Somersault

In ‘Somersault,’ players control Bally, a character on a mission to rescue his friends from a villain across 21 levels set in five distinct worlds: forest, candy, psychedelia, crystals, and machines. The game blends side-scrolling platformer elements with unique paddle-based mechanics, where players indirectly steer Bally—who rolls into a ball—by drawing and adjusting paddles in mid-air using mouse controls. Similar to Breakout or pinball, paddle length and angle determine trajectory and force, with a rainbow preview aiding strategy. Alongside avoiding hazards like enemies, fire, and water, Bally collects rings and manages limited lives, offering a mix of puzzle-like challenges and precision gameplay.

Somersault: Review

A Whimsical Physics Puzzler Lost Between Innovation and Execution

Introduction

In the annals of indie gaming history, few titles embody the creative ambition and technical limitations of the late 2000s quite like Somersault. Released in October 2008 by the small German studio Enter-Brain-Ment GmbH, this shareware oddity attempted to merge the precision of Breakout with the charm of a side-scrolling platformer. Two decades later, Somersault stands as a fascinating artifact—a game bursting with imagination yet hamstrung by its era’s constraints and design missteps. This review posits that while Somersault’s inventive core mechanics and whimsical aesthetic warrant admiration, its punishing difficulty, lack of player-friendly systems, and minimal narrative depth relegate it to a footnote in gaming history, emblematic of indie experimentation before the genre’s renaissance.

Development History & Context

Enter-Brain-Ment GmbH—a fledgling studio with fewer than ten credited team members—developed Somersault during a transitional period for indie games. The late 2000s saw digital distribution platforms like Steam gaining traction, yet many developers still relied on shareware models, particularly in Europe. Built using the nascent Unity engine, Somersault leveraged the toolkit’s budding accessibility but faced limitations in physics simulation and visual polish.

The 2008 gaming landscape was dominated by AAA titans (Fallout 3, Gears of War 2) and casual breakouts (World of Goo), leaving little oxygen for experimental mid-tier projects. Enter-Brain-Ment’s vision—to create a “platformer without direct control”—was boldly against the grain. Players guided the protagonist Bally indirectly via mouse-drawn paddles, evoking Arkanoid meets Super Monkey Ball. Yet this ambition clashed with technological barriers: physics unpredictability and mouse-input latency plagued early builds, necessitating simplifications that diluted the concept’s potential.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Somersault’s narrative framework is threadbare but serviceable: the spherical hero Bally must rescue friends imprisoned across five themed worlds (forest, candy, psychedelia, crystals, machinery). Brief dialogue interludes introduce NPCs like a pecking bird or mischievous UFOs, but character development is nonexistent. Bally himself—a legless orange orb with a jaunty hat—relies purely on visual charm, lacking even basic emotive animations.

Thematically, the game explores perseverance through obstacle-course traversal, echoing classic platformers. Yet its storytelling is purely utilitarian: villainous motives are never explored, and captive friends exist only as macguffins. The real “narrative” emerges from the player’s struggle against the game’s systems—a meta-commentary on frustration that feels unintentional.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

At its core, Somersault is a physics-based puzzle-platformer. Players click and drag to create paddles that launch Bally through obstacle-laden levels. Key innovations include:
– Trajectory Preview: A rainbow arc forecasts Bally’s path, adding tactical depth.
– Dynamic Paddle Control: Holding the mouse button adjusts paddle angle mid-swing, mimicking pinball flippers.
– Environmental Hazards: Water pits, fire traps, and enemies (e.g., sentient blenders) demand precision.

Yet these systems are undermined by critical flaws:
– Unforgiving Punishment: One touch kills Bally, with limited lives replenished only by collectible hearts. Checkpoints are absent, forcing full-level replays.
– Input Lag: Mouse responsiveness falters during complex sequences, betraying precision-dependent gameplay.
– Pointless Progression: Collectible rings offer no unlocks or abilities, rendering them cosmetic.
– Static Difficulty: With no adjustable settings, Somersault assumes uniform player skill—a fatal flaw noted by Out of Eight’s 2009 critique: “Thinking everyone has the same skill level is a serious error.”

The UI exacerbates these issues: a rudimentary HUD displays lives/rings but lacks pause menus or hint systems. Nightmare-inducing sequences—like navigating Bally through rotating gears—highlight the absence of quality-of-life features standard by 2008.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Somersault’s five worlds demonstrate stark aesthetic contrasts, from sugary candy landscapes to grim mechanical factories. Art direction is delightfully surreal, with melting trees, neon-crystal caves, and Escher-esque machinery. Yet technical limitations muddy the vision: low-poly models, repetitive textures, and stiff animations betray the Unity engine’s early capabilities.

Sound design is similarly uneven. Benjamin Klüter’s soundtrack shifts appropriately between whimsical forest melodies and synth-heavy industrial beats, but sparse implementation leaves levels feeling sterile. Sound effects—a metallic clang for paddle swings, watery splashes for hazards—are functional but lack weight or variation. The result is an atmosphere that intrigues visually but fails to immerse.

Reception & Legacy

Upon release, Somersault garnered tepid reception. Out of Eight’s 63% review praised its originality but skewered its “difficulty too high and unadjustable,” noting the absence of online leaderboards or meaningful rewards. Player reviews on MobyGames echoed this, averaging 3/5 stars with complaints about repetitive trial-and-error gameplay. Commercially, it vanished into shareware obscurity, never achieving the cult status of contemporaries like Braid or World of Goo.

Historically, Somersault’s legacy is one of cautionary potential. Its paddle-drawing mechanic predated World of Goo’s physics innovations but lacked the refinement to inspire imitators. The game’s failure to balance challenge with accessibility foreshadowed debates around “Nintendo Hard” design in the indie boom. Today, it serves as a Time Capsule artifact—proof that novel ideas demand meticulous execution to thrive.

Conclusion

Somersault is a bittersweet testament to indie daring. Its fusion of Breakout dynamics and platforming creativity remains conceptually compelling, and its whimsical art direction hints at a loftier vision. Yet relentless difficulty, technical shortcomings, and a lack of narrative heart render it more frustrating than fulfilling. For game historians, it offers a poignant case study in pre-Minecraft indie limitations; for players, it’s a curiosity best experienced via retrospectives rather than revival. In the pantheon of forgotten gems, Somersault spins endlessly—a bold idea trapped in a flawed execution, yearning for the polish it deserved.