Last night marked the beginning of E3 and Nintendo kicked it off with the 2015 Nintendo World Championships. The second round of elimination tasked competitors with playing the newly unveiled game, Blast Ball, for 3DS. From what we saw, the game looks like 3-on-3 soccer, where players pilot Mechs, and try to get a large ball into an ever shrinking goal by blasting it with laser cannons.
From the standpoint of accessibility, the game looks like it may offer an accessible handheld multiplayer experience, given its easily seen art style, and apparent limited reliance on sound. Even fine-motor disabled gamers who can access the 3DS seem like they may be able to enjoy this new title, since precision does not seem to be as important in gameplay as strategy and planning.
Furthermore, the game seems to be well balanced, allowing for a forgiving experience. The best example of this is the way that the game is balanced to make it harder for the team that is winning to score subsequent goals. Each time one of the teams scores a goal, the goal area gets smaller, and the match ends after the ball has been put in the net 3 times.
Beyond this there are strategic power ups to be used throughout the game which lend themselves to various strategies for players with different abilities. Take for instance, the disable system. Players can choose to directly blast their opponents rather than focusing on scoring, creating powerplay like opportunities when they’re opponents are eliminated temporarily from the game.
Not much else is known about Blast Ball, but we should hear more about it during Nintendo’s press conference later this week.