.
Getting Ready to Roll for the Prize!
- 1-Up: An extra life is granted for every 2 million points scored.
- Bat Out of Hell: You'll be facing hordes and hordes of hostile vampire bats in the Ghost Town stage, especially when Dracula sic them on you en masse. And Dracula himself upon being killed disperses into several more bats.
- Be the Ball:
- One of the game's precise selling point - there are holes on the ground in various areas in each stage, and most mooks will, upon receiving enough damage, curl into a ball and start rolling. You're encouraged to send enemies rolling into holes, which will grant you extra points, with a bigger bonus at the end of the level for the number of "goals" scored using enemies.
- There's a "Ball" powerup (represented by a "B" icon) which turns you into a single rolling ball, where you then roll across the screen into enemies. You lose your guns as you're rolling, but you're invincible during the few seconds where the power-up is in effect.
- Blood Sport: The very premise of this game. You strap on rugby gear, gets a gun, enters a giant pinball machine and survive onslaughts from rolling pinballs to bullets fired from other contestants until you're the last participant alive.
- Cores-and-Turrets Boss: The boss of Space Station is a huge robot head fixed to the screen's center, completely immobile, and surrounded by turrets. Including two large, hard-to-destroy ones on his left and right.
- Ghost Town: The third stage is a rather literal example (it's even named as such!), filled with floating ghost enemies. That can't be killed, but shooting them disperses the ghosts causing them to bounce out the screen.
- Goofy Suit: There's a mooks are dressed in a chicken suit in the first stage, and a Piñata Enemy at that; shooting him will yield a ton of pickups.
- The Grim Reaper: One of the random enemies in the Ghost Town stage. Who takes potshots at you with his scythe and is invincible, but doesn't actively pursue you.
- Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: The boss of the football stage has a hockey mask and laser cannon on him. Shooting him enough will make the mask fall off though.
- Mecha-Mooks: The last stage, Space Station, is staffed by mostly robotic enemies.
- Mook Maker: The alien spawners from Aliens World will keep dispensing low-level alien mooks until you blow them apart.
- Power Floats: Dracula, the boss of the Ghost Town, doesn't need to walk when he spends the whole battle floating.
- Rolling Attack:
- The first boss, an overweight and oversized Jason Vorhees-wannabe can role himself towards you as an alternate attack.
- Aliens World has mooks which rolls around trying to bump into you.
- Sentry Gun:
- Circular turrets shows up in the military base as immobile enemies.
- Space Station spawns a number of laser-firing turrets on you.
- Tanks for Nothing: Tanks shows up in the second level, a military-themed stage, but despite taking up a massive chunk of the screen they're nowhere as durable as they look. The game allows you 10 seconds to destroy them, but should you save a Smart Bomb for them you'll get the job doen in four.
