There have been so many classic games that just never received home console ports for one reason or another. One of these classics was the arcade gem Nitro Ball from Data East, which remained an arcade exclusive until now. Thanks to FTE Games and the Johnny Turbo’s Arcade line, Nitro Ball has finally seen a console release on the Nintendo Switch. FTE Games provided me with a code to check out the game and I must say i was impressed with the results.
Nitro Ball plays a lot like Smash TV, in that they are both run n gun games based on the idea of a violent game-show, but there are differences here. Nitro Ball fully embraces the idea of games within a game by virtue of some truly inspired power ups. These include turning into a ball as if it were a pinball game, to destroy all your enemies and collect dropped items for points. The more of the game I played, the more off the wall it felt and I wanted more. The best part of course, is that the three player multiplayer is completely preserved here, and it all flowed naturally.
I have spoken in the past about just how well done the Johnny Turbo’s Arcade line is, and the high production values, but Nitro Ball takes it to the next level. The port does its best to recreate the arcade experience and therefore it offers the option to play in vertical mode when you are playing the Switch in handheld mode. This helps to truly recapture how the arcade version played, and sadly when the screen is not rotated, the game does look a little too tiny. This isn’t an issue when playing in docked mode though, and to be honest, I think the compromises made here were very fair.
Nitro Ball may be the high point of the Johnny Turbo’s Arcade line so far and is one that everyone with a Switch should check out. It is a brilliant game that was left in the arcade for too long.