Overball (2003) is a Puzzle Game created by Escape Factory and distributed by WildTangent Games. The game is a puzzle/adventure game in which you move your ball over flower beds to plant flowers on your way to reach the exit. You also have to avoid monsters, but they can be removed by finding the only powerup the game offers: bombs. The standard Collect Mode allows you to go at a leisurely pace, but the Timed Mode puts pressure on the player to complete within the limit.
Tropes present in this game include:
- Action Bomb: You turn into one the second you pick up a bomb. You only have a couple of seconds before you return to your normal state.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: If you get a certain amount of stars per level, the only award the game gives you is a bronze, silver, or gold skin for your ball, which will be lost the first time you die with the skin.
- Bottomless Pit: Falling into the gigantic plane at the bottom of each level means instant death.
- Combos: Getting 13 flowers in a row will award you with a star.
- Flower Motifs: The game will not let you pass through gates until you plant a certain quota of the flowers.
- Forced Tutorial: Even if you intentionally do not click the "Tutorial" button, the very first level will show popus anyway upon planting flowers, collecting bombs, etc.
- Fragile Speedster: Unless you are carrying the bomb powerup, you will die the instant you touch any of the 3 enemy types.
- Frictionless Ice: Though you still maintain a decent amount of control at lower speeds, the physics of the game make the ice tiles behave like this if you encounter them at high speeds.
- Leap of Faith: As mentioned above, some of the last levels require you to build enough momentum to get over the gaps.
- Mad Marble Maze: Every level involves wandering around, avoiding monsters and falling, and reaching the exit.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Collide with a monster without a bomb powerup, and you lose a life.
- Recycled Premise: The levels are all the same in Collect Mode and Timed Mode, with the sole difference between the two being the timer.
- Sequence Breaking: Normally, the gates will not open until you have met certain quotas of flowers. However, with the design of some levels you can gain enough momentum to jump over the edge of a higher platform to reach a lower one, bypassing all the gates between them.
- Super-Speed: Touching the accelerator squares will cause you to be pushed forward, leading to this trope if you move in the same direction it is pushing you in.
- Timed Mission: In addition to the obvious Timed Mode, the bomb powerup expires after only a few seconds, and you must move very quickly to kill the monsters in time.
