Buster Ball

n/a

Buster Ball
System(s): Sega Game Gear
Publisher: Riverhill Soft
Developer: Riverhill Soft
Peripherals supported: Gear-to-Gear Cable
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1992-03-20 ¥3,800 (3,914)3,800e T-53027

Buster Ball (バスターボール) is an action and sports game for the Sega Game Gear. It was only released in Japan.

Gameplay

Gameplay

Buster Ball is a futuristic sports game, similar to Speedball. Gameplay resembles soccer or hockey and uses an overhead perspective. Two teams of robotic hovercraft compete on long fields to try to put a glowing pod-like ball into the opposing team's goal. There are no goalies, so the goals are undefended. The field is divided into multiple sections by impassable electric fences; each team has two players in each section and can only move the ball between the sections by tossing it over. Sections also contain obstacles such as bumpers that repel players and the ball, mines that explode when a player touches them, and thatched areas that speed up or slow down players moving over them. Goals are normally worth one point, but they increase by one point every time the ball rebounds off a bumper (which is indicated by a screen flash).

Games are divided into two halves of 30, 60, or 90 seconds. In the first half, the player one's goal is toward the bottom and player two's goal is toward the top, but this reverses after halftime. At the start of each half, the players are arranged in equal distances around the ball in the middle of the field and compete to gain possession. After a team scores, the players are likewise arranged around the ball in the middle of the field, but the team that did not score starts with its players closer to the ball so they can gain possession easier.

Players are moved in any direction using the D-Pad. Control automatically goes to the player who is closest to the ball.

When the team does not have possession of the ball, players can dash forward with or . Holding the button and releasing it charges ahead. Charging into another player can be used to gain possession of the ball. The power of the charge depends on how long the button is held before releasing (with the arrow by the player changing color to indicate the power). Moderately powerful charges knock opposing players back, while the most powerful charges temporarily disable the opposing player on impact. The charge also transfers when control transfers to another player.

When the team has possession of the ball, players can throw the ball with or . Holding the button and releasing it throws it farther, depending on how long the button is held. Players on offense cannot dash, so they are encouraged to pass to compensate for having worse mobility than defenders.

Modes

There are three modes:

• Open Mode: Plays a single game against a computer opponent or another human with a Gear-to-Gear Cable.
• Buster League: Plays a series of games in a league format, with a password for continuing. Halves are always 60 seconds long in this mode.
• Training Mode: Plays a single game against a computer opponent that initially does not play (until the player scores a goal).

Teams

There are nine different teams, whose names and logos resemble those of Japanese car manufacturers of the time.

	Toyoda
	Resembles Toyota.
	Nikkan
	Resembles Nissan.
	Wonda
	Resembles Honda.
	Nazda
	Resembles Mazda.
	Misuzu
	Resembles Isuzu.
	MMG
	Resembles Mitsubishi.
	Suzuka
	Resembles Suzuki.
	ダイハク
	Resembles Daihatsu.
	Sugaru
	Resembles Subaru.

Colosseums

Different colosseums vary in the number of sections and the obstacles that they contain.

• Sapporo
• Sendai
• Tokyo
• Nagoya
• Osaka
• Fukuoka

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
Japanese	バスターボール	Buster Ball

Magazine articles

Main article: Buster Ball/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-01: "January 1992" (1991-12-07)
also published in:

• Mega Drive Fan (JP) #25: "February 1992" (1992-01-08)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-04: "April 1992" (1992-03-07)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 58 Consoles + (FR) 30 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 53 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 60 Joypad (FR) 82 Joystick (FR) 82 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 73 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 70 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 60 Video Games (DE) 67

	63
Based on 10 reviews

Buster Ball

Game Gear, JP
Cover

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 7cb079d0 MD5 f7a8e4770c519175794522f66d42b27d SHA-1 5d67f38ec0c2e577a7ad88915849da696ad162aa	128kB		Cartridge (JP)