Thelema is one of those "big game, small package" deals. Just a bit over 7MB of disk space, and it contains a world so massive in scale that I couldn't trek through all of it in the 10 minutes for which I played.
Here's the basic rundown: the game is some weird mix of a platformer and an omnidirectional shooter. The gameplay, no doubt, resembles the latter, but the level design resembles the former. I'm actually not sure how I feel about this. The level design doesn't seem to affect the gameplay in any way, and it lead to a few fun moments when I would pretend to "Ninja Gaiden" off the walls by just pressing the left and right directional buttons, so I guess it was clever. Good work.
The gameplay is driven by the weapon upgrades that you can get by clearing grueling successions of enemies without dying. When you die, you are respawned at the beginning of the game, but you keep your weapon upgrades. I only played long enough to get one of these upgrades, the glacier, which was a huge step up from my starting fireball and...well...that's kind of what I don't like about it. Once I got it, I had no reason to ever use the fireball. The game would have been much more engaging had the weapon powerups offered slightly different playstyles, rather than just a numerical damage bonus and increased number of projectiles per click. Extra Credits did an awesome piece on this (yeah, it's been a while since I mentioned them, hasn't it?). Click the link below and check it out. It's one of my favorite episodes.
Anyways, Thelema is fun and competently designed, but I will say that it takes a bit of getting used to. For the first couple minutes of play, you're going to think this is nothing any amateur couldn't scrape together with a basic knowledge of C++, but stick with it a little longer and the game starts to show its true colors. If this game had included a save feature, I might even be inclined to play it some more. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay antigravitational.
Links
Magic Space Man: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=518
Extra Credits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlBR1z-ue-I
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
The White Wall (kinda)
Oh what a momentous occasion this is. With this review, I start my journey upon the tenth and final page of the DigiPen Game Gallery. Of course, that's what I WOULD be saying if they hadn't added 15 games to the library just as I was catching up to my schedule...
No matter. The 11th page only has 5 games on it, so I'm still as excited as I would be if it truly were the last page. Without further ado, let's get this show on the road.
And how do we start off this milestone in the year 2013? With a broken game, of course! Outstanding. The White Wall simply failed to download.
Under normal circumstances, I would review another game in the name of preserving the blog's integrity. However, certain circumstances (an inordinate amount of schoolwork) are leading me to seize this opportunity to pocket an extra hour or so. If I finish my work early, I'll post again today. Knowing me, though, that's a longshot...
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26672
No matter. The 11th page only has 5 games on it, so I'm still as excited as I would be if it truly were the last page. Without further ado, let's get this show on the road.
And how do we start off this milestone in the year 2013? With a broken game, of course! Outstanding. The White Wall simply failed to download.
Under normal circumstances, I would review another game in the name of preserving the blog's integrity. However, certain circumstances (an inordinate amount of schoolwork) are leading me to seize this opportunity to pocket an extra hour or so. If I finish my work early, I'll post again today. Knowing me, though, that's a longshot...
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26672
Monday, October 28, 2013
The Shaman Engines and The Ward
Oh no, Dean forgot to blog yesterday. What ever shall we do? Oh noooooooooo
Anyway, The Shaman Engines starts up with a splash screen featuring bright whitish yellow contrasting against the black background, which is welcomingly similar to that of Dark Souls (wow, Dean is still playing Dark Souls? That game must be really good. Maybe I should support From Software and buy such a wonderful product...okay I'm done with that now).
So I start up the game and immediately, without so much as a "ready, go!" I am assaulted from all sides by giant rocket-slinging robots. I must say that this is one of the few games on this list to ever make me vocalize. It's up to you to decide whether you want to play a game that, in the first few seconds, will make you go "oh Jesus oh man oh God oh ding dang darn it!" Personally, I love this merciless style of opening the game. It's hilarious and effective. Granted, the controls didn't differ very much (read, "at all") from standard FPS controls, but it didn't take me long to learn the most efficient strategies when giant bipedal war bots are constantly throwing explodey stuff in my direction.
If there is beauty to be found in this game, which I think there is, it is to be found in its elegant simplicity. No fancy AI programming to make your enemies hide behind walls or look at fish or whatever. No unnecessary plot or stealth, just pure adrenaline-fueled robot 'sploding action. The game is fairly challenging and damn empowering to play. The sprint makes you rocket forward at the speed of sound, and the jetpack can quickly fling you to the perfect vantage point, but all of these features are well-balanced. The jetpack, for example, will drain your fuel and leave you a sitting duck to tank damage for a few seconds if you're not careful.
The flaws of this game are not flaws that make it any less fun. I already touched upon the AI, which, I'll be honest, is a bag of crystalized stupid. The enemies don't know how to do anything but rush you and shoot at your immediate position. I'm not saying a circle strafe will leave them 100% defenseless, but I will say that they're not much of a match for a seasoned veteran of Goldeneye. It's not really a problem, though, because there are enough enemies on the screen to maintain a challenge and give you enough fun things to shoot at. There also seem to be a few things that were added just for the sake of adding them. For example, the game flirts with a platforming section for about half a second as if just to say "look, I made a platform section." It's worth noting that I quit before I beat level 3, so maybe there's a good explanation for this, but it seemed frivolous to me.
Again, none of these things make the game any less fun to play, so the final verdict is that this one is worth your time. Check it out!
The Ward is what happens when you mix the gameplay of A Flipping Good Time with the narrative style Oniro and glaze it with Primordial's visual aesthetic. Let me break that down for you. The Ward is a platformer that centers around the ever popular gravity manipulation mechanic. Imagine VVVVVV but you're allowed to jump first.
The platforming is decent, but nothing special, and certainly can get frustrating at times. This game needs something to keep the player invested. The developers realized this and threw in narrative in the form of writing on the walls (like in Erebus. Man, I'm batting a thousand with the references today...) I pieced together something about me being dead and wanting to see my girlfriend again, but I ragequit before I could learn any more. See, the game committed the unforgivable sin of killing me because I rubbed up against the side of a spike. That was enough for me.
To review: The Shaman Engines is a shooter that rivals Fight Zone, and you should totally try out, while The Ward probably has a lot of payoff if you're willing to put up with a lot of frustration, which I frankly wasn't. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay dead.
Links
Robot Souls: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18571
Consciousness after Death: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24364
Anyway, The Shaman Engines starts up with a splash screen featuring bright whitish yellow contrasting against the black background, which is welcomingly similar to that of Dark Souls (wow, Dean is still playing Dark Souls? That game must be really good. Maybe I should support From Software and buy such a wonderful product...okay I'm done with that now).
So I start up the game and immediately, without so much as a "ready, go!" I am assaulted from all sides by giant rocket-slinging robots. I must say that this is one of the few games on this list to ever make me vocalize. It's up to you to decide whether you want to play a game that, in the first few seconds, will make you go "oh Jesus oh man oh God oh ding dang darn it!" Personally, I love this merciless style of opening the game. It's hilarious and effective. Granted, the controls didn't differ very much (read, "at all") from standard FPS controls, but it didn't take me long to learn the most efficient strategies when giant bipedal war bots are constantly throwing explodey stuff in my direction.
If there is beauty to be found in this game, which I think there is, it is to be found in its elegant simplicity. No fancy AI programming to make your enemies hide behind walls or look at fish or whatever. No unnecessary plot or stealth, just pure adrenaline-fueled robot 'sploding action. The game is fairly challenging and damn empowering to play. The sprint makes you rocket forward at the speed of sound, and the jetpack can quickly fling you to the perfect vantage point, but all of these features are well-balanced. The jetpack, for example, will drain your fuel and leave you a sitting duck to tank damage for a few seconds if you're not careful.
The flaws of this game are not flaws that make it any less fun. I already touched upon the AI, which, I'll be honest, is a bag of crystalized stupid. The enemies don't know how to do anything but rush you and shoot at your immediate position. I'm not saying a circle strafe will leave them 100% defenseless, but I will say that they're not much of a match for a seasoned veteran of Goldeneye. It's not really a problem, though, because there are enough enemies on the screen to maintain a challenge and give you enough fun things to shoot at. There also seem to be a few things that were added just for the sake of adding them. For example, the game flirts with a platforming section for about half a second as if just to say "look, I made a platform section." It's worth noting that I quit before I beat level 3, so maybe there's a good explanation for this, but it seemed frivolous to me.
Again, none of these things make the game any less fun to play, so the final verdict is that this one is worth your time. Check it out!
The Ward is what happens when you mix the gameplay of A Flipping Good Time with the narrative style Oniro and glaze it with Primordial's visual aesthetic. Let me break that down for you. The Ward is a platformer that centers around the ever popular gravity manipulation mechanic. Imagine VVVVVV but you're allowed to jump first.
The platforming is decent, but nothing special, and certainly can get frustrating at times. This game needs something to keep the player invested. The developers realized this and threw in narrative in the form of writing on the walls (like in Erebus. Man, I'm batting a thousand with the references today...) I pieced together something about me being dead and wanting to see my girlfriend again, but I ragequit before I could learn any more. See, the game committed the unforgivable sin of killing me because I rubbed up against the side of a spike. That was enough for me.
To review: The Shaman Engines is a shooter that rivals Fight Zone, and you should totally try out, while The Ward probably has a lot of payoff if you're willing to put up with a lot of frustration, which I frankly wasn't. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay dead.
