Not only do the maps play well, they look great too. You start out on jungle planet Feralon, progressing through an abandoned space ship, a Merc ship and an ice planet and all the locations are beautiful. It's not a given for shooters to look good, and most Xbox Live games are only so-so but Madballs in Babo's art direction is really well done. From the menus to the environment art, it's obvious a lot of care was taken to make the game look as good as possible. The only disappointment graphics-wise, is the lack of cutscenes. All story content is handled with 2D stills and text that don't come up to the level of the in-game art.

What does match the in-game art's quality is the sound. Sound in Madballs in Babo is highly polished, although it lacks in the same way as the graphics. The music is the kind of dynamic, guitar-heavy rock and roll befitting a shooter but the voice acting is limited to a few standard lines the characters repeat now and then. I will give the team props for the sound effects though. The rubber ball sound heard when enemies drop grenades and the fireworks sound accompanying Missile Swarm are genius.

Madballs in Babo's single player consists mainly of Campaign/story mode and Level Attack, which lets you replay a timed version of any level unlocked in Campaign. These two modes can also be enjoyed co-op with up to four players. Multi-player modes include 16-player Skirmish, Team Skirmish, Capture the Flag and Avatar Attack, the last of which allows you to replace your Madballs character with the head of your Xbox Live avatar. Invasion, the game's showcase multi-player mode, allows players to make their own maps, strategically placing turrets, control points and other deployables, adding depth to the usual frag-fest.

Madballs in Babo: Invasion is a surprisingly well-conceived, polished and entertaining game, both in single and multi-player mode. Players who remember the Madballs toys of 20 years ago will enjoy the nostalgia aspect but knowing about the game's origins isn't necessary. In the end, the IP is just an excuse to make a fun shooter and players who've never heard of Madballs will still enjoy playing it. At 800 Microsoft points, it's an entertainment bargain, one that no shooter fan should miss.

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