Jelly Battles

Play Jelly Battles here!

Peripheral giant, Logitech, unleashed the gelatine battle game on the interwebs quite a while back, but it’s still a popular casual game to while away a few minutes on (unless you’re hardcore Jelly). The aim of this game is to knock out your opponents and be the last man….or Jelly Baby, standing (or wobbling).

On the back drop of a keyboard, tiles/keys scroll down vertically on a turn basis. So imagine your computer keyboard (or look down a it), and now imagine that the top row of keys have now shifted down one row, and then next turn that row moves down one again, repeat (a bit like a rolling road). Now each key resembles some sort of special ability, so that you can turn your little Jelly man into an Uberjellyman, and rather helpfully they’re colour coded.

There’s only one type of Red tile, and that’s a mine which will detonate under you, so it’s a good idea to avoid these! The Green tiles heal you, with the small green cross logo healing you a small amount or the heart healing a lot more damage (there is another green tile but you can discover that for yourself). The Magenta tiles are offensive strikes on your opponents, with the radioactive symbol detonating a bomb that has no effect on you, but on all of your opponents at once, the lightning strike symbol which gives you a laser which fires across the row vertically and horizontally, the bomb symbol which sets off a small chain of explosions around you for a limited distance, the aircraft symbol which calls in an air strike, the hand bag, and my personal favourite, the symbol that looks like a sheep (or whatever cuddly animal of your choice) being dropped onto a ball. The Cyan tiles are effectively power ups, with the glasses making you invisible, the bio warning making you go into a Jelly rage, the pacman symbol is actually a shield, and the snow flake freezes your opponent for one turn.

There is a single player mode which allows you to get used to the game at a fairly leisurely pace with relatively easy going computer opponents, but things really hot up in multiplayer mode when you can play up to 3 other people, and increase in rank. It’s at this point you must call upon your devious nature and try to predict where the other payers will go. For example, if I see a player near a drop weapon tile, I’ll head for a tile with the invisibility power up, because the drop weapon only works on visible targets, and if there are only two of you left, this means he drops it on himself. If I’ve planned it far enough in advance I may have even gotten the Jelly rage power up, and that means they’ll be dropping a grand piano on themselves. Jelly lulz.

Jelly Battles is a simple fun inoffensive game. It runs relatively slickly but does occasionally freeze due to other people’s poor connections etc. The simple polished graphics are pleasant on the eye, and the animations are quite smooth. It’s pretty easy to get the hang of, and all that’s left is a bit of luck, your ability to predict your opponents and your ability to work out a quick strategy. Brilliant little game!