Thursday, July 26, 2012

FYI: Wizorb is now available via PSN

Not only that, but this "retro-flavored Breakout clone with a dash of RPG folded into it" is playable on PS3, PSP and Vita, as far as I'm aware.

I know for sure that it's playable on PSP, though, since I just bought it. Yes, that means I now own four "copies" of Wizorb--one each for my Mac, PC, PSP and Xbox 360.

A word of warning to those of you who are about to race to your PSPs and download this puppy: A bit of "frame-rate chug" weaseled its way into this particular version.



It doesn't ruin the experience--or at least it hasn't yet ruined it for me--but it is noticeable, not to mention a tad annoying, especially if you've spent some time with the Mac, PC or Xbox 360 releases.

Hopefully no such "chug" rears its ugly head while playing the game on a PS3 or Vita. Since I don't own either of those systems, though, I currently can't tell you if that's the case or not.

See also: 'A somewhat gay review of Wizorb (PC and XBLIG)' and 'Ten questions with the guys who created Wizorb'

6 comments:

Viewtiful_Justin said...

I'm surprised to hear of a framerate drop on a title like this! Disappointing.

But I bought the Steam version, so...I can play it on my Mac or the PC. I'm satisfied with that.

I love this game so far, but one thing I'm sort of bummed about is the fact that you have to complete a world in its entirety to save progress. Seems a little antiquated, especially when you may not want to play for an hour at a time.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Hey there, Justin! Yeah, I actually restarted the game a number of times just to make sure I wasn't imagining things. Strangely, most of the 'chug' occurs during the village segments of the game, which doesn't make much sense to me. I mean, you'd think any slowdown, etc. would happen during the bat-and-ball portions, wouldn't you?

I'll have to do some digging today to see if playing it on PS3 gets rid of the slowdown. I would imagine that's the case given the power of the system, but you never know.

I agree with your general complaint about the game, BTW. Actually, though, they've basically fixed that problem in this version, as you can now save and quit at any point. You don't return to the exact spot to saved in, though -- rather, you return to the beginning of the stage you were at (so, say, 1-4). Also, the score is reset.

So, I guess you could say this version is a bit better and a bit worse than the previous versions...

Viewtiful_Justin said...

Hm. I might have to get it just because of that--provided the PS3 version is the same.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Justin: I have a feeling they are the same, but I don't know that for sure. I'll do a bit of digging and see if I can find out for sure. Hopefully the PS3 version doesn't suffer from slowdown, though...

Unknown said...

I'm finally going to pick it up! Yay! I think it'll be really fun to play on the Vita. That's too bad bout the chug, though. I'll let you know if I notice anything (but since I haven't played the original I probably won't be able to comment unless it's really noticeable)

Bryan Ochalla said...

That's great, Anne! And, yes, please let me know if you notice any chug/slowdown/etc. It's actually pretty noticeable on the PSP -- during the village segments, at least -- so hopefully it'll be less so (or entirely absent) on the Vita.