King Oddball review for PS4

Platform: PS4
Also On: PS Vita
Publisher: 10tons
Developer: 10tons
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: E10+

Seeing as the PS4 version of King Oddball is exactly the same as the PS Vita version that came out a few months ago, it’s awfully tempting to just cut and paste my review of King Oddball Vita from February and call it a day. After all, everything I said then still stands now. It’s still really fun, and it’s still got minimal replay value.

In the interest of fairness, though, I should probably mention that even if there’s zero reason to replay the game after you’ve finished it, there’s still a decent amount of content you have to get through before you reach the end. There may not be any stars or high scores to chase after — you either beat a level, or you don’t — but there are 80 or so main levels, plus about twice as many bonus and hidden levels. So even if you won’t be spending hours and hours trying to master a level, you’ll still have plenty to do if you decide to get the game.

Of course, that’s the big question: is it worth picking up King Oddball for PS4? That depends entirely on whether you’ve already played it on the Vita. If you have, then — unless you’re a Trophy hunter drawn by the allure of a new set of trophies — there’s not much reason to play it again. Sure, it’s a Cross-Buy title, so it’s basically free, but again: it’s literally the exact same game, just on a bigger screen (unless, of course, you’re playing it remotely on your Vita).

And if you missed out on it first time around? In that case…why not, I guess? I don’t really get the allure of playing a game made for mobile (as a physics-based casual game, it’s practically made for mobile devices and portables) on a significantly more powerful machine and a significantly larger screen, but at the same time, I can’t deny that it’s an enjoyable time-waster.

Grade: B+