Links
Robot Souls: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18571
Consciousness after Death: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24364
Saturday, October 26, 2013
The Lift (sorta) and The Root of Life
The Lift was made with the ever-functional Zero Engine, which I haven't had much luck with in the past. At least when this one crashed it gave me the option to write an error report, so maybe this game will be functional soon...
The Root of Life is a simplistic game wherein you guide a root down into the ground to find a water supply. This is one of those games that I consider to be a complete vacuum. There's really nothing to talk about. I quit within the first 5 levels for 2 reasons: first off, the background music started to awaken murderous feelings I never knew were in me. Second off, the game was just kinda dull. Essentially, you're just clicking wherever there is a bright color until you win. The game offers no form of experimentation; you're lead by a choke chain through the levels. The game fails to make you feel like you've done anything. It's more like "hey, look, we made a whole bunch of levels. Appreciate them!" And yes, I do appreciate them. I'm sure they took quite a long time to make and you should be proud of the fruits of your labor. All I'm saying is the orchard in which the fruits grow is not very fun to play in.
I'm going to end this here before I end up torturing even more innocent metaphors. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay concise.
Links
The Broken Lift: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26734
The Prequel to The Tree of Life: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26019
The Root of Life is a simplistic game wherein you guide a root down into the ground to find a water supply. This is one of those games that I consider to be a complete vacuum. There's really nothing to talk about. I quit within the first 5 levels for 2 reasons: first off, the background music started to awaken murderous feelings I never knew were in me. Second off, the game was just kinda dull. Essentially, you're just clicking wherever there is a bright color until you win. The game offers no form of experimentation; you're lead by a choke chain through the levels. The game fails to make you feel like you've done anything. It's more like "hey, look, we made a whole bunch of levels. Appreciate them!" And yes, I do appreciate them. I'm sure they took quite a long time to make and you should be proud of the fruits of your labor. All I'm saying is the orchard in which the fruits grow is not very fun to play in.
I'm going to end this here before I end up torturing even more innocent metaphors. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay concise.
Links
The Broken Lift: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26734
The Prequel to The Tree of Life: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26019
Friday, October 25, 2013
The Fourth Wall, The Last Helper, and The Legend of the Steam Yard
What's this? Another 3-game review? And none of the games had those stupid NOT_REAL_EXE things? Has Christmas come early for you guys or what?
Well, actually, for once, I should be celebrating along with you, because the first game on the list is a refreshing reaffirmation that people know what they're doing over there at DigiPen (a breath of fresh air that I desperately needed after the massacre that was yesterday's batch of games).
The Fourth Wall has it all. I'm going to cut all the fluff and just tell you what especially caught my eye: it conveys its mechanics stellarly. I can almost see Egoraptor with his little notepad checking off each thing the player learns as they play. The player isn't pandered to nor is he (or she) ever left completely clueless. This is the hallmark of successful game design. Now, how about those mechanics? Well conveyed mechanics mean nothing if they're not fun to use. Well, fear not, fellow interwebbers, because the gameplay in The Fourth Wall is fun and unique. It's kind of like Perspective in that it forces you to thing around the typical conventions of platforming and manipulate the (well designed) levels rather than just jump on platforms.
This is definitely one of those games that I stopped playing because I didn't have time, not because I genuinely wanted to stop. There's really not much more to say about it, so if you like to appreciate good game design where you see it, this game is definitely for you. I'll be honest, though, while it is a fun game, don't mistake my praise for an affirmation that you will be at the edge of your seat for the duration of play. It's not that kind of game. It's the kind of game you roll around your palate for a bit before swallowing, if you catch my drift. I, being the seasoned afficionado that I am, have no problem giving this one my seal of approval.
Moving on, The Last Helper was...well, it was interesting, but not in the Braid sense of interesting where you're left pondering the symbolism of the mechanics and the significance of the design. Rather, it's interesting in the "what were they going for here, anyway?" sense of the word. As the game starts up, you're greeted by a (rather oppressively long) loading screen that spits a whole bunch of facts about HIV/AIDS at you. "Huh," I thought. "This probably means either of two things: the game wants to prove that video gaming is a legitimate medium for tackling serious issues, like HIV/AIDS, or that video games can be powerful educational tools." Both of those statements are true, but honestly, The Last Helper isn't exactly the best way to prove them. First off, I may only have an elementary knowledge of Biology, but I'm pretty sure this isn't how helper T cells work. It's totally possible to deliver an educational experience that engages the player and teaches them at the same time using the mechanics, but creating a shooter out of a white blood cell isn't how to do it. Secondly, you can't expect the player to take your message seriously if you juxtapose sobering facts about the tragedies of the modern world with pew pew whoosh kapowey laser madness.
But maybe that's not what they were going for. Maybe they just wanted to create a fun horizontal shoot-em-up in a new and interesting locale. It's possible, although the very in-your-face Missile Command-esque ending makes it seem far less plausible. Regardless, let's play devil's advocate and say the overall goal was fun. The Last Helper, well...just doesn't do anything different. It's ground that's been well trodden a million times before. You fly to the left and shoot everything in your path. Is it constructed well? Yeah, kinda. I mean there are a lot of rookie mistakes, like the shooting sound being way too loud and annoying, but it's nothing you can't get past. The problem is that I had no motivation to actually get past them because the actual gameplay is repetitive and uninteresting. It's not terrible, but I'd say this one has a long way to go.
Finally, Legend of the Steam Yard is a very short but very smooth experience, like a perfectly crafted yet dishearteningly insubstantial chocolate truffle. It's a fast-paced, 3D third person shooter. It foregoes Brute Hardcastle's interesting mechanics in favor of more typical ones, but it completely eradicates the former game's other problems. Your character moves lightning fast and there are enough enemies to keep you on your toes. The biggest problem I had was that the particle effects, while kind of cool looking in a charming "baby's first Blender project" kind of way, make it difficult to tell whether or not you're hitting an enemy at a far distance. Not that it matters, though, considering you're just going to be plowing through and spamming bullets wherever you go regardless of who's dying in front of you. This game stays as long as it takes to explore its mechanics, which is only about 3 minutes. It doesn't overstay its welcome and it doesn't offend, so this game would seem to make a pretty good house guest, but at least the other, rowdier guests had the courtesy to bring some quiche. Steam Yard showed up empty handed, told one amusing anecdote, looked at its watch, said "good lord, this metaphor is tortured" and ran off.
So yeah, we had a pretty good mix today. One great game, one decent game and one "meh." That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay steamy
Links
Hello Audience, Good Bye Tradition: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24623
Magic School Bus Gone Wrong: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26707
Robot Zappy Funtime: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18589
Well, actually, for once, I should be celebrating along with you, because the first game on the list is a refreshing reaffirmation that people know what they're doing over there at DigiPen (a breath of fresh air that I desperately needed after the massacre that was yesterday's batch of games).
The Fourth Wall has it all. I'm going to cut all the fluff and just tell you what especially caught my eye: it conveys its mechanics stellarly. I can almost see Egoraptor with his little notepad checking off each thing the player learns as they play. The player isn't pandered to nor is he (or she) ever left completely clueless. This is the hallmark of successful game design. Now, how about those mechanics? Well conveyed mechanics mean nothing if they're not fun to use. Well, fear not, fellow interwebbers, because the gameplay in The Fourth Wall is fun and unique. It's kind of like Perspective in that it forces you to thing around the typical conventions of platforming and manipulate the (well designed) levels rather than just jump on platforms.
This is definitely one of those games that I stopped playing because I didn't have time, not because I genuinely wanted to stop. There's really not much more to say about it, so if you like to appreciate good game design where you see it, this game is definitely for you. I'll be honest, though, while it is a fun game, don't mistake my praise for an affirmation that you will be at the edge of your seat for the duration of play. It's not that kind of game. It's the kind of game you roll around your palate for a bit before swallowing, if you catch my drift. I, being the seasoned afficionado that I am, have no problem giving this one my seal of approval.
Moving on, The Last Helper was...well, it was interesting, but not in the Braid sense of interesting where you're left pondering the symbolism of the mechanics and the significance of the design. Rather, it's interesting in the "what were they going for here, anyway?" sense of the word. As the game starts up, you're greeted by a (rather oppressively long) loading screen that spits a whole bunch of facts about HIV/AIDS at you. "Huh," I thought. "This probably means either of two things: the game wants to prove that video gaming is a legitimate medium for tackling serious issues, like HIV/AIDS, or that video games can be powerful educational tools." Both of those statements are true, but honestly, The Last Helper isn't exactly the best way to prove them. First off, I may only have an elementary knowledge of Biology, but I'm pretty sure this isn't how helper T cells work. It's totally possible to deliver an educational experience that engages the player and teaches them at the same time using the mechanics, but creating a shooter out of a white blood cell isn't how to do it. Secondly, you can't expect the player to take your message seriously if you juxtapose sobering facts about the tragedies of the modern world with pew pew whoosh kapowey laser madness.
