#IDARB is described as a collaborative work between two distinguished groups: Other Ocean and the people of the Internet (that’s you and me). Other Ocean has built a community via Twitter and used it as a key tool for feedback from the average gamer to make sure they turned the ‘red box’ they began with into something new and exciting – a game we should all feel we helped produce.
The end result is hard to describe, a nostalgic looking 8-bit semi-football, semi-basketball, semi-hockey, semi-Smash Brothers inspired, fast-paced interactive e-sport, both chaotic and rewarding making you smile and laugh, even when you’re getting your ass kicked.
#IDARB pits two teams against each other, there’s a ball in the centre to fight over and there’s two goals, one to score in and one to defend, Sound Familiar? However, #IDARB is so much more than a points scoring e-sport, over 4 short quarters you must navigate the ‘pitches’ platforms to gain control of the ball, avoid the other player stealing the ball from you and get into a position to score by throwing the ball into your opponents goal. Sounds easy right? You’re wrong!
#IDARB is very fast paced and you have to concentrate at all times because, well, literally anything could happen. Your reflexes, quick thinking and accuracy will be tested, you move and aim with the left stick which shouldn’t take long to master. If you miss a shot or lose the ball it could literally deflect anywhere on the screen, even back into your own goal giving free points to your opponent. You need to be ready for anything and this is helped by superbly responsive controls allowing you to feel in full control of your sprite (even its design, as #IDARB includes a pixel by pixel sprite editing suite!).
Scoring a goal is a challenge in of itself due to how fast and accurate you must be, but once you get that goal you do feel like you’ve earned it (emphasised by a crescendo of awesome goal scoring fanfares). The point system rewards the more skillful shots, or flukes, with higher points for the distance you shot from and a multiplier based on how skillful it is. This can be given either via bouncing your shot off a platform or via a basketball style alley-oop with your team mate. I played our very own Jack Reeve and scored 4 goals for two points in row only for Jack to bounce a long shot off a platform to score 5 points multiplied by 2 to take a 10-8 lead. So you always have the opportunity to score huge points from fewer shots to take or increase your lead, a thoughtful incentive to attempt more creative plays.
It’s not all about the scoring, as a key part of victory is defense. You can steal the ball off your opponent if you’re close enough, if not, you can predict your opponents movement and block or intercept their shot on your goal. You’ll often find yourself squabbling over the ball in the middle of the map, then suddenly shifting into an end to end sequence of failed shots until someone scores. Once again you have to respect the unpredictable nature of the ball so sometimes you have to ‘ice’ the ball to the other side of the map, just in case your opponents in a position to steal back right next to your goal.
What adds to the enjoyment of #IDARB is the nice little co-operative and comedic flare. I love the little touches like the latest tweets that include #IDARB are displayed at the bottom of the screen to see who’s playing it, including tweets from Other Ocean and if you listen carefully you’ll hear hilarious comments from the commentator. One of the most innovative ideas brought to life by #IDARB is the introduction of ‘Hashbombs’ which is more for the viewing audience via twitch. Each game has a unique hashtag at the top of the screen where people on twitter can tweet for certain events to occur in the game while you’re watching. This can be amusing but can also be very distracting, maybe even game changing for those close battles. Once again anything can happen in #IDARB.
One of my favourite inclusions is the half time entertainment for online games. These are series of fun mini-games that break up the main game perfectly, all whilst attempting to break your controller. These mini-games are random and could include a button bashing race, a frantic tank battle and even a homage to the NES classic Duckhunt against your opponent.
There are a lot of teams and character to choose from each with their own victory music and flag. However #IDARB allows you to create your own team of sprites from the ground up. You can create your own characters using the 8×16 block grid, create your own theme music using the easy to use in depth creator and design your team’s flag and name to appear in game.
#IDARB is fun 1v1 but truly comes alive when you have a few players on each team, working together to gain victory. However, #IDARB is up to 8 players locally which is an issue as I do not have 8 controllers or even 7 friends who can come round at the same time. 8 players would be easily arranged online however this is one of #IDARB’s perhaps crippling limitations. You can only enter 1v1 if it’s just you playing on your home Xbox. If you want to play 2v2 online then you’d need a friend sitting next to you as #IDARB only supports connections between two Xbox Ones. I feel this needs to be changed to prolong the life of #IDARB and is a common concern across Twitter. Feedback helped produce the game and Other Ocean have confirmed they’re looking at moving beyond Xbox to Xbox connections, throwing in the possibility of an expansion of online play – but I feel this will hinder the game when it launches through February’s Games with Gold promotion.
My only wish that I feel would improve the game is a choice of different map layouts and backgrounds. Also the introduction of different game types or rules. For example introducing a shot clock, once you hold the ball you have 7 seconds to shoot or the ball just fires off in any direction maybe to add to the chaos.
#IDARB as it stands is a crazy, fun and eclectic game which you can play for hours with your friends or against others, it will frustrate and overjoy in equal measure, and brings a unique approach to competitive gaming. Other Ocean should be proud of #IDARB. It is only the lack of online options lets it down, but Other Ocean are willing to listen to us as they continue to develop and evolve the game post launch.
This February every subscribing member on Xbox One will be able to download Other Ocean’s #IDARB for free via Games for Gold. Even if #IDARB wasn’t going to be available for all on launch, I’d still recommend picking it up… after all… you helped build it!
A.J. ‘Villz’ Staite was a community contributor to ICXM, writing 1 article in 2015 covering game reviews. ICXM operated as an independent Xbox and Windows gaming outlet through the Xbox One’s first full year of post-launch coverage, including the early days of Backwards Compatibility and Windows 10 gaming, drawing from a rotating bench of editorial volunteers. They post on X as @Villz85.