Cup and Ball Challenge Game Review

Cup and Ball Challenge Game Background

Cup and Ball Challenge is a physics game where you must toss the table tennis ball into the cup. But unlike the real-world party game it’s based on, it can get pretty off the rails as the shots become seemingly more impossible to accomplish. That’s video game cartoon physics for you. Mofosocodes published the game on December 21, 2023.

How to Play Cup and Ball Challenge

To select, left click with your mouse or tap on the touchscreen with your fingers. Select Play at the welcome screen to bring up the level selection screen. Select a level number to begin.

Select and pull back to aim for the cup. Release to shoot the ball.

Basic Gameplay Advice

Essential Rules

Your goal in most levels is to toss a ball into the cup. Aim the ball carefully and use the trail of dots as your guide; note that after the first level, the trail of dots will not reach the cup itself. Release the ball at the right point.

If you fail to get it in the first time, try again. Once the ball hits the cup, you win the level.

You begin each level with 3 lives, represented by balls on the top left corner of the game screen. You lose a life each time you miss. If you lose all your lives, you fail the level and must start again. The game, however, gives you endless opportunities to try again after you fail.

The game has 60 levels, which are unlocked sequentially. You can replay any of the levels you’ve previously beaten by selecting their icons on the level selection screen. Your web browser automatically saves your level progress.

Difficulty Elements

As the game progresses, more elements appear that make the game more complex. Many of these cannot be replicated in the real-world party trick this game was based on.

The first of these you will encounter are barriers. Barriers resemble the platforms the cup is placed on and will often prevent you from having a clear shot of the cup. Depending on where they’re placed, however, you can also bounce balls off them and into cups that you can’t otherwise reach. Later barriers can move around; you must time your shots carefully to get it past them.

A similar rule exists for cups that start to move. Pay attention to the cup’s pattern of movement and wait until the cup is approaching before releasing the ball.

A few cups have mountains of fizz. In levels with them, the target cup is the one without fizz. Fizz cups are barriers that can redirect balls, though like other barriers they can also serve as platforms to push the ball to where you want it to go.

Alternate Tosses

At times, it’s not the ball you toss but the cup. Unlike the balls, the cups will rotate as they move. To successfully get the ball in them, they must land open-side down. Other times, you must toss a cup to roll the ball toward where it needs to go.

Some levels have multiple balls. Orange balls can serve as either barriers or cue balls. In cases where you toss them, you must use them to push the actual small white ball toward the cup. Larger white balls work the same way, though there are exceptions. You sometimes need to get a large white ball into a large red cup. Small white balls must also be tossed into cups, depending on where they’re placed. Smaller orange balls work in a similar way to their bigger counterparts; use them to push white balls into cups.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

A faded trail of dots will serve as a temporary second guide. These will show you the arc of your previous shot. Use this as a reference to calibrate your next shot, but work quickly. Over time, they eventually fade.

After a couple of levels, you’ll realize that this is nothing like the party game. Early on, the cups start to defy the laws of real-world physics. That said, the gravity of the game still works as “normal,” so take it into account when tossing balls into the cup. Once it’s on the cup, however, forget about it. It’s just a game and you should just relax.

In some levels, you must push the ball alongside the barrier and allow it to roll into the cup. How this works can vary; pay attention to the shape of the barrier to figure out how to use it to push the ball.

Educational Aspects

This game helps a player develop their skills in aiming and timing. To get ahead, players must develop good judgment in determining when to toss their balls at the cup. That said, this game is subject to cartoon physics and the way the ball behaves can’t always match its real-world counterpart.

Player Age Recommendations

This game is suited for players school-aged and above. We recommend it for fans of simple physics puzzle games.