But maybe that's not what they were going for. Maybe they just wanted to create a fun horizontal shoot-em-up in a new and interesting locale. It's possible, although the very in-your-face Missile Command-esque ending makes it seem far less plausible. Regardless, let's play devil's advocate and say the overall goal was fun. The Last Helper, well...just doesn't do anything different. It's ground that's been well trodden a million times before. You fly to the left and shoot everything in your path. Is it constructed well? Yeah, kinda. I mean there are a lot of rookie mistakes, like the shooting sound being way too loud and annoying, but it's nothing you can't get past. The problem is that I had no motivation to actually get past them because the actual gameplay is repetitive and uninteresting. It's not terrible, but I'd say this one has a long way to go.
Finally, Legend of the Steam Yard is a very short but very smooth experience, like a perfectly crafted yet dishearteningly insubstantial chocolate truffle. It's a fast-paced, 3D third person shooter. It foregoes Brute Hardcastle's interesting mechanics in favor of more typical ones, but it completely eradicates the former game's other problems. Your character moves lightning fast and there are enough enemies to keep you on your toes. The biggest problem I had was that the particle effects, while kind of cool looking in a charming "baby's first Blender project" kind of way, make it difficult to tell whether or not you're hitting an enemy at a far distance. Not that it matters, though, considering you're just going to be plowing through and spamming bullets wherever you go regardless of who's dying in front of you. This game stays as long as it takes to explore its mechanics, which is only about 3 minutes. It doesn't overstay its welcome and it doesn't offend, so this game would seem to make a pretty good house guest, but at least the other, rowdier guests had the courtesy to bring some quiche. Steam Yard showed up empty handed, told one amusing anecdote, looked at its watch, said "good lord, this metaphor is tortured" and ran off.
So yeah, we had a pretty good mix today. One great game, one decent game and one "meh." That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay steamy
Links
Hello Audience, Good Bye Tradition: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24623
Magic School Bus Gone Wrong: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26707
Robot Zappy Funtime: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18589
Thursday, October 24, 2013
The Chronicles of Brute Hardcastle, The Exiled (kinda), and The Fantastic Adventures of Francis McKrispi
What inspired me to write 3 reviews before noon, you ask? Well, the fact that I was inert the past two days has something to do with it, but as we all know by now, my lack of motivation knows no bounds. No, the real reason I'm giving you this splendid 3-for-1 deal is that each of these games lasted no longer than 5 minutes before I ragequit. Let's get this party started.
Brute Hardcastle is my favorite kind of game to review, even though it makes for very uninteresting reading. It's the kind of game where one or two flaws dominate the experience so intensely that nothing else matters. Firstly, the movement speed is a joke. Seriously, nobody could have playtested this game and figured "yeah, he walks about fast enough." What's worse is that this game is ostensibly a beat 'em up, so the slow movement speed doesn't even complement the gameplay. Slow movement speed can be effective when used correctly, like in the last minutes of Mass Effect 3, but when the game expects you to believe that you're in the heat of battle and you're cruising along city streets at about 2 miles per day, there's a serious problem.
The other big issue is the level design. I try to be polite in these reviews, but I can't pull my punches here. This is some of the laziest and unthoughtful level design I've seen on this list. It's a relatively expansive city built on a grid, like Manhattan, but there's nothing in it! Coupled with the slow movement speed, this means you're going to be spending a lot of time strolling casually down the sidewalk wishing that there was something to do.
You know what? I really wanted to have fun with this game. I did! That's because it uses a fight mechanic that, for a long time, I've been saying would make a game very fun to play. You control the trajectory of your fists with the mouse. I love that they included this, but even that is executed so sloppily that it's just borderline broken. This game fails to impress. Moving on.
The Exiled is one of those NOT_REAL_EXE things. I don't know what to do about that.
Francis McKrispi, or, as it's otherwise called, Bacon, is a charming little platforming hack-n-slasher wherein you are a strip of bacon with a butter knife on a mission to destroy all eggs. This is my least favorite game to review because there is no outstanding mechanic whatsoever. It's just "a game" rather than "the game that" or "the game with." Get what I'm saying?
Bacon is the only game in this post that I might review if you're bored enough that you think cracking like a bazillion eggs is going to be entertaining. I do love the aesthetic, though. It's got enough quirk to make me smirk, but it does smell a but ofrotten eggs trying too hard to be witty, which, especially to a cynic like me, is a death sentence for any piece of art because it shows how unwitty the creators actually were.
Man, I was a jerk today. Oh well. Such is life. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay cruel.
Links
Brute Slowcastle: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=499
The Exiled EXE: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=603
Yummy Pig Meat: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18527
Brute Hardcastle is my favorite kind of game to review, even though it makes for very uninteresting reading. It's the kind of game where one or two flaws dominate the experience so intensely that nothing else matters. Firstly, the movement speed is a joke. Seriously, nobody could have playtested this game and figured "yeah, he walks about fast enough." What's worse is that this game is ostensibly a beat 'em up, so the slow movement speed doesn't even complement the gameplay. Slow movement speed can be effective when used correctly, like in the last minutes of Mass Effect 3, but when the game expects you to believe that you're in the heat of battle and you're cruising along city streets at about 2 miles per day, there's a serious problem.
The other big issue is the level design. I try to be polite in these reviews, but I can't pull my punches here. This is some of the laziest and unthoughtful level design I've seen on this list. It's a relatively expansive city built on a grid, like Manhattan, but there's nothing in it! Coupled with the slow movement speed, this means you're going to be spending a lot of time strolling casually down the sidewalk wishing that there was something to do.
You know what? I really wanted to have fun with this game. I did! That's because it uses a fight mechanic that, for a long time, I've been saying would make a game very fun to play. You control the trajectory of your fists with the mouse. I love that they included this, but even that is executed so sloppily that it's just borderline broken. This game fails to impress. Moving on.
The Exiled is one of those NOT_REAL_EXE things. I don't know what to do about that.
Francis McKrispi, or, as it's otherwise called, Bacon, is a charming little platforming hack-n-slasher wherein you are a strip of bacon with a butter knife on a mission to destroy all eggs. This is my least favorite game to review because there is no outstanding mechanic whatsoever. It's just "a game" rather than "the game that" or "the game with." Get what I'm saying?
Bacon is the only game in this post that I might review if you're bored enough that you think cracking like a bazillion eggs is going to be entertaining. I do love the aesthetic, though. It's got enough quirk to make me smirk, but it does smell a but of
Man, I was a jerk today. Oh well. Such is life. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay cruel.
Links
Brute Slowcastle: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=499
The Exiled EXE: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=603
Yummy Pig Meat: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18527
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
The Busted Android
First off, right out of the gate, this game's development gets the award for most creative and hilarious name I've yet encountered: "Victorious Secret."
Brilliant.
You know what's not brilliant, though? making the left and right directional buttons do the exact same thing. Seriosuly. The Busted Android is a freerunning game of sorts, kind of like Roger Fastman but without the ability to spew bullets literally everywhere.
Sometimes a gameplay feature will stick out to me so much that I stop caring about the rest. I don't care so much that the art style could be mimicked by anyone with Inkscape and three spare minutes. I don't care so much that when the game doesn't decide to throw you into an enclosed space, the game can actually induce quite a sense of flow.
Really, all I care about is the fact that holding left can cause you to rocket to the right, and holding right can cause you to rocket to the left. The way it "works" is that both the left and right buttons give you a boost in whatever direction you're facing. You switch directions when you hit a wall. It feels very unnatural and is quite difficult to learn.
And that's basically it. This one fails to impress. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay busted
Links
The Perfectly Functional Android: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26018
Brilliant.
You know what's not brilliant, though? making the left and right directional buttons do the exact same thing. Seriosuly. The Busted Android is a freerunning game of sorts, kind of like Roger Fastman but without the ability to spew bullets literally everywhere.
Sometimes a gameplay feature will stick out to me so much that I stop caring about the rest. I don't care so much that the art style could be mimicked by anyone with Inkscape and three spare minutes. I don't care so much that when the game doesn't decide to throw you into an enclosed space, the game can actually induce quite a sense of flow.
Really, all I care about is the fact that holding left can cause you to rocket to the right, and holding right can cause you to rocket to the left. The way it "works" is that both the left and right buttons give you a boost in whatever direction you're facing. You switch directions when you hit a wall. It feels very unnatural and is quite difficult to learn.
And that's basically it. This one fails to impress. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay busted
Links
The Perfectly Functional Android: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26018
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Thanatos and The Bowling Ninja
Thanatos advertises itself as having "an emphasis on balanced and tactical gameplay." I, still recovering from my bad experience with Super Street Fighter 4, was intrigued and delighted by this proposition. Then, I booted it up, and found a low-grade version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl....Hhhnnggg-
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the latter two games, it's just that I don't think they are either particularly balanced or tactical, and I was looking forward to a game less about spamming hadokens and more about outwitting your opponent on the battlefield. Thanatos does not deliver in that aspect.
The game experience is most similar to those old-style cartoon fight scenes where the characters involved just sort of dissolve into a cloud of dust and moving fists. Here's how you play Thanatos: spam special attack ad nauseam, repeat. Between the smoke clouds and tiny characters, good luck following anything that's happening.
I understand that my opinion on Brawl and Street Fighter doesn't exactly coincide with the popular opinion, so take what I say about Thanatos, which appears to have combined the worst aspects of both, with a grain of salt, but I can't recommend it.
