Red Ball 3

Red Ball 3 is the third game of the Red Ball series. It features the same kind of physics platforming seen in the previous two games, but has more complex mechanics and a more involved plot.

Controls[]

Left/Right Arrow Keys: Move left/right
Up Arrow Key or Space Bar: Jump
R: Reset level

Plot[]

Red Ball is enjoying a lovely day and having a nice picnic with his girlfriend, Pink Ball, but all is not well...unbeknownst to the couple, one of Red Ball's jealous rivals, Black Ball, is watching them from the bushes seething with envy. He wants to get rid of Red Ball and have Pink Ball all to himself, so he ambushes Red Ball from behind, knocking him out cold, and then makes off with Pink Ball. Red Ball wakes up later to find Pink Ball missing, and guesses right away that Black Ball took her. So, he sets out to find Black Ball's hideout and save Pink Ball.

Gameplay[]

Red Ball 3 has you traverse a series of 20 levels, each one featuring a unique mix of puzzles and platforming challenges. In each level, you have to make it to the end without getting killed by any of the level's hazards, all while collecting as many stars as possible to earn points along the way. If you get killed by a hazard, you get sent back to the most recent checkpoint you reached.

The last level is different, though; it consists of a boss fight against Black Ball. In this fight, both you and Black Ball have a health bar and can deal damage by jumping on one another. Jump on Black Ball until he runs out of health to win the battle! After you beat Black Ball, a section of the floor will open up to reveal a bunch of buzzsaws, and Pink Ball will appear stuck in a cage directly above the buzzsaws. The cage will slowly lower itself, requiring you to smash into it before it reaches the buzzsaws to break Pink Ball out and save her.

Game Elements[]

Silver Star: Appears abundantly throughout the levels and is easy to get. Worth 10 points.
Gold Star: Appears more rarely than Silver Stars and in places that are harder to reach. Worth 50 points.
Checkpoint Flag: Appears somewhere in the middle of the level and acts as a checkpoint.
Finish Flag: Appears at the end of the level and takes you to the next level once you reach it.
Water: Can be swam in. You automatically float in water, but can swim in different directions using the arrow keys.
Crate: Can be pushed around and used as a stepping stone to reach higher places.
Wooden Plank: Can be pushed around and used as a bridge across large gaps.
Boulder: Can be pushed around and rolled on top of to bypass hazards such as Spikes.
Wrecking Ball: A Boulder that swings back and forth on a rope.
Trolley: A moving wooden platform that moves back and forth in a certain direction. Sometimes has to be activated by pressing a button or pushing a lever in order to get moving.
Bumper: A metal platform that rolls across the ground but has to be pushed to make it move.
Springboard: A spring-loaded platform that bounces you up when you jump on it.
Spring Plank: A wooden plank that sticks out from the edge of a platform and flings you up when you jump on its end.
Trapdoor: A weak wooden plank in the ground that can be broken by jumping on it.
Spikes: Kills you on contact.
Axe: Swings back and forth on a pendulum; the axe blade kills you on contact but the pendulum is harmless.
Punch Press: A huge metal pillar that constantly drops from the ceiling to press down on the ground. Kills you if you get crushed by it.

Trivia[]

Red Ball 3's storyline poses some discrepancy in the continuity of the series:
- In Red Ball 2, Red Ball was shown to be the king of the land where he lives, but from Red Ball 3 onward he seems to just be a normal guy with no ties to royalty. It could be that Red Ball gave up his title, but the series offers no explanation as to why he'd do that.
- Pink Ball is nowhere to be seen in Red Ball 4. In fact, Red Ball is shown to not be romantically involved at all up until the game's fifth chapter, where he's shown dating a female Red Ball instead of Pink Ball. Again, the series gives no explanation for how this came to be.
- Red Ball can swim in this game, but he can't in Red Ball 4. It could be that he somehow forgot how to swim sometime between the events of the two games, but this too goes unexplained.