Each week, the Browser features some pop-culture places on the World Wide Web offering the coolest in free interactive sounds and action.
A site with bounce
A legendary underground table-tennis tournament becomes fodder for the highest level of sophomoric humor in Rogue Pictures’ “Balls of Fury.” Currently exhausting theater audiences, the film is backed by a surprisingly interactive Web presence (www.ballsoffury.com) that revels in fan involvement as well as plenty of multimedia fun.
Registered members of the Balls of Fury cyber-stop get access to a chat room and bulletin board and a chance to win prizes if they can complete a series of off- and online challenges. A certain number of pingpong balls are rewarded for accomplishments such as getting friends to join the site (25 balls), digitally cutting a paddle and ball into an image to make it look as if a game is in progress (500 balls) or uploading a photograph of a “Balls of Fury” movie ticket stub (600 balls).
Those with the most pingpong balls are ranked on the leader board and can win items such as “Balls of Fury” briefs, a soundtrack or T-shirt.
Visitors in the mood for a challenge will find a trio of possibilities under the Games section, along with a generous supply of activities worth a look. Activities range from dressing Christopher Walken’s character, Feng, and outputting his image as customized wallpaper or e-mail to having Master Wong name the visitor with a special “no fear” moniker.
The best of the projects is designing a pingpong paddle or table with a robust art program that enables craftsmen to upload image designs, add and size stickers, spray paint with a full color palette and choose textures.
Under games, visitors can choose Master Wong’s Ping Pong Training to begin to master skills by hitting targets on a table with a ball using a fly swatter or wooden spoon. Players are timed and have a limited number of serves to master each of the rounds.
Next, Tournament of Balls offers a player the chance to take on a computer-controlled version of Feng in a difficult-to-master 21-point game of table tennis. Concentration is key, as the paddle is extremely uncooperative and Feng rarely makes a mistake.
Finally, a multiple-choice trivia contest about the history of pingpong and nuances of the game mixes video snippets of the film’s FBI Agent Rodriguez (comedian George Lopez) with some educational questions.
Butterfinger sponsors the quiz, and a link to its strange site, Follow the Finger (www.followthefinger.com), offers a bizarre online marketing campaign where a visitor can spend too much time launching a monkey at a floating dress. Using a seesaw, the visitor bounces the primate at the right moment, and if it gets close enough to the outfit, the monkey puts it on and happily runs away.
This type of non-sequitur lunacy reigns supreme at the site, which uses lots of slightly humorous viral video clips and a hand with a pointed finger to get its unusual “Fingerlicious” candy message across to visitors.
It also offers a selection of time-wasting games under Play It with more pingpong (take on that monkey and other strange creatures) and an observation challenge to find — you guessed it — pointed fingers, hidden amid crowded cityscapes.
During my free moments, however, I got lost in Corporate Fishing, which mixes a Monty Python style of animation in a game that has a player “fish” for bored humans in cubicles using a Butterfinger as bait.
Have a cool site for the online multimedia masses? Write to Joseph Szadkowski at the Browser, The Washington Times, 3600 New York Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20002; call 202/636-3016; or send e-mail (jszadkowski@washington times.com). Joseph also writes a Web-exclusive column for the Washington Times Web site where he reviews educational software and family-friendly video games. Check it out at www3.washingtontimes.com/ familytimes/romperroom.htm.
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