An underappreciated platformer worth a look.
The visuals are nice and colorful, with a funky and unique look to the game with each of the levels seeming eerily familiar, but retaining their own style. The Roman Level, the Tropical Level, the Horror Level, just to name some, are treacherous and surprisingly fun to mess around with.
The gameplay focuses around Glover moving the crystal through each level and a boss fight, then returning it to the spring underneath the castle in the hub world. The game makes you think on how to use the ball, or just to use Glover for certain situations. Glover has the ability to transform the ball into several other balls: The iron ball is used to sink in water, get through tight spaces, or in magnetic puzzles. The bowling ball is used to attack enemies, sink in water, or activate switches. The Rubber Ball is used to reach high places, float on water, or get the ball to normally unreachable places. A cheat unlocks the superball, which is a rubber bouncy ball used to reach even higher places. The original crystal is useless in most situations as it can shatter very easily, but it can be used to get double points on Garibs, the collectible items in the game. There are also a number of potions used in the game to further gameplay, such as super strength, super speed, the death spell, the flying potion, or the frog spell, which turns your enemies into frogs you can ride. The game is stingy with these, but when you find one, the game becomes a lot more fun.
The game is very kind to beginner players as every level in the game has a guide named Mr. Tip who teaches basics and advanced moves to the player. The best thing about him is that he is an optional character to talk to. He is the only character with any lines in the game, the rest is explained through cutscenes or character animation. Mr. Tip can be skipped by a veteran player with little annoyance received. The game is remarkably simple, yet sometimes very hard to figure out, so more experienced gamers may have some challenge with the title.
The sound and music is a little dated at this point, my only gripe with the game.The music is lighthearted and fun, but sounds tired and old by today's standards. The sound effects are funny, but can be a little immature at times (the cheat codes are implemented by the c-buttons, and each one is accompanied by its own bodily sound effect. You can guess which ones).
The game is short, but can be replayable just for the bonus levels. These levels can only be unlocked on the Normal difficulty by collecting all the Garibs on the three stages of each level. Each bonus level is loosely based to a blatant copy of classic arcade and home console games. One turns Glover into a frog and has him jumping on logs to collect Garibs, guess what game that sounds like.
Overall, it is an overlooked platformer for the 64 I think could be considered an underrated classic. It is well designed, has an easy to pick-up-and-play premise, and has just enough to keep you hooked and challenged. This thing is a gem in the rough. Would I consider it a diamond? No, but it is an easy Sapphire.