I was skeptical at first that I would enjoy Awesome Ball. I thought it would be another one of those silly time wasters, which it is, but like so many of the simplest apps in the App Store, I discovered I liked it.

Awesome Ball from Jonathan Johnson and Brian Pratt uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to bounce a ball around your screen. The premise is basic: tilt the iPhone to bounce the ball. You can have your viewpoint shift to follow the ball (beware of motion sickness), or turn this feature off for a more stable environment.

Awesome Ball opens with a basketball in a room with a wooden floor and walls. I found bouncing the ball in this opening screen a bit boring. I changed the ball a few times to an eight ball and soccer ball, and then I discovered the fun of customizing the walls, floor and ball with photos from my photo album. A few blueberry pancake pictures later, I felt the pride of bouncing a ball in my own blueberry-studded room. I know, it sounds silly, but it made Awesome Ball surprisingly entertaining.

The satisfaction of creating my own room and ball decreased when I found that my customizations disappeared as soon as I closed the app. When I re-opened Awesome Ball, it was back to the wooden room and the basketball. I hope that the developers are working on a way to save customizations for future versions.

I cheated to find the “Easter eggs” or hidden functions of this game; I read the developers’ spoilers. So as not to spoil it for you, I will only say that there are ways to access different built-in rooms and special effects. The developers’ website can tell you more if you choose.

There is no point to Awesome Ball other than to bounce the ball. No hoops, no endzone, no mission. It might not be a bad idea to add some sort of goal-oriented feature, but as is, Awesome Ball is still a fun – and free – time waster.

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category: Entertainment, Photo Effects