Skee-Ball (2018)

Skee-Ball seems more than happy to resemble an early-2000’s flash game instead of a unique take on the arcade classic that it represents.

If one were to spend time at an amusement center, playing nothing but Skee-ball to earn 10,000 tickets for a prize, it would feel a lot like Skee-Ball on the Nintendo Switch. The games might be quick but the sheer amount of tickets needed is monumentally staggering. Though if you can get through the ticket and progress slog, this version of Skee-Ball is actually a clean experience.

While there’s nothing particularly wrong with Skee-Ball and how its implemented on Switch, it would probably benefit from some tweaking. Right now starting up the game fresh feels like quite a climb to really get into a groove and have more fun. The alternative modes and playfield layouts really add some flavor to things but the initial grinding to get any of it is discouraging. If the tickets required to unlock things were perhaps more progressive, with the price going up for each new unlock rather than all of them beginning with the same static value, it could take the same effort to unlock everything but allow for rewards to people earlier on. Once it is patched with motion controls if they’re implemented fairly well I think the overall experience could also benefit greatly. For now it is more of a novelty that shows promise, but feels a bit pricey and could benefit from some tweaking to meet its potential.

Skee-Ball is a simple and enjoyable arcade classic.