SpiritSphere bills itself as a cross between air hockey and Zelda, and its not wrong. Presented in a highly 8-bit style (read large areas of bland colours) you are a character in a large air hockey arena, along with an opponent in the other half of the arena.
The goal of the game, surprisingly is to get the ball into your opponents goal 3 times. Each player has multiple moves with which to send the ball where they wish. There is a light attack, which bounces the ball off in the direction you aim it in as well as a stronger attack you can charge up for a faster shot. There is a dash you can use to position yourself in front of the ball to gracefully redirect it back the way it came.
As well as your inbuilt abilities, you can pick up tools from around the arena to use. There is a bow which can fire three arrows, If one of these arrows hits your opponent they will be stunned for a second, maybe giving you just enough time to curve a shot around them and into the goal. A large dropable shield will stay in place and reflect the ball a few times before disappearing, giving you a smaller area to defend. There are also potions that can make your character much bigger, or the opponent much smaller. For some reason the international league of air hockey does not have an official stance of transformation potions, but I hope this will be rectified quickly.
Items are collected by hitting skeleton things that’ll hop into the arena from the bleachers. Most of them will just stand stock-still but a few will roam the arena, adding yet more moving objects for you to keep up with. Some of the skeletons will shoot at you or the ball, while others might slowly try and intercept the ball, either helping you or the opposition.
There are 7 characters to unlock throughout the game. Some of them are more of less the same bar graphical changes, but there are a few characters which require different playstyles. There is Ozo, who appears to be a cross of a wizard and a ghost. The normal attack hits spheres in front of it, the powerful attack hits balls to the sides and the dash function is replaced with a short range teleportation ability, which if used well can quickly save what otherwise would be a goal. There is Kao, who can throw animals around to block and angle the ball, and Taya, who can throw fireballs forward to hit the ball before it reaches her, which can be useful if the other player is expecting the ball to travel further and so now needs to race back.
Breaking items and scenery on a map will drop coins which can be collected. Coins are given very liberally and can fairly quickly build up. The way to unlock more spheres to play with are to throw 100 coins into the sphere pool, which can be accessed from the main menu. Each 100 coin transaction will randomly give you a sphere which you can then use in custom games. There are many different spheres, each with their own specific play styles.
There are different enemies to beat, as well as many different types of balls, or more accurately spheres. Spheres that spawn a fireball when hit, a sphere that will sometimes split into two (this can happen several times to hilarious/disastrous effects), a sphere that will disappear for short amounts of time, and lots more.
There is one specific sphere, the dark sphere, which has a slightly more complex mechanic. When hit, it will split into 3 separate spheres, all on slightly different courses. If you manage to hit one of the spheres, the other 2 will disappear and play will resume as normal. If however, you don’t hit one of the spheres within a few seconds, then one of the spheres will stick around and the two others will de-spawn. This can be a really stressful sphere to play with when regularly clutching plays. Having to quickly decide which of the three spheres to go for, and if you’re not quick enough its quite likely that the sphere you’re about to hit will disappear and you’ve just lost a point.
Also included is a multiplayer only squash mode. In this mode 2 players take turns hitting the sphere against the back wall. A small sword will hover over the head of the player who’s turn it currently is to help and identify turns during a hectic round. The way to score points in this round is to either get the other player to touch the sphere when its not their turn, or for the ball to hit the other wall during your opponents turn. While the mode is easy to understand what you get the hang of it, a graphical cue to which wall the ball is supposed to bounce off would be very helpful as currently both walls are identical.
SpiritSphere is a top-notch couch competitive, which I can easily see playing with friends. Keyboard controls, although fine for single player, will force you to play a mini-game of twister if two players are using the same keyboard. The actual controls for keyboard are a little janky as well, but my xbox controller worked like a charm. 4 player co-op games for the pc are becoming less popular these days, but its nice to see a enjoyable NES inspired game making a comeback.