Moving on, The Bowling Ninja...
for all my banging of the "DigiPen <3 Ikaruga" drum, I do have to admit that there are a few games on this list that try to get away from that stereotype. For example, The Bowling Ninja is Ikaruga in reverse! Seriously, I'm not stretching this point just to be funny; if I tell you that a game is about destroying things with projectiles based on their color and that the color of the projectile must coincide with the color of the object, what do you think of? Now add in the fact that projectiles tend to quickly fill up the screen, and you've got a pretty good match.
Anyway, you are a ninja with an unlimited supply of bowling balls of four different colors. You throw those bowling balls at other ninjas, who are destroyed if hit with a bowling ball that matches their color. This is an interesting concept, at least, but the game design seems rather self-destructive. The bowling balls can bounce off walls, and when they do, they turn from colored to grey, and grey bowling balls can one-shot any incoming enemy, so rather than strategically placing your shots like the designers ostensibly planned, you end up just spamming balls and spinning in a circle until every threat around you dies.
So yeah, this may be fun for a few minutes, but just pressing the same buttons over and over can get really stale really fast, so the game is not helped by the fact that each level does nothing but introduce a greater quantity of enemies you must defeat to move on. I wouldn't necessarily call the game overly frustrating, but it does a terrible job of motivating the player to continue.
So, today we had two games with relatively similar pros and cons: graphical style that resembles the dooldes of a bored 4th grader (though I can't really blame them, each coming out more than 6 years ago), repetitive and boring gameplay, and a failure to impart a feeling of agency onto the player. These games aren't terrible, but they're at least below average compared to the others on the list. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay scribbled
Links
Overused Greek Word: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=517
The Beginning of The end of Creative Naming: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=455
Saturday, October 19, 2013
TerryTori K9 and Tetragrams
TerryTori K9 is an exclusively 2-player game, so I wasn't able to play it to its fullest extent. The only thing I can really comment on is the concept. Two dogs move around a map in real time to control territories. Those territories earn points per second for their owner, and the first to reach a certain number of points wins.
It seems like it could make for a really fun game. You can choose a certain special move before the match starts, each with effects like "prevent your opponent from taking your territory" or "stun your opponent," etc. They seem balanced enough to make the game enjoyable and tense. Of course, you'll have to play it with a friend to find out.
Tetragrams, on the other hand, is a one-player game, and a damn fine one at that. As its name sort of alludes to, the game is based heavily off Tetris, but is original enough for me to call it an homage rather than a rip-off. The idea is that there are certain polygonal shapes outlined on the board. Other shapes come in through a conveyor belt, and you have to place them so that the outlined shapes get filled in.
The big seller here is that the game is absolutely frantic. I, of course, forewent the tutorial, and was thoroughly confused by the time the "game over" screen reared its ugly head. There are so many different things going on at once...so much for the player to consider; yet somehow, it never gets so overwhelming that it becomes frustrating. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes (by the way, if anyone can guess what I was just foreshadowing, I will personal mail you a cookie of your choosing), I kept coming back stronger than before every time I lost. The difficulty curve is perfect and each loss only motivated me to keep trying to master the controls.
This is my favorite kind of game: simple, yet perfectly designed. I didn't come across a single flaw in its design (though, in fairness, that might just be because I wasn't able to play far enough to find one). For that, this game gets my seal of approval. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay strategic.
Links
Woof Woof Piddle Piddle: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24635
Even More Shape-Related Death than Super Hexagon: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25000
It seems like it could make for a really fun game. You can choose a certain special move before the match starts, each with effects like "prevent your opponent from taking your territory" or "stun your opponent," etc. They seem balanced enough to make the game enjoyable and tense. Of course, you'll have to play it with a friend to find out.
Tetragrams, on the other hand, is a one-player game, and a damn fine one at that. As its name sort of alludes to, the game is based heavily off Tetris, but is original enough for me to call it an homage rather than a rip-off. The idea is that there are certain polygonal shapes outlined on the board. Other shapes come in through a conveyor belt, and you have to place them so that the outlined shapes get filled in.
The big seller here is that the game is absolutely frantic. I, of course, forewent the tutorial, and was thoroughly confused by the time the "game over" screen reared its ugly head. There are so many different things going on at once...so much for the player to consider; yet somehow, it never gets so overwhelming that it becomes frustrating. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes (by the way, if anyone can guess what I was just foreshadowing, I will personal mail you a cookie of your choosing), I kept coming back stronger than before every time I lost. The difficulty curve is perfect and each loss only motivated me to keep trying to master the controls.
This is my favorite kind of game: simple, yet perfectly designed. I didn't come across a single flaw in its design (though, in fairness, that might just be because I wasn't able to play far enough to find one). For that, this game gets my seal of approval. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay strategic.
Links
Woof Woof Piddle Piddle: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24635
Even More Shape-Related Death than Super Hexagon: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25000
Friday, October 18, 2013
Temporal Power Racing and Terra
Alright, so maybe I overreacted earlier. Yeah, the addition of 14 new games so close to the end of the year kinda screwed me up, but not THAT much. My schedule is relatively unchanged, though I'm going to have to do these "double the games, half the quality" type reviews more often.
Anyways, let's talk about these games quickly, because I'm tired and really looking forward to hitting the hay.
Temporal Power Racing is your standard F-Zero clone, so if you're into that kind of game, then yay for you. I found something you should totally try out. For the rest of us, though...eh. The game isn't poorly designed, but it seems a lot more frustrating than it has to be.
The basic setup is decent enough. The levels are littered with red and blue patches. You swap between red and blue by hitting the "z" button, and depending on what color you are when you go over a patch, you will either get a speed boost or be slowed to a near stop. It's one of those ideas that sounds pretty bad on paper, after all, it's just adding an unnecessary step to the racing, but it actually works out to be pretty fun, though it does nothing to alleviate the stereotype that DigiPen students approach gamemaking as "How can we remake Ikaruga today?"
The real problem with the game is the car design. Usually, in a racing game like F-Zero, where the different cars are afforded ranks for how well they turn, their max speed, acceleration, etc, the player can look at those ranks and interpret their car choice as "how do I want to win this race? Do I want to blaze past the rest carelessly or do I want to carefully maneuver around my opponents, etc, etc, etc." In this game, the question is "in which way would it be least frustrating to get absolutely piledriven into last place?" I'm not saying the game is too hard, it's just that the fast carts all have terrible turning and the carts that allow you to stay on the track are too slow to be competitive. This doesn't make for a challenge, it makes for frustration.
Still, though, the graphical style is interesting and the gameplay isn't terrible, so I'll still give it a reluctant recommendation. Now, then, let's talk Terra.
Terra confused me quite a bit at first. Firstly, there's no academic year listed next to it in the game gallery, leading me to believe that this game was conjured from some intemporal void that transcends time and space, like it's our gift from God or something. Actually, the game displays the Valve logo upon startup, oddly enough, so I guess it is a gift from God...Well, if so, it's a shame God didn't keep the receipt.
Okay, that was too harsh. Terra is actually not bad. Some might find it pretty damn good. The concept is original and creative: tilt the world using RMB to manipulate your surroundings in order to get from point A to point B. When it works, it's actually very fun. I ragequit after the second level, however, because of how easy it is to kill yourself in this game. One errant nudge could mean the difference between completing a puzzle and being squished against a wall, losing all your life in a matter of nanoseconds.
So yeah, the word of the day is "frustration," kiddies. Try to avoid it at all costs. These games didn't, and they suffered because of it. I can recommend Terra for its polished and professional look and TPR for its interesting "Mortal Combat meets F-Zero 64" graphical style, but otherwise, I am largely unimpressed.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay rewarding
Links
Big Words, Little Cars: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=434
Overused Latin Word: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=23877
Anyways, let's talk about these games quickly, because I'm tired and really looking forward to hitting the hay.
Temporal Power Racing is your standard F-Zero clone, so if you're into that kind of game, then yay for you. I found something you should totally try out. For the rest of us, though...eh. The game isn't poorly designed, but it seems a lot more frustrating than it has to be.
The basic setup is decent enough. The levels are littered with red and blue patches. You swap between red and blue by hitting the "z" button, and depending on what color you are when you go over a patch, you will either get a speed boost or be slowed to a near stop. It's one of those ideas that sounds pretty bad on paper, after all, it's just adding an unnecessary step to the racing, but it actually works out to be pretty fun, though it does nothing to alleviate the stereotype that DigiPen students approach gamemaking as "How can we remake Ikaruga today?"
The real problem with the game is the car design. Usually, in a racing game like F-Zero, where the different cars are afforded ranks for how well they turn, their max speed, acceleration, etc, the player can look at those ranks and interpret their car choice as "how do I want to win this race? Do I want to blaze past the rest carelessly or do I want to carefully maneuver around my opponents, etc, etc, etc." In this game, the question is "in which way would it be least frustrating to get absolutely piledriven into last place?" I'm not saying the game is too hard, it's just that the fast carts all have terrible turning and the carts that allow you to stay on the track are too slow to be competitive. This doesn't make for a challenge, it makes for frustration.
Still, though, the graphical style is interesting and the gameplay isn't terrible, so I'll still give it a reluctant recommendation. Now, then, let's talk Terra.
