oh gosh you're right, i never explicitly stated that- i don't know how i missed it; thank you for catching that!!
the ultimate orb is a guarunteed catch :) and yes, you'd be correct on the inspiration, it's that among several other things ^^
i'm hoping to make a full-blown 2D game in this universe eventually, so it's nice to see that this sort of 'trial run' has been well-recieved :)