It's a "Breakout title" of two kinds...
Antonball Deluxe is a Retraux-style puzzle/platformer hybrid game compilation developed by Summitsphere and published by Proponent Games, released on September 28, 2021 for Nintendo Switch and Steam. It combines a cozy Game Boy Advance-style presentation reminiscent of the Wario games with an interesting combo of the controls of Mario Bros. and the brick-breaking of Breakout. Antonball Deluxe compiles three distinct game modes based on the same core mechanics:- Antonball: The titular game mode, starring Boiler City’s so-called top exterminator Anton, whom has fallen into the sewers and must make his way out, then through a jungle, mountain and factory for some reason, and finally back to Boiler City.
- Punchball: A side story featuring Anton’s building mate Annie, who enters Brulo’s Punchball Tournament to win a lifetime supply of her beloved ballble tea. This mode revolves around throwing balls at the poor creatures who inexpicably volunteered to participate in Brulo’s sport, much like the obscure Punch Ball Mario Bros.
- Vs. Antonball: A competitive multiplayer twist on Antonball, where the first team to break down the bricks behind their opponents is the winner.
On May 17th, 2022, Summitsphere would announce a new game featuring the cast titled Antonblast, which is more of a traditional platformer.
This game provides examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewers in Boiler City are enormous and full of giant walls that Anton needs to try and break down.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: Brick Factory's final level pits you against a deceptively easy set of bricks, but the more you clear the more the set gets pushed into your territory, making it much more difficult to hit back.
- Aerith and Bob: Anton, Annie, Nina, Paul, Don, Cooper and Clive have normal names, but there are also characters named Danton, Brulo, Old Manton, Antari and Bebo.
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: Boiler City's final level pits the player against every single stage hazard Antonball threw at you before—Ballbusters, spiky bricks, dissolving platforms, grey blocks, moving blocks, enemies and objects that stun you, and more come to make your life miserable before you can finish the game.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Everyone in this world is a different color.
- Border-Occupying Decorations: The borders around Antonball and Punchball are styled to look like arcade machine bezels, complete with 80's cartoon drawings of the cast. Antonball has Anton and Annie on the sides, while Punchball shows Annie and Brulo.
- Breaking Out: Antonball is a platformer variant. The ball is meant to break all the bricks in the stage as usual, but the player can jump, backflip, and clutch into the ball with the aid of platforms, in addition to fighting off stage hazards.
- Collision Damage: All enemies hurt the player on contact.
- Cosmetic Award: Getting the golden ball for the first stage in Antonball. When successfully completing a bonus level for the first time, getting the mark on the stage select serves as proof of mastery of that level, so the game rewards you with the stage to play in versus mode as well as the typical continue. Stage 1 is the exception, as since its versus mode equivalent is unlocked by default, only the golden ball can be obtained.
- Cutscene: Cutscenes bookend Antonball and Punchball, with intermission screens throughout.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Unlike its Wario Land inspiration where the shoulder tackle can be activated from a standstill or by walking, the dash attack here (or clutch as it's called in the game) requires the player to already be moving in order to activate it. Though to compensate, the clutch also works as air dash, something Wario could never do in his adventures.
- Demoted to Extra: While Anton was the player in the original Punchball (back when it was called Punchball Antonball), its remake for this game has Annie as the star. Anton can still be selected alongside the other characters, however.
- Diegetic Interface: In the SAGE 2020 demo, the main menu was represented by an arcade room with machines based on the game modes. Walking up to one and playing it would take the player to one of the levels.
- Double Entendre: Plenty of ball-related jokes appear throughout the game:
- The game, instructions, and trailers make constant cracks about "playing with your balls". URLs for the game's site were even "playwithyourballs.club" and "publicballplaying.exposed".
- The moles that impede your progress are referred to as "Ballbusters".
- In the "Better Than Nothing" update, there's a practice mode for Antonball and Punchball using the Classic assets called Classic Ball Training (or CBT).
- Down the Drain: The plot of Antonball. A drunken Anton falls down an uncovered manhole and has to find his way out.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Before it can be unlocked, Ant on Ball is briefly seen on a movie poster Anton walks by in the Antonball opening cutscene.
- Excuse Plot: Like many arcade platformers, the plots are rather simple:
- Antonball is about Anton breaking out of the Boiler City sewers after drunkenly stumbling in one night.
- Punchball is about Annie entering a tournament to win a lifetime's supply of ballble tea.
- Expy Coexistence: The SAGE 2020 demo establishes the Super Anton Game Expo as a video game event that Anton wants to visit. On the way there, he accidentally drops into the event it's parodying, the Snick Amateur Game Expo (itself a parody of the real-life Sonic Amateur Game Expo that exists alongside it in Pizza Tower).
- The Gunslinger: One of the status effects the player can collect is a pistol, which allows the player to shoot any one block in a straight line for six shots. it also gives the player a cowboy themed outfit.
