Rise of the Wool Ball

Rise of the Wool Ball is a first-person shooter based on the Doom engine. It is a sequel to the Doom II mod Shadow of the Wool Ball. In the previous installment, the player controlled Scott the hedgehog on a quest to free his girlfriend from the evil cat invaders from space. In Rise of the Wool Ball the leader of the cat army returns and abducts Scott in revenge for maiming him. The girlfriend, Rebecca, must now save Scott and stop the cats' dastardly plans of strip-mining their planet of resources.

Consisting of eighteen levels (including three secret ones) across three episodes, Rise of the Wool Ball features standard first-person shooter gameplay, with the player needing to shoot her way through throngs of evil cats. The arsenal at the player's disposal consists of six weapons, including silly ones like the cucumber launcher or a "bird gun" which launches avian poo at the enemies. The game's level design is a homage to Rise of the Triad; similarly to that game, all ceilings and floors in each level are at the same height, heavy use is made of sprite-based floating platforms, and all walls are at orthogonal angles to each other.

On each level, the player must find and activate a self-destruct switch, then run to the exit before the countdown finishes. The levels include features and threats such as mushrooms which launch the player upwards, spikes that form dangerous traps, and fans which push Rebecca with a powerful gust of wind. Completing some challenges requires platform game-styled maneuvering, with the player needing to dodge traps and skillfully jump her way across patches of mushrooms.