Overball is a fun, challenging, and sometimes frustrating title, but hopefully, with the aid of this walkthrough, you should have next to no trouble beating it. The secret to Overball is planting flowers quickly, as planting thirteen flowers in a row gives you a star, enough of which can earn you a bronze, silver, or even gold rating. You’ll want to play in mouse control mode, as the keyboard doesn’t give you enough control to play according to these hints, and you’ll also want to pay attention to the first few levels. Once you’ve mastered collecting hard to get patches of flowers, you’ll notice that gameplay being repeated time and time again. Enough focus should let you keep a good score all the way through until the end of the game.
As the tutorial level, you should find this quite easy. The only trick is that when you get to the area with the bomb and the single monster, pickup the bomb and destroy the spiked cube before you plant any of the purple flowers, or it’ll be hard to get that last star.
At the beginning of the level, make sure to get both stars by following the path of flowers around the corner and down towards the door, and then return to get the thirteen red flowers that are off in the small side passage. In the next area, you can collect three stars if you roll down past the pyramid and head straight to a corner, and then repeat with the other side of the pyramid. Once you get past that the rest is easy, but don’t worry about the tops, as they can’t actually destroy any of your flowers in this level.
This level appears daunting, but isn’t. Just be careful to get every star you can, as they’re easy to collect here. The only two real tricks are this. You’ll see a portion of 8 shards sitting off where you can’t get to it. Once you get to the very top, where you find the four boost pads that’ll shoot you down into the little slot in the middle of the stage, past the five blue flowers, just go slightly past that point, and roll up the hill and onto the edge of the wall. Roll around the wall back towards the right hand side of the screen, and if you keep going, you’ll eventually get to a point where you can drop down and get those eight hidden shards. The other trick is that you can jump over a boost jump around the middle of the stage, and collect eight more shards. That one is really easy.
You can get a star in the first area where you see a top, but wait for it to pass over the small patch of three purple flowers before you do so, otherwise it’ll trample the flowers and mess you up. The rest of the level is easy, but the icy area can mess you up. If you go carefully, and move around it like you’re running a racetrack, you can get two stars out of it.
In this area, pass by the eight red flowers that are on top of the hill. Collect the five red flowers below, and then race back up the hill (aided by the boost pad) to collect the other five. Then destroy the top before you collect the blue flowers. The only one that’s harder than that is in the next section. You’ll see five red flowers all by themselves, with another eight behind a door. Get the purples, but pass up those reds. Come back once you’ve collected the orange patch in the next area, which lets you open the door holding back the eight flowers. If you’re quick enough, you can get from the five flowers into the area with eight, and collect a star for your trouble. The only other thing to worry about is a large icy area, but if you’re careful that should be no problem.
You’ll come to an area with a few tops. Just grab the purple flowers right after one of the tops tramples over them, and then get the bomb and start destroying each and every top. That’ll let you net all of the stars in this region. Later on, you’ll come to a part of the stage that has a large ice patch with a spiky cube in it. Roll really hard and you can climb the steep wall and get the bomb on that path. Start picking up flowers, roll around the corner, and destroy the enemy there. With enough manual dexterity, you can collect the star that’s to be had by getting all of the flowers in the ice patch. In the next area, the trick is to destroy the enemies without collecting flowers, after which you can easily get all of the stars. Finally, in the area with the icy platforms, carefully destroy the top, and then collect all of the flowers on the icy section before taking out the enemy down below.
There’s only one trick to this level. Get to the very end of the stage, and instead of jumping on the level end pad, roll off and collect all of the flowers on the ledge for a 6th star.
First, pass up the two sets of red flowers in the starting area, collect the purple patch, and progress into the next area. You can snag a bomb there that’ll let you dispose of the two enemies you just left, allowing you to collect the red flowers in peace. Later on you’ll come to a bomb surrounded by purple flowers. Collect those purple flowers and then backtrack to a door you couldn’t open until now to get two more stars within. You’ll need to backtrack once you get to the end of the level, otherwise you’ll miss some shards too.
In this area, the only trick is that you’ll need to jump the gap you see near the beginning of the level, and collect all of the purple flowers.
These platforms are separated for a reason. Collect each area before moving onto the next. In the next area, carefully take out the enemies without disturbing the flowers. All in all, it’s actually possible to cheat on this level, and jump off of the edge of the platforms to reach the exit without collecting enough stars to open the doors.
The trickiest part of this level is undoubtedly the area next to the start where you have to contend with a spiky cube guarding an icy patch of flowers. Try to climb the hill collecting flowers, then quickly pickup the bomb, drop down towards the cube, and if you can line up right, you’ll get all the flowers and destroy the cube at the same time. Next, pay attention to the area with purple flowers, as if you’re careful, while you’re sliding up and down the many hills, you should be able to pickup at least two stars.
You’ll need to be careful destroying the spiky cube that’s on top of the ridge around the pit. In the next area, destroy the three enemies without picking up flowers, and then, if you’re careful, you can collect two stars from this area. The next real obstacle is the area where you find two orange arrows guarded by some enemies. Try to pick your way through there collecting either zero or thirteen flowers, then use the bomb to destroy your opponents. The last real trick comes when you get to the half pipe area with two ice-trapped holes. You’ll need to push up to the edge in your first attempt to get enough red flowers for a star. In the same section, you can backtrack along a ledge (using a small ramp) to pickup the three shards you passed.
When you get up onto the first raised area, before you drop off to continue the flower planting, if you drop off the right edge of the platform, where you see the small glow, you can collect some shards. After that, when you’re collecting the blue flowers, skip the high tower, and instead roll off the ramp that raises you up to its top to go behind the tower. You’ll wind up on another elevator that’ll take you up to collect three shards. Get the rest of the blues on the tower, and then propel yourself off to collect the blue flowers on the next platform over to make sure you get a full star.
In the first icy area, if you’re careful to not collect any flowers initially, you can destroy all of the monsters with the bomb on the mount on the left hand side. Later on, you’ll encounter an area with a bunch of tops, no bomb in sight. Collect the two sets of thirteen flowers you see when you enter the area, and you can then chase the tops around collecting the rest of the flowers and open the door. Finally, at the very end of the level, you’ll need to skate back and forth very dexterously in order to collect the last eight shards.
When you’re taking the second elevator up to the higher levels, instead taking the boosts around the little mountain, stop in the back where you’re hidden from view, and you can ride a secret elevator up and drop down on the shards, which lets you easily finish collecting all the flowers up there too.
This level is nothing more than simple gameplay, although you may want to be very careful in picking up the second set of four shards, as they’re really hard to get without losing a ball in the process.
Near the beginning, when you get your first bomb, be careful to not pickup all of the purple flowers on the way to taking out the spiky cube in the patch of purple, otherwise you won’t be able to get an extra star for that area. You’ll want to leave behind small patches of flowers going one way through the area so that you can destroy the enemies, and then go back to the beginning of the path and keep picking up stars. Be very careful when picking up the patch of shards in the middle of this level, as you’re likely to lose a couple of balls picking them up. At the end of the level, when you’re jumping down the ramps, stick to the right hand side, and use the speed boosts as brakes so you can collect the extra shards on the middle platforms. Finally, some really hairy gameplay, and you’ll have won the game.
