Fireball (InstanceTopic, 10)

From Compile Worlds

A fireball is a common type of fire element attack (magic or otherwise) found in many video games.

In games that use a "grid" system, the fireball's effect will almost always be to damage or destroy the cell it hits and any cells immediately surrounding it, including those connected by only a corner: it may destroy a 3x3 area on a square grid, a 3x3x3 area on a cube grid, a cell and its six neighbors on a hexagonal grid, etc. Therefore, it's one of the most useful of the simple moves, providing you can actually perform it.

In games that don't, it's typically far less powerful. In Super Mario Bros., for example, the fireball only kills enemies and does not clear any blocks from the level, not to mention its hitbox is about the same size as those of Touhou bullets and it bounces around like a ADHD kid with spring boots and a helmet, making it rather awkward to actually hit anything with it.