This game frustrates me to no end! if you only want to play with other people, then you can carefully give it a try, but if like me you also want to play and beat the campaign and bonus missions, then you really need a high tolerance for frustration! Galaxy Trucker is by design a chaotic game, you can get a strategic advantage by building your ships with a strategy in mind, but ultimately you have to hope that the right ship parts are on the field and that your opponents don't take them away from you. And at this point the game starts to fall apart. There are missions that demand the impossible. For example I have to deliver heavy ingots that need mutliple jet engines to balance out their heavy weight, but more often than not there are not enough engines on the field and I lost this mission countless times because I had no engines at the beginning or the few engines that make a difference get destroyed by a stray shot or meteor, failing the mission for me. In general the missions that demand specialized ships are the worst, because the adventure cards are not adapted to these circumstances. When I need dozens of engines to carry heavy ingots, I lack cannons and crew quartes to survive pirate and warzone cards, which obliterates my ship. In some other bonus mission my ship requires way too many catapults to survive enemy attacks. When I build that many I lack something else again, mainly engines and crew this time, so suddenly a black hole tears my ship apart or a warzone card kills me again because I lack something. In short, you are confronted with odds that are almost impossible to overcome, you need sheer luck for all factors to align in your favor. And this fact makes this game not fun to play. In my opinion the developers should have just released this game as a plain boardgame for PC without the campaign. It just doesn't work properly enough to play peacefully.
It is a simple game where you guide a ball from start to finish, solving simple physic puzzles along the way. That is all you need to know. Personally I like to play those games when I am in the mood for a simple game and need a break from triple AAA quality production, and Switchball really is a simple game that can be completed quickly. Be warned though, it's simplicity could be also considered it's main flaw, the game is so simple and relaxing people might feel underwhelmed. If you want a game with good graphics or deep gameplay, you should play something else. The physics are also a bit sluggish, leading to some trial and error (which is not frustrating thanks to a really generous checkpoint system). Especially the Air Ball you use in the game shows the sluggish physics problem. In short, if you want to play something simple and easy for the mind after cracking some tough or long games, give Switchball a try. But you must have a fondness for simple games in terms of gameplay and graphics, if your standarts are really high, this game will disappoint you. For me it did what the game was supposed to do, giving me a small change of pace and a break from my hardcore gaming.
