iambic has officially entered the PalmOS gaming arena with their first venture, Ababall.

Fans of the classic game of Arkanoid will recognize Ababall immediately: you take control of a paddle at the bottom of a screen full of blocks and you attempt to remove these blocks by deflecting a ball with the paddle.  Missing the ball will result in the loss of a paddle.

Along the way, the blocks, upon being destroyed by your ball, could release power-ups such as extra paddles, longer paddles, extra points, and paddles that can fire lasers at the blocks to destroy them (my personal favourite!).  But be careful!  Some of these extras could turn out to be traps such as a smaller paddle (making it harder to deflect the ball), reversed direction (moving left will move the paddle right), or even death!

Clones of Arkanoid have graced the PalmOS in the past...but not like this!

Ababall sports the most impressive 2-D and 3-D animation of any Palm game available today.  I have not seen such fluid animation on the Palm, ever!  This is evident from the moment you start a game and a block bounces on a platform on the title screen.

The controls of the game are easy to learn.  Simply use the Datebook and Address book hard buttons to move the paddle left and right.  Alternatively, you can use your stylus to move the paddle.  Simply place your stylus anywhere on the screen (including the silkscreen area) and move left and right to control the paddle.

Since receiving this game for review, I have been quite addicted to it.   There are 32 stages available, each one with a new and exciting layout, and each one more difficult than the last.  I have only been able to get to stage 10 or 11 as each one gets harder than the last.  Nonetheless, it's the kind of game that makes you come back to beat your last score!

Ababall has been designed with colour PalmOS devices in mind, but will still run on Grayscale devices running PalmOS 3.1 and above.  To really experience Ababall to the fullest, you must see it on a colour device.

Iambic has definitely outdone themselves with their first game.  Ababall is certainly a treat for the eyes and the ears!  It’s almost too bad that this game is so good; now we’ll expect all of iambic’s future games to top this one!.  I’m sure that won’t be an easy task!

If you are a true Palm Gamer, buy this game!  You won't be sorry.