![]() ![]() The ball will go where you hit it, but the aiming in Racket: NX is very strange and not like any other racket sport I’ve ever played. If you hit the ball, it might bounce off the walls of the dome…or it might travel across the dome, sticking to it as if controlled by magnets. However, this isn’t consistent, sometimes you might hit the ball gently, and the ball will ricochet several times, but you also might hit the ball quite hard, or rather, use a lot of force in your swing, since the ball isn’t actually there, and the ball will simply bounce off once. The ball never just falls to the ground, but it will always eventually come back to where you are, standing in the center of the arena…from no matter where it is. The ball never stops moving unless time in the arena has also stopped. The ball only appears to adhere to some of the rules that apply to the rest of us. The physics in Racket: NX are internally consistent, but not earthly. The faster you clear all the targets in each wave of the challenge, the higher your score. Each challenge has several “waves” to complete before you pass. The targets eventually start snaking around the arena and become a lot harder to hit bumpers/stoppers are introduced that prevent you from hitting at certain angles the number of boosters in each wave decreases, etc. In the Solo Mode Campaign, There are four levels (basics, advanced, hardcore, insane) each containing 5 challenges, increasing in difficulty as you progress. If you hit the red-power draining hexes (that look like space invaders), your energy decreases, as does your time. If you hit boosters in the arena (represented as blue + signs), your time increases. Your time is determined by an energy bar located near the bottom of the dome. Your goal of the game is to hit all the targets before your time runs out. You never lose the ball, you only have the one racket (as opposed to multiple controls), and it lacks the whimsy of a pinball game and gives off a more intense feeling. There are pinball elements to the game, like gutters, bumpers, and stoppers, but they’re more tributes inspired by pinball rather than anything that really gives you the feeling that you’re in a pinball machine. ![]() Consequently, you are turning around quite a bit during gameplay. I don’t have a ton of room in my apartment and having to move even a few feet in any direction would end in me slamming into something, guardian be damned. ![]() Thankfully, there isn’t a lot of lateral movements on your end. You feel like you’re in a giant futuristic arena, even if your play space is only a few square feet. You stand in the center, like the charming snowman in the center of a giant hexagonal snowglobe. For one thing, the arena is a giant geodesic globe. I feel like that’s a little too simplistic. Racket: NX markets itself as a combination of racquetball and pinball. Well, ok…Both have a racket, and both use a ball. Racket: NX, by developer One Hamsa, is not ping pong, and the two are not even remotely the same. “Another racket game? Is this just another version of Racket Fury?” Racket Fury, for those who haven’t downloaded it: Its competitive ping pong. When I first heard about Racket: NX, my first reaction was the same as many. ![]()
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