Terra confused me quite a bit at first. Firstly, there's no academic year listed next to it in the game gallery, leading me to believe that this game was conjured from some intemporal void that transcends time and space, like it's our gift from God or something. Actually, the game displays the Valve logo upon startup, oddly enough, so I guess it is a gift from God...Well, if so, it's a shame God didn't keep the receipt.
Okay, that was too harsh. Terra is actually not bad. Some might find it pretty damn good. The concept is original and creative: tilt the world using RMB to manipulate your surroundings in order to get from point A to point B. When it works, it's actually very fun. I ragequit after the second level, however, because of how easy it is to kill yourself in this game. One errant nudge could mean the difference between completing a puzzle and being squished against a wall, losing all your life in a matter of nanoseconds.
So yeah, the word of the day is "frustration," kiddies. Try to avoid it at all costs. These games didn't, and they suffered because of it. I can recommend Terra for its polished and professional look and TPR for its interesting "Mortal Combat meets F-Zero 64" graphical style, but otherwise, I am largely unimpressed.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay rewarding
Links
Big Words, Little Cars: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=434
Overused Latin Word: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=23877
OH GOD NO HELP ME PLEASE GOD WHY
So I got home today from a particularly abysmal day of school, checked the DigiPen Game Gallery and....huh...something's not right...
...wait a minute...
...oh God...
...did they?...yes....yes they did....
They added 14 more games...
.............................please help me...
So yeah, in a tragically ironic twist of fate, my seeing that left me with infinitely less motivation than I had when I typed that ever fateful "Dig" into my address bar. I'll try and get a review out tonight, but....damn. I was already running way behind schedule. I don't know how I'm going to deal with this...
Well...I've still got a month and a half. Maybe a kindly old demon will appear to me and offer me some more motivation in exchange for the other half of my soul. One can only hope...
Peace
...wait a minute...
...oh God...
...did they?...yes....yes they did....
They added 14 more games...
.............................please help me...
So yeah, in a tragically ironic twist of fate, my seeing that left me with infinitely less motivation than I had when I typed that ever fateful "Dig" into my address bar. I'll try and get a review out tonight, but....damn. I was already running way behind schedule. I don't know how I'm going to deal with this...
Well...I've still got a month and a half. Maybe a kindly old demon will appear to me and offer me some more motivation in exchange for the other half of my soul. One can only hope...
Peace
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Temple of the Water God
Presentation really goes a long way, doesn't it? I'm playing a very obscure game on my phone (more on that later...dun dun dunnnnnn), and I swear it has the potential to be big... like, Temple Run big... if only it were presented a bit more cleanly. Temple of the Water God understands this. It went with a very simple mechanic and very simple level design, but presented that simple game as best as it possibly could.
My first and greatest "wow" moment when playing this game came to me close to the beginning, when the sun in the background gleamed gloriously at my character and its surroundings, illuminating them with an almost supra-professional polish.
And speaking of supra-professoinal, props to the guys who worked on the music and sound editing for this game. It's nice to see that there are still people who take such seemingly insignificant parts of the game so seriously, and the effect is great in every sense of the word.
Now, let's talk gameplay. The mechanics are sort of similar to Snowfall's, except not designed to piss you off. You use one button to suck and another button to push...water, that is. You use this water to transport yourself from one area to the next, with the help of sea turles, jellyfish, and sharks, all of whom must be manipulated in slightly different ways.
The mechanics bring their share of frustrations and triumphs, but honestly that's not the most interesting part. Where the game really excels (other than the polish, of course), is in structure. The game is the perfect length for a relaxed yet dedicated play session and features a fair difficulty curve. In the game's climax, you're super powerful and you feel it. Yet, the game doesn't get easier as a result. The game was simply designed around your newfound superpowers, allowing you to reap the rewards of your labor while remaining challenged.
Temple of the Water God is a game that you can learn from, which makes it worth a play in my book. If you're starting out in game design and already have your mechanics and narrative planned out, but just need to know how to translate them into a well-rounded and well-polished experience, then this game has the answers for you. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay wet.
Links
In the Name of the Water: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26713
My first and greatest "wow" moment when playing this game came to me close to the beginning, when the sun in the background gleamed gloriously at my character and its surroundings, illuminating them with an almost supra-professional polish.
And speaking of supra-professoinal, props to the guys who worked on the music and sound editing for this game. It's nice to see that there are still people who take such seemingly insignificant parts of the game so seriously, and the effect is great in every sense of the word.
Now, let's talk gameplay. The mechanics are sort of similar to Snowfall's, except not designed to piss you off. You use one button to suck and another button to push...water, that is. You use this water to transport yourself from one area to the next, with the help of sea turles, jellyfish, and sharks, all of whom must be manipulated in slightly different ways.
The mechanics bring their share of frustrations and triumphs, but honestly that's not the most interesting part. Where the game really excels (other than the polish, of course), is in structure. The game is the perfect length for a relaxed yet dedicated play session and features a fair difficulty curve. In the game's climax, you're super powerful and you feel it. Yet, the game doesn't get easier as a result. The game was simply designed around your newfound superpowers, allowing you to reap the rewards of your labor while remaining challenged.
Temple of the Water God is a game that you can learn from, which makes it worth a play in my book. If you're starting out in game design and already have your mechanics and narrative planned out, but just need to know how to translate them into a well-rounded and well-polished experience, then this game has the answers for you. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay wet.
Links
In the Name of the Water: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26713
Telurica
Boy oh boy...I can't tell if I'm just in a rut lately or if this particular section of the game gallery is just completely insubstantial, but I am really running out of things to say. One of the easiest ways to get me to clam up and say nothing is to have me talk about something very simplistic. That's not to say simplicity is a bad thing. TEK was very simple in its design, but it still left a bigger impression on me than most of the games on the list. Telurica, however, is the most simple game I've ever played in every sense of the word. And yes, that includes non-DigiPen games, so yes, that includes Sumotori...
There are only 2 things you can do in Telurica, both of which are displayed for you at the beginning of each game: "Absorb! Destroy!" The game says, without cluing you in as to what exactly it means. Granted, I appreciate how the game used text to convey its mechanics, yet still let you figure them out for your own. The menu screen says "click to play," so you've already associated clicking with the action that makes things happen, so your first instinct is to click in order to absorb and destroy. Lo and behold, that's how you do it.
I'm tempted to say that there's no strategy with Telurica, but since I've come in dead last for every round I've played, it's probably more likely that I just haven't figured out the strategy yet. I'm not sure what else I can try, though. I know the principle mechanics, you bulldoze trees to increase your score multiplier and you vacuum their leaves to get points. Easy. The problem is that you can only see half of the map at any given time, and your character moves so slow that by the time you've cleared out one hemisphere, your opponents have already gotten busy racking up points in the next.
The most notable thing about Telurica really is its simplicity. Again, that's not a bad thing. It'll certainly keep you entertained for 5 minutes or so, so download it if you're bored. It's only 7MB, after all...That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay simple.
Links
Do the Thing: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=423
PS- I could've sworn I posted this yesterday...
There are only 2 things you can do in Telurica, both of which are displayed for you at the beginning of each game: "Absorb! Destroy!" The game says, without cluing you in as to what exactly it means. Granted, I appreciate how the game used text to convey its mechanics, yet still let you figure them out for your own. The menu screen says "click to play," so you've already associated clicking with the action that makes things happen, so your first instinct is to click in order to absorb and destroy. Lo and behold, that's how you do it.
I'm tempted to say that there's no strategy with Telurica, but since I've come in dead last for every round I've played, it's probably more likely that I just haven't figured out the strategy yet. I'm not sure what else I can try, though. I know the principle mechanics, you bulldoze trees to increase your score multiplier and you vacuum their leaves to get points. Easy. The problem is that you can only see half of the map at any given time, and your character moves so slow that by the time you've cleared out one hemisphere, your opponents have already gotten busy racking up points in the next.
The most notable thing about Telurica really is its simplicity. Again, that's not a bad thing. It'll certainly keep you entertained for 5 minutes or so, so download it if you're bored. It's only 7MB, after all...That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay simple.
Links
Do the Thing: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=423
PS- I could've sworn I posted this yesterday...
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
TEK
Video Games are often grouped with films and books in the category of "narrative media," which is fitting for the most part, but one of the things that makes video games so unique is that you don't need a narrative to have a good video game. Even in movies like The Expendables, where the story takes a backseat to the 'splosions and the fight choreography, there is still a reason why Terry Crews is blowing people to hell with an automatic shotgun. There is still a story. Sometimes, you don't want a story. Sometimes, you just want to be a robot killing other robots. No, I'm not talking about Transformers, because even that had a story, believe it or not. I'm talking about games like TEK
There are 2 game modes in TEK, "Gladiator" and "King of the Hill," the latter being far from aptly named because it plays more like a halfassed game of domination in [insert any FPS ever here]. Both modes had their ups and downs, but I found Gladiator mode to be more worth my time because there was an actual difficulty curve and it felt like I was getting closer to achieving my objective. Sure, in KOTH, there's a progress bar, but you're just fighting the same two enemies with the same weapon (because you were smart and picked up the insta-kill fire sword as soon as you saw it).
