Years of academy training. Slaving over magic and history books, painstakingly memorizing the knowledge of the arcane. All those years, but it was worth it. Everything you’ve learned is going to be put to use here amidst this monster invasion. As the town wizard, you have a duty to protect the people! You step into the dark dungeon, staff at the ready. You have just the spell for this occasion. What better way to fight the forces of darkness… than to shoot fireballs like a machine gun?
Yer A Wizard
Developed by ginTronic and published by PID Games, Fireball Wizard is a stage-based platformer. Grab your wizard staff and blast through a wide variety of monsters in order to rid the world of the invading threat. The title is free to download but costs a small fee to play from the second world onwards. Is it worth downloading? Is it worth buying? Does it offer anything more than your regular run-of-the-mill stage-based platformer? Let’s see…
Robe and Wizard Hat
Fireball Wizard is a retro-inspired game in all its presentation. The graphics are detailed pixel art, aiming for simplicity. The sounds and music are low-fidelity chiptunes and beep-boops mixed with higher quality (albeit still crunchy) sound effects to emphasize certain events. The atmosphere is built to be dark and suffocating—even the outside areas often feel like just an enormous cellar.
The story comprises four distinct worlds, each containing ten stages. I appreciate that Fireball Wizard doesn’t use a stage select screen. Instead, everything is done as part of the open world. If you want to go to a certain stage, visit the store, or change your wizard skin, you must physically walk to the appropriate area in the game world. Such a small thing, but it allows a slightly more substantial connection to the town you’re trying to save.
Beyond player skill, two main ways to become stronger are upgrading your wand and unlocking spells. Upgrading the wand is straightforward; pay some gold coins you find during gameplay to deal more damage. Spells, however, are unlocked as you progress, so there’s no rushing their acquisition.
Everybody Gets a Fireball
Individual stages in Fireball Wizard aren’t very complicated. Usually, you start at the leftmost part of the level, and you have to get to the door at the rightmost part by jumping on platforms, shooting at enemies, and using your spells to clear obstacles or solve puzzles.
There are a few added features that the player can look out for, though. First, defeated enemies drop gold. You need this gold to upgrade your wand, so defeating everything instead of just rushing through can be useful. Secondly, there’s often a treasure chest in plain sight that’s difficult to get to and awards even more gold. Third, each stage has a secret room hidden somewhere, containing an NPC with a random quip and at least one, sometimes more, treasure chests inside.
Finally, you get a bonus room with a brief minigame after every newly-beaten level. Sometimes it’s a shell game with treasure chests; other times, it’s a slot machine, but it always pays out with coins regardless. In fact, almost every reward in the game is coins. This makes it relatively easy to get all relevant upgrades and reach maximum power somewhat early on. This is not a particularly difficult game, even if it can get a little spicy in later levels.
On the surface, Fireball Wizard is a simple game. Run through each stage, shoot fireballs at enemies, and enter the big door at the end. But the ominous atmosphere gives the title a unique vibe throughout the adventure. The controls are simple, and machine-gunning fireballs at damage-sponge bosses is satisfying. Gameplay-wise, it might not be all that original, and it could be a bit short for people looking for a long-term investment, but it’s still an excellent, dark little world to explore in your free time.