- Guest Fighter: Several crossover characters can be unlocked throughout the game:
- Don and Cooper (the musclebound donkey and rooster) are from Harmyarders, an unreleased beat 'em up project Summitsphere was working on before developing Antonball Deluxe. Doubles as a Production Throwback.
- Clive from Clive 'N' Wrench can be selected for Antonball.
- Peppino from Pizza Tower is a playable character in Vs. Antonball, due to Summitsphere and McPig's friendship and their respective protagonists being expies of Wario. Snick the Porcupine also cameos in the SAGE 2020 demo, and can be unlocked as a playable character by collecting "Ruckus Rubies".
- Homage: The game borrows a lot from Mario Bros., including the overall-clad protagonists wearing each other's inverted colors, Antonball's initial sewer setting, levels being referred to as "Phases", the melodic walking sounds players have, and Punchball taking inspiration from Punch Ball Mario Bros. Even the game over text is the same gradient color as the one in Mario Bros.' Game Boy Advance remake.
- Injured Vulnerability: In Punchball, Ballbusters can only be taken out after being hit with said Punchball.
- Intentional Engrish for Funny: When obtaining an item from the Lottery, the message "Congraturation! You Have Get:" appears.
- Invisibility: Nothing, a playable character added in the "Better Than Nothing" update, is an invisible person. Visible Invisibility is not in effect for them, however, so the player has to work out where on the screen they are.
- Jerkass: The two protagonists aren't pleasant people — each one an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, at best. One of Anton's intermissions has him laughing at Brulo upon learning that the latter's wife left him.
- Jungle Japes: Jam Jungle, the second stage, serves this purpose. Its biggest stage hazard is the Orgokis, who periodically appear in the trees to throw fruit at the player.
- Lootboxes: The Lottery minigame is a gachapon machine that unlocks content for the other modes. It's solely done through points accumulated through plays, however, costing 50,000 chips a pull.
- Men Like Dogs, Women Like Cats: Anton is seen offering some of his breakfast to his dog in one of his intermissions. Meanwhile, Annie's intermission has her struggling to walk her cat.
- No OSHA Compliance: The Brick Factory has moving platforms and conveyor belts hanging over bottomless pits, and the player is welcome to break bricks and launch balls all over the place.
- Player Versus Player: Vs. Antonball pits players against eachother in a competitive version of Antonball.
- The Problem with Pen Island: While the game is called Antonball, the multiplayer mode has a playable character called "Ant on Ball"... which is an ant on a ball.
- Prolonged Video Game Sequel: The sequels in Deluxe are both around 25 levels longer than their predecessors.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: In Antonball, the round start jingle is a snippet of the "Spring" portion of Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons".
- Retraux: Just as its predecessors resembled Game Boy games, Antonball Deluxe is has pixel art styled to look like the Game Boy Advance remake of them, similar to the Mario Bros. remake found in the Super Mario Advance games. There's even a visual filter that defaults to making the game look like it's running on the LED screen of a GBA.
- Rules of the Game: Antonball bonus stages give the player a ricochet-proof golden ball.
- Scoring Points: Both Antonball and Punchball feature a score-based leaderboard.
- Shout-Out:
- The game is a love letter to Wario, seen in its GBA-inspired artstyle, intermissions mimicking the ones in early Warioware games, and its cast of violent narcissists.
- The Lottery description is "Characters? VS. Stages? Vinyls? You want it? It's yours my friend, as long as you have 50,000 chips. Each."
- The main menu is somewhat reminiscent of Super Smash Bros. 64 what with the minimalist black backgrounds with white outlined pictures in the sub-menus. Not to mention the short song whenever the game shows that the player has obtained a new unlockable.
- In the SAGE 2020 demo, Vs. Antonball is accessed by interacting with a "Red Tent" Nintendo VS. System.
- The Mischief-Making Monkeys in Jam Jungle are called Ogorkis, due to matching the green on the bootleg Sonic the Hedgehog that memetically appeared
on a Polish pickle jar.
- Signpost Tutorial: Throughout the tutorials, pictures of the players' moves can be found on signs and graffiti.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Fudge Mountain is a snow-covered area where the platforms are solid, slippery ice, forcing the player to tread carefully when chasing after the ball.
- Title Scream: The title screen has Anton, Annie, Danton, and Nina shout "ANTONBALL!" when starting the game. The original title scream for Antonball plays when the mode is selected.
- Triumphant Reprise: "Going Home", the level music for Boiler City, is a bombastic remix of "Ballbuster Blues", the theme for the Boiler City Sewers.
- Updated Re-release: Antonball Deluxe elaborates on pre-existing Classic versions of Antonball and Punchball, adding new mechanics, stages, and characters.
- Video Game Tutorial: An interactive tutorial exists for Antonball, as well as written instructions for each game.
- Visual Pun: In Fudge Mountain, Phase 16's bricks form the shape of a person when viewed from the side. A pair of multiballs is located right where the figure's crotch would be.
