That weird Rocket League-esq mode just got a free standalone release on 3DS, and it is available for download right now!

It's bad.

isn't it just a demo?

eh i might as well. i actually didn't think this looked QUITE as bad as others did (though i did twitch a bit at it not being a genuine-ass Metriod game).

@darkvare: So, as of right now it appears to be the full "Blast Ball" portion. The US store lists it as a "demo" which apparently refers to the servers shutting down when Federation Force comes out.

Yeah it's not very good lol. The physics on the ball are jacked, the aiming is terrible (look at the alternate control scheme in the options menu for players with a N3DS, they are somehow worse!) The movement feels far to sluggish and awkward and did I mention the ball physics are jacked? I played some test matches, practice, AI and some online versus because I was bored and wanted to take a break from Monster Hunter. The ball moves so slow and in awkward little hops in random directions (that seem to have no connection to where its shot / how powerful the shot was) that it feels like the physics are busted, or something. This is a real odd one. I see what they're trying to do, and there's something there, but it's so far from being good. Give it a shot, it's bloody weird.

Metroid! Why hast thou foresaken me?

Even if it's bad, I need something to get me out of curled up in a ball in the corner breathing into a paper bag and crying for the past 4 hours

Every time I remember, I'm sad that they're wasting the considerable talents of Next Level Games on this project. Mario Strikers Charged (arguably the best Mario sports game ever made) into Punch-Out!! Wii into Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon made it look like they were gradually being given increasingly meatier projects instead of just being relegated to Mario sports games, but Federation Force feels like it's going to be the Metroid equivalent of a Mario Sports game, where it's fine but you absolutely do not need to play it.

@bisonhero: Oh man are you ever correct. Strikers Charged was an amazing game. Honestly even though it was a soccer game, the way it played, I think it's what a Mario hockey game would have felt like. I really wish we'd get a new one, but obviously titles like that are just gonna be ignored with the position Nintendo is in right now. Hopefully the new system does better. Such great Charged memories.