During Sunday's showing of the Nintendo World Championships 2015, Nintendo surprised audiences with a yet-to-be-released sports title that got shown and tested for the first time as part of the tournament line-up.
Likely bound for the Nintendo eShop, Blast Ball is a futuristic take on soccer by Nintendo with blaster-equipped mechs for players. The 3-on-3 premise is a race for points within a set time limit, using the ball as a combined method of offense and scoring. Each mech has health reserves that, when depleted, will disable play for a short but critical period. In addition, one of several power-ups on the battlefield can be lobbed at opponents to force mech ejections, which will similarly take time to recover from. The most interesting gimmick is that with each successful score landed, shielding will be tacked on to the goal to demand greater precision. The rules for the Nintendo World Championships 2015 dictated that the first team to score three points would win, but it remains to be seen what options will be on offer in the way of win conditions.
Unlike tech demos like the tentatively-named Project Giant Robot shown at last year's E3, Blast Ball appears more buffed for public consumption, evidently with net play capability in the cards. It may not be backed by the same ambition as Splatoon, but the principle of organized teamwork is one shared between the two creations. Blast Ball's ability to catch on as a concept and build a sustainable online community will depend largely on two things: a healthy selection of maps, and interesting stage gimmicks that can be worked into player strategies.