Holes and Balls

Holes and Balls is an interesting puzzle game for the Mac. It is also available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

This is the free version of the $1.99 game Holes and Balls: The Challenge. The goal of the game is simple: you need to shoot a ball inside a hole. The first few levels are easy, and all you do is aim. But as you progress through the game, obstacles will be put in your way, and sometimes, not even bouncing of the walls will be enough.

To aim, you simply grab the ball by clicking on it with the left mouse button and drag it back to give it power. A line will appear when you grab the ball, and that determines the direction in which the ball will be shot when you release the mouse button.

In the first level, all you have to do is shoot the ball in a straight line and make it push a button before it goes in the hole, but by level 4, the game gets very difficult. You have to shoot the ball in a way that a moving button will take it off course and into the hole. It sounds easier than it is.

There are three difficulty levels: Medium, Hard and Expert. There are 30 different puzzles for the Medium difficulty, and I guess 30 more for each other difficulty setting.

The game is currently ranked #14 overall among free apps on the Apple Mac Store, which is no small feat.