Satan is admiring his own "redness" in his magic mirror, until it informs him that a demolition worker named Dynamite Anton has skin redder than his own.
The pair are supported in their quest by casino owner Brulo, who promises to revoke Anton's ban from his establishment in exchange for ridding it of a Satanic curse.
A petulant Satan bombs the entire world in retaliation as Anton and Annie retreat to their apartment, the only structure left standing, to celebrate their victory.
Pressing the same button in mid-air performs a spinning "Hammer Vault" that allows them to bounce off the floor to greater heights.
The player can also roll and slide along the ground, or perform the "Antomic Blast" to plummet through the air and enter dumpsters.
[12][13][10][14] During Antonball Deluxe's development in May 2020, Summitsphere give out hints on its Twitter account on an eventually scrapped fourth mode called Antonland that revisited the "Red Guy" concept of a platformer game starring Anton.
[18][14][19][20] It was eventually shelved due to time constrants and Tony Grayson thinking it would work better as a stand-alone game rather than a mode and became Antonblast and more like the "Red Guy" concept.
[21] During the early stages of Antonblast's development, Grayson wanted to change Anton's design and characteristics from Antonball Deluxe to be "more interesting" and more distinct from Wario.
"[13] Believing that the gaming industry did not feature many "destructive platformers", Grayson drew from Broforce and Tembo the Badass Elephant for inspiration.
Inspired by developer Renegade Kid's example, Grayson decided to forgo a publisher entirely and fund the game through a Kickstarter campaign.
[4][12] On their Kickstarter page, Summitsphere cites Wario Land, Crash Bandicoot, Metroid Dread, Sonic CD, Cuphead, and Shovel Knight as influences.
"[12] He also noted that some of the 30 developers who rejected Antonblast emailed back after the campaign's success, asking Summitsphere to work with them, only for Grayson to decline.
It was later released to Steam with an overhaul of Boiler City, a new level replacing Cinnamon Springs: "Slowroast Sewer", an opening cut scene, a hub world and two new modes: Time Trial and Combo Chain.
[35] Less than a month and a day apart, Antonblast fully recouped its costs in development and marketing, turning a profit for Summitsphere.
[36] Originally, Antonblast and its soundtrack were designed as something that could hypothetically run on the Game Boy Advance's hardware, by limiting the amount of sound channels used for audio.
[36] Time Extension writer Jack Yarwood praised the demo, appreciating Antonblast for "fill[ing] the gap" left by the lack of new Wario Land video games.
[26] Kotaku writer Kenneth Shepard included it in his list of indie games releasing in 2023 that he wanted to showcase, praising its pixel art, action, and premise.
Critics praised Antonblast for its detailed Game Boy Advance-inspired visuals and animations, addictive, replayable gameplay, and soundtrack.
"[22] Tony Grayson also expressed interest on making a remaster or sequel to Antonball Deluxe as he felt that the game's arcade focus was "great but unambitous."