Battle Flip Shot

Battle Flip Shot (バトルフリップショット) (sometimes also referred to simply as Flip Shot) is a 1998 ball-and-paddle game developed and published by Visco exclusively for the arcade cabinet known as the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware. It combines the genres of the Magnavox Odyssey Tennis game, Atari's Pong and Breakout arcades, and Nintendo's Spitball Sparky of the Game & Watch series. In 2001, Visco created and released Bang Bead, the follow-up to Battle Flip Shot.

Gameplay

Although the game is largely a Pong clone, it does introduce several twists to the gameplay. Players are depicted as humans wielding large shields rather than the "paddles" alone. The setting consists of various futuristic arenas; the game takes place in the first half of the 22nd century. The ball cannot leave the play area upon reaching the left or right edge of the screen, as those are also limited by walls, in addition to the typical upper and lower wall. Instead, there are single columns of targets located along both the side walls. Whenever the ball hits a target, it is eliminated and points are scored by the opponent of the targets' owner. In order to win a round, the player must direct the ball by deflecting it with his/her shield so that all of his opponents' targets are eliminated while retaining at least one of his own targets. The duration of rounds is also limited by time; in the event that time expires before one of the sides manages to achieve victory, the side with the most targets left in play is declared the winner of the round; should this result in a draw (when both players have an equal amount of targets left), both sides are awarded a win.

Another addition to the classic Pong gameplay is that not only are the players able to move sideways in addition to moving vertically (although neither can move into his/hers opponents' half of the arena), they are also able to "slide" in order to provide the player with a burst of speed to counter sudden threats.

The game allows to choose between five different ingame characters to play. Aside from different visuals on both the targets and the contestant, all characters are identical in regard to gameplay, with one exception. All characters are able to perform a "Special Attack" by pressing the A button while deflecting the ball. While for the majority of characters this translates only into an additional visual effect, Bloody Wolf's Special Attack allows to slightly curve the path of the ball. This gives her a certain tactical advantage, but not large enough to unbalance gameplay.

Note that, while Saimon's Special Attack makes the ball seemingly disappear for a certain part of its next flight, it only makes it invisible and can still be deflected.

Playable characters

• Chinta Nemoto

Special attack: Quick Shot

• Siren

Special attack: Rising Shot ; this shot makes the ball speed up after it first hits anything other than a target

• Saimon

Special attack: Trick Shot

• Bloody Wolf

Special attack: Tornado Shot

• Mr. Justice

Special attack: Hard Shot ; this shot sometimes makes the opponent spin uncontrollably for a short time after deflecting it

External links

• Battle Flip Shot at www.arcade-history.com