Anyways, what I really want to talk about is the mechanics. Literally the first thing I thought when I played The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (which I will defend to the bitter end as one of the top 3 best Zelda games of all time) was "boy, these mechanics would work great with a keyboard and mouse." If only I had known that somewhere between the years 2008 and 2009, that vision had already become a reality. TEK allows you to swipe your mouse across the screen to determine what angle you want to slice your opponents at...in theory.
Props for being innovative, but the mechanic just doesn't feel right. You'll have to fiddle around with the mouse for a full second before you get anywhere close to the angle you were after at first, which is a real bummer in the heat of battle. The slashing is so delayed, in fact, that the other mechanics being seamless is actually a bad thing. I know that sounds crazy, but hear me out: if the stabbing and blocking mechanics were as difficult to work with as the slashing mechanic, the gameplay would have at least been consistent and balanced. As it stands, though, not only is stabbing just as effective as slashing (or more so, depending on which sword you're using), there's literally no strategic reason for you to ever slash. Instead of manipulating the game mechanics to achieve a goal in the game, you're manipulating them to provide yourself a false sense of fun...which is never fun.
It might not seem like it, but I actually love TEK. It has its flaws, believe me it has its flaws, but it's still a solid game with an innovative mechanic with a lot of potential. This is definitely one of those games I would love to see updated. If it were, I might even pay to play it. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay bloodthirsty
Links
Bloodbath...er...Oilbath: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=16268
There are 2 game modes in TEK, "Gladiator" and "King of the Hill," the latter being far from aptly named because it plays more like a halfassed game of domination in [insert any FPS ever here]. Both modes had their ups and downs, but I found Gladiator mode to be more worth my time because there was an actual difficulty curve and it felt like I was getting closer to achieving my objective. Sure, in KOTH, there's a progress bar, but you're just fighting the same two enemies with the same weapon (because you were smart and picked up the insta-kill fire sword as soon as you saw it).
Anyways, what I really want to talk about is the mechanics. Literally the first thing I thought when I played The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (which I will defend to the bitter end as one of the top 3 best Zelda games of all time) was "boy, these mechanics would work great with a keyboard and mouse." If only I had known that somewhere between the years 2008 and 2009, that vision had already become a reality. TEK allows you to swipe your mouse across the screen to determine what angle you want to slice your opponents at...in theory.
Props for being innovative, but the mechanic just doesn't feel right. You'll have to fiddle around with the mouse for a full second before you get anywhere close to the angle you were after at first, which is a real bummer in the heat of battle. The slashing is so delayed, in fact, that the other mechanics being seamless is actually a bad thing. I know that sounds crazy, but hear me out: if the stabbing and blocking mechanics were as difficult to work with as the slashing mechanic, the gameplay would have at least been consistent and balanced. As it stands, though, not only is stabbing just as effective as slashing (or more so, depending on which sword you're using), there's literally no strategic reason for you to ever slash. Instead of manipulating the game mechanics to achieve a goal in the game, you're manipulating them to provide yourself a false sense of fun...which is never fun.
It might not seem like it, but I actually love TEK. It has its flaws, believe me it has its flaws, but it's still a solid game with an innovative mechanic with a lot of potential. This is definitely one of those games I would love to see updated. If it were, I might even pay to play it. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay bloodthirsty
Links
Bloodbath...er...Oilbath: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=16268
Monday, October 14, 2013
Ta-Ta Mahatta and TCubed
This is one of the most difficult reviews I've had to write. As I said yesterday, these things have to be treated more as first impressions than actual reviews. I wanted to play more of both of these games, but I just didn't have the time to play far enough to have anything meaningful to say. Regardless, I'll try.
Starting out with Ta-Ta Mahatta, this game has that "early n64" look to it. That sort of "we know how to make 3D textures but don't quite know how to make them appealing" aesthetic. I can't really explain it, but think of a game like Castlevania 64 or Bubsy 3D and then think of a game like Super Mario 64. See the difference? Yeah, Ta-Ta is in the former camp.
The game starts out slow but manageable with a few levels introducing you to the basic powers of each controllable TaTa. It's not a terrible tutorial, but it did get a bit laughable at times, like when the game made me push two blocks into two holes right in front of them and saying "no, seriously, you just solved a puzzle. Good job."
The real fun begins when you control more than one TaTa. You switch between them using "S" and use their unique abilities to traverse levels. The game's forte is definitely the level design. While linear and relatively straightforward, the levels facilitate a sense of accomplishment and they do make you think for a second or two.
The biggest flaw is that the game feels very unrefined, to put it nicely, and unfinished, to put it cruelly. This is most evident when one of your TaTas, whom you need in order to complete the level, dies. At this point, you would expect the game over screen to pop up, since you've effectively already lost, but it doesn't. You're just stuck in limbo until you find a cliff or an enemy to assist in your suicide. All-in-all, this game's not bad.
TCubed is much more difficult to review, mostly because I never make any progress because the game crashes every time you alt+tab out of it, which is something I'm conditioned to do every time I hear the Skype notification sound.
To me, the most notable feature this game has is a working save feature, which already puts it leagues above most of the games on this list in my book. The game does lose some points, however, for not allowing you to save at any time. Being able to save only at certain save points is a gameplay mechanic rarely pulled off well. The only game I can think of that uses it effectively is Dark Souls. In that game, it adds another layer of delicious tension onto every fight. In TCubed, it's just annoying.
There are a few things that I quite like about the game, such as the "waypoint" aiming system, which is a fantastic method of aiming your boomerang-like projectile once you learn how to use it. I'm also a fan of the "faulty memory" aesthetic, although it does have a tendency to interfere with gameplay and give the game a bit of an I Want to Be the Guy feel (that's not a good thing).
my verdict on this one is...well, I just don't have one. I have to play it more. Sorry to leave it like that, but I feel like I've only scratched the surface. For now, though, know that it was interesting enough to inspire me to play with it in my spare time.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay efficient.
Links
Breast Pun: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=537
Letter Numbered: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=484
Starting out with Ta-Ta Mahatta, this game has that "early n64" look to it. That sort of "we know how to make 3D textures but don't quite know how to make them appealing" aesthetic. I can't really explain it, but think of a game like Castlevania 64 or Bubsy 3D and then think of a game like Super Mario 64. See the difference? Yeah, Ta-Ta is in the former camp.
The game starts out slow but manageable with a few levels introducing you to the basic powers of each controllable TaTa. It's not a terrible tutorial, but it did get a bit laughable at times, like when the game made me push two blocks into two holes right in front of them and saying "no, seriously, you just solved a puzzle. Good job."
The real fun begins when you control more than one TaTa. You switch between them using "S" and use their unique abilities to traverse levels. The game's forte is definitely the level design. While linear and relatively straightforward, the levels facilitate a sense of accomplishment and they do make you think for a second or two.
The biggest flaw is that the game feels very unrefined, to put it nicely, and unfinished, to put it cruelly. This is most evident when one of your TaTas, whom you need in order to complete the level, dies. At this point, you would expect the game over screen to pop up, since you've effectively already lost, but it doesn't. You're just stuck in limbo until you find a cliff or an enemy to assist in your suicide. All-in-all, this game's not bad.
TCubed is much more difficult to review, mostly because I never make any progress because the game crashes every time you alt+tab out of it, which is something I'm conditioned to do every time I hear the Skype notification sound.
To me, the most notable feature this game has is a working save feature, which already puts it leagues above most of the games on this list in my book. The game does lose some points, however, for not allowing you to save at any time. Being able to save only at certain save points is a gameplay mechanic rarely pulled off well. The only game I can think of that uses it effectively is Dark Souls. In that game, it adds another layer of delicious tension onto every fight. In TCubed, it's just annoying.
There are a few things that I quite like about the game, such as the "waypoint" aiming system, which is a fantastic method of aiming your boomerang-like projectile once you learn how to use it. I'm also a fan of the "faulty memory" aesthetic, although it does have a tendency to interfere with gameplay and give the game a bit of an I Want to Be the Guy feel (that's not a good thing).
my verdict on this one is...well, I just don't have one. I have to play it more. Sorry to leave it like that, but I feel like I've only scratched the surface. For now, though, know that it was interesting enough to inspire me to play with it in my spare time.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay efficient.
Links
Breast Pun: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=537
Letter Numbered: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=484
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Tashi and Hom: Spirit Shrines
I'm convinced that the original name of this game was to be Tashi and Tom, but at the last minute, someone on the development team said "hey, you know what would be a fun idea? If we replaced the latter of this perfectly alliterative pair of names with 'Hom.'" and then someone else said "yeah, and how bout we add a subtitle that's also an alliteration, just to throw them off even more?" Well, regardless...
Tashi and To-DAMMIT!
Tashi and Hom is a third-person 3D beat-em-up kind of similar to Nightmare but without the "boo! Ees scawy!" aesthetic. You control two characters (whose names should be obvious); Tashi takes damage and follows your movement commands, while Hom attacks enemies. Each level consists of about 10 rooms of gradually increasing difficulty (and by that I mean increasing enemy count) before you get to a boss battle.
With a game like this, I think it would be most helpful to explain my experience level-by-level. The first temple, the Bull Temple, was relatively straightforward. My only real complaint was that the all of the controls were explained to me textually, while all I really needed was like a signpost with the "X" button on it in the background or something. Anyway, the level was well designed both mechanically and aesthetically. Color me impressed. Let's see the next temple.
