Wizkid: The Story of Wizball II

Overview

Wizkid: The Story of Wizball II is an action/adventure game developed by Sensible Software and published by Ocean Software for the PC, Amiga, and Atari ST platforms. It splits its time between an Arcade mode which plays similarly to Breakout but with full control of the "ball", and an Adventure mode which relies on adventure game inventory puzzles.

Wizkid, the son of Wiz from Wizball, is tasked with saving the nine kittens of Wiz's cat Nifla. He must pass through a series of abstract levels defeating enemies and finding the kittens before he can confront their kidnapper Zark.

Gameplay

Wizkid is split into two modes: Arcade and Adventure.

Arcade

In this mode, also known as "Head mode", Wizkid must use the floating blocks around him to take out enemies. This is possible by ramming Wizkid (currently just a disembodied head, like his predecessor in Wizball) into the blocks to dislodge them, using the direction and speed with which Wizkid hits the blocks to send them falling onto the enemies below. Doing so will reward Wizkid with colorful musical notes which will eventually fill a little music sheet at the top of the screen and allows him to enter the other mode: Adventure. If the player beats a stage without leaving Arcade mode, which eventually cycles around, they'll almost always end up skipping a stage and missing the true ending. If Wizkid fails to beat a screen by dropping all the blocks while there's still enemies left on the screen it'll get skipped and the player will eventually cycle back to it.

In Arcade mode Wizkid can collect two power-ups: a clown's red nose, used to balance blocks until Wizkid's ready to send them at enemies; and a pair of false teeth, used to grip a block so Wizkid can directly maneuver it over an enemy.

Adventure

In Adventure mode, Wizkid reclaims his full body and is able to explore the level proper, finding secrets, using the store and collecting items to use elsewhere. Solutions to finding the kittens (the true goal) are often obtuse and sometimes requires a guide. If the player gets stuck in this mode, they can always return to Arcade and continue the game from there by holding down on the joystick and summoning the store interface.

Finding all nine kittens from the nine worlds allows Wizkid to race Zark back to his tower in a rowboat and defeat him face-to-face - any fewer kittens and he'll beat Wizkid in the race and lock the front door. To beat Zark the player has to get the high score on his "Wizeroids" arcade machine (a parody of Asteroids).