Play Faceball Online

Faceball came out for the Super Nintendo in 1991, developed by Xanth Software F/X. It was one of those early polygonal first-person shooters on the system, a time when 3D was still rough around the edges and most games stuck to sprites. It didn't have the polish of later releases, but it had its own strange charm.

You control a small, blocky character navigating maze-like levels, shooting bouncing smiley face enemies with a simple blaster. The main goal is to clear each screen of all enemies before moving to the next. The game uses a screen-by-screen exploration structure, and one of its signature mechanics is the split-screen two-player mode, which was pretty rare for the time. The pacing is fast and chaotic; enemies bounce unpredictably, and the framerate can chug. It feels clunky and dated, but there's a raw, immediate fun to blasting your way through those abstract corridors.