The Bird Temple was rather unextraordinary. The only innovations were annoying bird enemies that kamikaze into you like the Guay from Ocarina of Time but substantially more infuriating, and the new boss, who just literally rolled around the room spitting out its babies, unlike the first level boss, who had an interesting and difficult pattern that required you to think first and then act. The Bull boss killed me like 5 or 6 times before I managed to conquer it, but I got the Bird boss on my first try. It was here that I sensed the game was starting to lose some steam.
The Fox Temple confirmed that. Now there are fox enemies (not as annoying as the birds, mind you) who rummage around in the ground for a bit before popping their little heads out like the most clubbable whack-a-mole. The most tense part of this level, and arguably the whole game, was the room right before the boss, but that was just an empty room with like a million enemies and some haphazardly placed spikes. It required no thought and it felt like wasted potential. After all, other rooms were designed so that you could use the enemies' properties against them, like the narrow hallways that you can lead a conga line of bulls through to pick them off one by one. That's rewarding! Just kind of mashing attack while dashing through a room full of squishy baddies is...not so much. The boss of this temple also smelled of fatigued developers. It was just 2 bigger fox enemies who followed literally the same pattern as the little fox enemies, only these guys whip their tails around. The pattern takes 2 seconds to learn, and after that, it's just a matter of not getting hit too much. After I beat it, the game just kinda stopped. There was no exit for me to go through...nothing. I wandered around a barren level for a while before killing myself on some spikes out of boredom.
Now, you guys know that this blog is more of a "first impressions" thing than a collection of actual reviews, so I gotta ask. Is this the norm for ending DigiPen games? Because if so, I'm glad I don't finish most of them...
Here's an analogy for ya: imagine you're taking a history test on, I don't know, the Alamo or something. All the teacher needs is for you to tell him (or her, lest I be called a misogynist) that Jim Bowie once got into a nasty tussle with some other dudes at a sandbar, but you and your overachieving brain want to give him the exact date as well, so you write down "October of 1831," only to have your teacher cross it out and write "September of 1827," and mark you off two points. If only you had just restrained yourself and only given the base materials, you wouldn't have lost those points. Well, that's Tashi and Hom in a nutshell. They tried to do too much with too little and the final project suffered because of it. It's not a bad game. It's designed superbly and has enough variety (especially with the powerups) to keep gameplay interesting for the most part. I just wish they had focused on making a short but amazing experience, rather than a moderately long, decent one.
Wow, that was a long one, eh? If only every game gave me this much to talk about. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay spiritual.
Links
Mashy and Prom: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25901
Tashi and To-DAMMIT!
Tashi and Hom is a third-person 3D beat-em-up kind of similar to Nightmare but without the "boo! Ees scawy!" aesthetic. You control two characters (whose names should be obvious); Tashi takes damage and follows your movement commands, while Hom attacks enemies. Each level consists of about 10 rooms of gradually increasing difficulty (and by that I mean increasing enemy count) before you get to a boss battle.
With a game like this, I think it would be most helpful to explain my experience level-by-level. The first temple, the Bull Temple, was relatively straightforward. My only real complaint was that the all of the controls were explained to me textually, while all I really needed was like a signpost with the "X" button on it in the background or something. Anyway, the level was well designed both mechanically and aesthetically. Color me impressed. Let's see the next temple.
The Bird Temple was rather unextraordinary. The only innovations were annoying bird enemies that kamikaze into you like the Guay from Ocarina of Time but substantially more infuriating, and the new boss, who just literally rolled around the room spitting out its babies, unlike the first level boss, who had an interesting and difficult pattern that required you to think first and then act. The Bull boss killed me like 5 or 6 times before I managed to conquer it, but I got the Bird boss on my first try. It was here that I sensed the game was starting to lose some steam.
The Fox Temple confirmed that. Now there are fox enemies (not as annoying as the birds, mind you) who rummage around in the ground for a bit before popping their little heads out like the most clubbable whack-a-mole. The most tense part of this level, and arguably the whole game, was the room right before the boss, but that was just an empty room with like a million enemies and some haphazardly placed spikes. It required no thought and it felt like wasted potential. After all, other rooms were designed so that you could use the enemies' properties against them, like the narrow hallways that you can lead a conga line of bulls through to pick them off one by one. That's rewarding! Just kind of mashing attack while dashing through a room full of squishy baddies is...not so much. The boss of this temple also smelled of fatigued developers. It was just 2 bigger fox enemies who followed literally the same pattern as the little fox enemies, only these guys whip their tails around. The pattern takes 2 seconds to learn, and after that, it's just a matter of not getting hit too much. After I beat it, the game just kinda stopped. There was no exit for me to go through...nothing. I wandered around a barren level for a while before killing myself on some spikes out of boredom.
Now, you guys know that this blog is more of a "first impressions" thing than a collection of actual reviews, so I gotta ask. Is this the norm for ending DigiPen games? Because if so, I'm glad I don't finish most of them...
Here's an analogy for ya: imagine you're taking a history test on, I don't know, the Alamo or something. All the teacher needs is for you to tell him (or her, lest I be called a misogynist) that Jim Bowie once got into a nasty tussle with some other dudes at a sandbar, but you and your overachieving brain want to give him the exact date as well, so you write down "October of 1831," only to have your teacher cross it out and write "September of 1827," and mark you off two points. If only you had just restrained yourself and only given the base materials, you wouldn't have lost those points. Well, that's Tashi and Hom in a nutshell. They tried to do too much with too little and the final project suffered because of it. It's not a bad game. It's designed superbly and has enough variety (especially with the powerups) to keep gameplay interesting for the most part. I just wish they had focused on making a short but amazing experience, rather than a moderately long, decent one.
Wow, that was a long one, eh? If only every game gave me this much to talk about. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay spiritual.
Links
Mashy and Prom: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25901
Saturday, October 12, 2013
TankU and Tank Wars
I love how things work out sometimes, don't you? You're running behind on your blog schedule, you need to figure out some way to review more than 1 game in a day as efficiently as possible, you look on the game gallery and lo and behold, 2 top-down tank shooters right next to each other, just begging to be compared.
Let's get this show on the road.
Well, let's start off talking about TankU. It's a standard tank shooter. Nothing too extraordinary. There are 4 "cores" in the middle of the screen. Blue tanks will try to steal those cores and everything else will try to kill you. It's your job to make sure neither of those things happen. You're given full range of all the stages from the get-go, which I thought was just a clever way of disguising the fact that DigiPen students don't know how to program an autosave, but I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up the game for the second time and my upgrades were all saved.
And that leads me into the upgrade system. As you thrust yourself into battle, you gain experience, which you then spend on upgrades. Blah-di-blah, nothing unusual here. It's not a bad upgrade system, but I do have my gripes. First off, what use is a "bullet rate" upgrade in a game that does't limit the amount of bullets you can fire per second by just mashing the mouse button as opposed to holding it? Second, there's not a whole lot of variety and I didn't sense much of a difference with any particular upgrade. It won't take long before you've maxed everything out, and even then, you won't feel much more powerful.
So, all, in all, TankU is a decently made game with no particular hook...but at least it's playable!
Tank Wars is just a badly designed game. I'm sorry, I don't think there's any way around that. I try to be as nice as I can, but what do you expect me to say when literally the only sound effect in a war arena filled with tanks firing cannons all over the place is the sound of my tank's engine gently revving?
The principle mechanic in Tank Wars is that as you land hits on your enemies, you get money, which you can spend on weapon upgrades and such. I'll give you a second to think of the problem with that. Got it? Not too hard to figure out, right? It leads to a scenario wherein whoever scores the most points in the first minutes of the game gets a tremendous advantage when they can afford to buy all the best stuff.
Here's a parallel. Remember playing 1-on-1 basketball in the schoolyard? Remember that one friend who refused to play anything but "winner's rule?" No matter how many times you tell him that "loser's rule" makes the game more balanced by not throwing the game into an infinite loop wherein one person just keeps scoring, that friend wouldn't budge and you'd basically spend your recess watching him swish baskets for 40 minutes? That's this game in a nutshell.
This is exactly what happens when you don't take the time to examine your mechanics before you implement them. That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay canTANKerous...heh...I did it...
Links
How to Make a Tank Shooter: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26017
How Not to Make a Tank Shooter: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=516
Let's get this show on the road.
Well, let's start off talking about TankU. It's a standard tank shooter. Nothing too extraordinary. There are 4 "cores" in the middle of the screen. Blue tanks will try to steal those cores and everything else will try to kill you. It's your job to make sure neither of those things happen. You're given full range of all the stages from the get-go, which I thought was just a clever way of disguising the fact that DigiPen students don't know how to program an autosave, but I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up the game for the second time and my upgrades were all saved.
And that leads me into the upgrade system. As you thrust yourself into battle, you gain experience, which you then spend on upgrades. Blah-di-blah, nothing unusual here. It's not a bad upgrade system, but I do have my gripes. First off, what use is a "bullet rate" upgrade in a game that does't limit the amount of bullets you can fire per second by just mashing the mouse button as opposed to holding it? Second, there's not a whole lot of variety and I didn't sense much of a difference with any particular upgrade. It won't take long before you've maxed everything out, and even then, you won't feel much more powerful.
