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Date: Jan. 19, 2005 Title: Before its time: a breakthrough unnoticed. Author: Don Komarechka

Graphics: 9/10 Gameplay: 8/10 Sound: 6.5/10 Overall: 8/10

Preface:
If you power on your Gameboy with a copy of Faceball 2000 in the game slot, you’re in for a very unique experience. Faceball 2000 is the only Gameboy game that will take you into the first person perspective of a H.A.P.P.Y. F.A.C.E., or Holographically Assisted Physical Pattern Yielded For Active Computerized Embarkation. Placed in a 3-dimensional maze and pitted against other Geometric Holograms, you are given a task. In Cyberscape you must navigate mazes and labyrinths in search of the exit, fighting increasingly difficult "Smiloids" as you pass tests of skill. In Arena you are thrown into a maze with up to 8 Smiloids, or up to 16 other players in a death-match to see who can reach 10 tags before the others. Sounds exciting? Well, lets take a closer look...

Graphics:
Usually it’s best to compare the graphics of a particular game to other games of the genre on the same platform. This isn’t exactly possible here, as there are no other games like it for the original Gameboy. Graphically, the game is represented in 3 dimensions. You travel through mazes with untextured walls and your opponents are pre-rendered geometric shapes with faces. Its very simplistic in its design, but given technological limitations it does a great job of it.
One thing that you’ll probably notice right off the bat is that the frame-rate is quite low and noticeably choppy especially when you and turning. After a few moments of playing you get used to this, but I wish a little more time was spent on getting a smoother feel out of the game’s engine. Another thing you should notice fairly quickly is the ammunition in the game. What seems to be small round balls are fired forward towards your enemies, completely untextured and bland. Something that would have easily been able to be shaded, but that’s just picking at things.
Graphically this game accomplishes a great deal, that one of the reasons many people buy this game is just to see the game in action. This game is a gem in the graphics department, although a few tweaks here and there would have made it a diamond.

Gameplay:
You’ll probably be playing most of your single-player games in Cyberscape, where you travel through maze after maze search for the exit. As you start out the levels are blindingly simple, but it doesn’t take long for some aspects such as keys, switches, and Power-Ups come into play. In the earlier levels strategy really doesn’t come into play as you are pretty much able to blast your way through and only the most careless people will lose a life. As the levels progress, however, thinking starts to come into play and accessing your map (select) becomes a useful tool. Some Smiloids become intelligent and try to seek you out before you have a chance to destroy them, and the switches and keys can make for a confusing time in some mazes. There are also upgrades you come across on your way through the game, such as speed boosting items and armor that can help you decide how to reach the flashing door at the end of the level. All in all it’s a good time, but the replay value isn’t anything special. Once you’ve beaten the mazes there isn’t really much fun is beating them again unless you are picking the game up again months or years after the last time you played. The real replay value comes from the multplayer.
One of the most interesting things about this game is the ability to play with 16 players if you are able to get the hardware to do so. This is something that isn’t in the reference books at Nintendo, and is another feature this game has that isn’t seen anywhere else. Although I haven’t had the luxury of playing 16 players, I have been able to experience 4-player matches. The multiplayer aspect of this game is really something special, as you are not simply playing "beside" someone as you would in Tetris, where you play your own individual game and periodically hinter your opponents progress. In Faceball 2000 its true head-to-head-to as many heads as you want free for all where your goal is to take out as many of your friends (or Smiloids) as you can before they take out you. The concept is simple, fun, and when playing with friends can do well into the night.
Faceball 2000 has some really solid gameplay elements, but it is far from flawless. You’ll notice the repetitiveness of the single player Cyberscape after about level 15, and it can become a bore looking at the same walls in a different pattern over and over again. The multiplayer is fun and you have a wide selection of levels, but once the ‘wow’ factor wears off it may leave some people yawning. These are minor things when you look at the big picture, and see how impressive the gameplay really is.

Sound:
From what you hear of sound in the game, you’ll probably like it. The title screen tune is catchy if you sit and listen to it and the level music is very fitting for the type of game. One of the letdowns of this title is there is no variety in the level music. It’s the same composition for every level, every arena, all the time. If there was time to design the game’s engine, and 70+ levels, there should have been time to add a few extra songs. What is in the game is good, but it just needs more.

Conclusion:
So much has been accomplished with this title its hard to even notice any downsides. While the game could have been left in the development oven a tiny bit longer, I think what came out is worthy of being a prized possession in any gamer’s collection. Faceball 2000 will go down in the books as being one of the only Gameboy games I used to make my friends’ jaws drop, and with good reason. We have a solid game that pushed the console to levels that Nintendo never meant for it to go, and it shines. Too bad it was just a little before its time.