Game guide and Review: Yooyuball

I normally go in order of game id numbers, but I figured with the Altador Cup IV going on it would be a good time to get around to doing Game Guides and Reviews for the Altador Cup games. The first being Yooyuball. If you have a request for a guide on a specific Neopets game, then just comment on any of my game guide posts and I will put that on top of my list of games to review. When I do not have requests, then I will just continue going in order by id number.

Yooyuball

Yooyuball is pretty much a soccer game played with the live Yooyuball. There is a normal Yooyuball, but there are also some special balls to deal with when they are randomly the ball in play. The main controls are using the mouse to play. You hover over the player you want to control and then move your mouse to control where you want them to go. You then click to have them pass or shoot the ball. These are the only controls I ever use, but there are some others I will explain in a little bit.

The first thing you choose when starting the game is what side you want your team to defend. I always choose to have my team on the left, but it is purely a matter of what works best for you. You might want to try each way a few times to find what helps you get better results.

The next option is to choose what formation you want your team to play in. I like to always choose the 2-2 position, but some might prefer the 1-3 or 3-1 depending on if you want more forwards or defense. All I know is I also prefer when the other team plays with the 2-2 as it is easier to get to the goal and score. The one with 3 defenders in the back makes it the hardest to get lined up for a good shot, but not impossible, just more time consuming.

There are seven different types of Yooyuballs. The normal one acts as you would expect. The Fire one goes fast. The Snow one goes slow. The Faerie moves in an arch type pattern that can be hard to figure out for passing, but you can easily score with it if you get close directly facing the goalie and shoot it as it bends around them and in once you get the hang of where to do it. The Darigan one goes off mostly in the direct opposite direction you would expect. This one takes some practice for learning to score with, but it is actually not too hard. The Mutant one can act like any of the balls except the Clockwork one. This one can be hard to score with because you never really know how it is currently acting. The final ball is the Clockwork one. This one you usually only have one or two chances to get it in the goal before it blows up, as it blows up after only about ten seconds in play.

The game is pretty easy in my opinion, although I do still get scored on every once and a while. I do not remember ever losing, but I have tied a few times. I stick with the simplistic controls of just using the mouse, but there are a few more complex things to use if you want. You can use left and right or A and D to toggle between players, space or S to select or unselect players, and up to move players back to their original position. Only the up one seems useful to me, but I find taking my hand off my laptop mouse to move over to the up button not worth the time since it gives the other team more of a chance to score. If I was using a desktop, though, I could see it working well with the left hand while I use the mouse with my right.

Overall I think this is a fun game because it is not always the exact same. It is not always challenging, but every once in a while it is because of the formation of the opponents. Plus, it gives you the most rank points per win, as it gives a whole point per win (half for draw) and the other three games only give a fractional point per score sent.