So, all, in all, TankU is a decently made game with no particular hook...but at least it's playable!
Tank Wars is just a badly designed game. I'm sorry, I don't think there's any way around that. I try to be as nice as I can, but what do you expect me to say when literally the only sound effect in a war arena filled with tanks firing cannons all over the place is the sound of my tank's engine gently revving?
The principle mechanic in Tank Wars is that as you land hits on your enemies, you get money, which you can spend on weapon upgrades and such. I'll give you a second to think of the problem with that. Got it? Not too hard to figure out, right? It leads to a scenario wherein whoever scores the most points in the first minutes of the game gets a tremendous advantage when they can afford to buy all the best stuff.
Here's a parallel. Remember playing 1-on-1 basketball in the schoolyard? Remember that one friend who refused to play anything but "winner's rule?" No matter how many times you tell him that "loser's rule" makes the game more balanced by not throwing the game into an infinite loop wherein one person just keeps scoring, that friend wouldn't budge and you'd basically spend your recess watching him swish baskets for 40 minutes? That's this game in a nutshell.
This is exactly what happens when you don't take the time to examine your mechanics before you implement them. That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay canTANKerous...heh...I did it...
Links
How to Make a Tank Shooter: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26017
How Not to Make a Tank Shooter: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=516
Friday, October 11, 2013
updates n shizz, yo
so I'm not posting a review today cuz I just got home and I'm not feeling up to writing, but the game for today has been played, and I'll try and get as much done tomorrow as I can, since Sunday is pretty much shot (comic con, biznatches! woohooo!).
Also, I realize my posting has been a little spastic lately. I don't know why, but I've been forgetting to click the little "publish" button a lot lately...I hope I didn't confuse anyone.
Welp, see ya tomorra
Also, I realize my posting has been a little spastic lately. I don't know why, but I've been forgetting to click the little "publish" button a lot lately...I hope I didn't confuse anyone.
Welp, see ya tomorra
Tag
As I said yesterday, my day isn't exactly conducive to writing a video game review today, but I'll try.
Tag is everything I look for in a game. It's fun, creative, interesting and unique. The long and short of it is, you must navigate your way around a city using nothing but a spray paint gun. Standing on different colors of paint yields different effects: red makes you go faster, green springs you into the air, etc.
A man more cynical than I might criticize this game for trying too hard to be Portal. After all, creating a fun and functional 3D platformer wherein your primary method of locomotion is a handheld device that you point at the walls to propel yourself to and from platforms is a very powerful bolt of lightning that might not seem like it can strike twice. When all is said and done, though, Tag, with a bit more professional polish, a narrative, and some decent jokes strewn about here and there might actually give Portal a run for its money. Now, I was never quite as big a Portal fan as some of the other more famous video game critics out there (*cough* Yahtzee *cough*), but still, if your game can be compared to Portal, you're on the right track.
Tag, of course, isn't perfect, though. The biggest problem I faced was that any errant tap of a WASD key might send you flying off an edge you didn't know was there and down to your doom. Portal was kind enough to take place in a relatively closed and cramped laboratory, meaning launching yourself a tad too far or backpedaling a bit too much, more often than not, only sent you flying into a wall. In other words, when you died in Portal, it always felt like it was your fault. Tag is just a bit too comfortable snuggling up to cheap deaths.
Other than that, though, it's a fantastic game that I wish I had more time to play, and it definitely gets my seal of approval. As it stands, though, I've got to write an Art History essay and study for a Psychology test, so that's all I got for now. Until next time, stay vandalous.
Links
Teg, yur eet: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1506
Tag is everything I look for in a game. It's fun, creative, interesting and unique. The long and short of it is, you must navigate your way around a city using nothing but a spray paint gun. Standing on different colors of paint yields different effects: red makes you go faster, green springs you into the air, etc.
A man more cynical than I might criticize this game for trying too hard to be Portal. After all, creating a fun and functional 3D platformer wherein your primary method of locomotion is a handheld device that you point at the walls to propel yourself to and from platforms is a very powerful bolt of lightning that might not seem like it can strike twice. When all is said and done, though, Tag, with a bit more professional polish, a narrative, and some decent jokes strewn about here and there might actually give Portal a run for its money. Now, I was never quite as big a Portal fan as some of the other more famous video game critics out there (*cough* Yahtzee *cough*), but still, if your game can be compared to Portal, you're on the right track.
Tag, of course, isn't perfect, though. The biggest problem I faced was that any errant tap of a WASD key might send you flying off an edge you didn't know was there and down to your doom. Portal was kind enough to take place in a relatively closed and cramped laboratory, meaning launching yourself a tad too far or backpedaling a bit too much, more often than not, only sent you flying into a wall. In other words, when you died in Portal, it always felt like it was your fault. Tag is just a bit too comfortable snuggling up to cheap deaths.
Other than that, though, it's a fantastic game that I wish I had more time to play, and it definitely gets my seal of approval. As it stands, though, I've got to write an Art History essay and study for a Psychology test, so that's all I got for now. Until next time, stay vandalous.
Links
Teg, yur eet: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1506
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
T.O.D.A.Y
Well, if there's ever been a description that's gotten my psyched to play a game, it's this one. It must have taken a really long time to create a game that exists in dimensions human beings can't even perceive! Yes, that's right, this game markets itself as "four-dimensional," which of course is game jargon for some kind of gimmick that I'm not familiar with. Regardless, I was stoked to boot this one up, but then...
dun dun...dun dun...
NOT_REAL.exe
dun dun...dun dun...
NOT_REAL.exe
Why is it that all of the most interesting sounding games are completely unobtainable? Hot damn, I tried everything to find a working copy of this game, but I'm convinced that such a thing does not exist. I even googled Logan Starkenburg, one of the creators of this game, to find a personal webpage that he may have hosted a mirror on, like what happened with Crazy Cross, but all I found was the IMDB page for an extra from Terminator: Salvation. Could they be the same person? Who knows...regardless, I'm getting real sick of this false advertising, Digipen!
nope
So I was going to blog today, but then I got gang raped by school work. It happens.
I might not be able to blog tomorrow either. The weekend's not looking too bright, either, but I'll get content out.
And then there's next week...
help.
I might not be able to blog tomorrow either. The weekend's not looking too bright, either, but I'll get content out.
And then there's next week...
help.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Tad Studbody
Tad Studbody and the Robot Rampage is a game wherein you beat the crap out of robots.
G'night everybody!
...
Alright, fine, I'll do a real review. Upon starting the game up, I was impressed by how responsive the menu screen was. I use this phrase a lot, but it looks like it could have been professionally made. Do keep in mind, though, I'm not talking about Atlus professional...more like THQ and Nickelodeon Games professional...
What I mean by that is that Tad Studbody's quality as a game, in my opinion, is not very high. Its quality as a toy, however, is incredibly high. I encourage you all to look up what others have said on the "games vs toys" issue, it's actually a very interesting subject, but for now, I'll give you the abridged version in the context of Tad Studbody.
Like toys tend to do, Tad Studbody dispenses fun like Spiderman's neck dispenses candy. What it doesn't deliver, however, is engagement. Usually, when I stop playing a game after 15 minutes, it's because the game frustrated me in some way and I want to get back to playing [insert late-90s classic title or later iteration thereof here]. I stopped playing Tad Studbody, however, because it got repetitive and boring really fast.
A true "game" would never leave me mindlessly approaching enemy robots and bashing them over the head a couple times to progress to the next area where I bash robots over the head a couple times. It would constantly challenge me to think about what I've learned so far and apply the lessons to the situation at hand.
"Oh," but you may say, "that's just the nature of the beast. Beat 'em ups are fun but repetitive. They offer a chance for you to zone out and kill stuff for a while; sweet catharsis." Well, that may be true, but what about a game like Starfox 64? That game epitomizes catharsis better than any other game I know, but it's not just a conga line of Androssian ships waiting to be kersploded. The enemy placement and level design force me to implement strategies. That classic phrase "do a barrel roll" wasn't just in the game because it sounded funny. It was there to remind you that you had a means to deal with a specific challenge and now was the time to implement that means.
Tad Studbody doesn't do that. It just throws a bunch of robots at you and watches contently as you break them. The controls aren't designed around strategy, they're designed around repetition. But hey, if that's all you want, then go nuts.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay theoretical
Links
you get a punch, you get a punch, everyone here gets punchessssss: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=8729
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Synchro
Synchro is a turn based, top-down thingymabobber where you play as a scientist on the run from homicidal autonomous robots. As you progress through the levels, you will find various "augments," which ostensibly do things, and weapons, which all achieve the same end of "kill the thing you point at" but with different visual effects.
Apparently, this game is paying homage to Rogue, which I've never played, but I guess that game had pretty crappy visuals, because that's the only excuse this game has. I mean come on, you didn't have to animate anything, you could at least make the sprites look decent; this isn't some super early game, either, it was made in the 2011-2012 academic year. But oh well, a homage is a homage, I suppose. What really matters is the gameplay.
And the gameplay is booooorrrriiinnngggggg.
Look, maybe I shouldn't be too harsh to a project I couldn't emulate if I tried, but nothing happens! Occasionally you'll run into a robot and think "ooh, now I get to point at it and hear a sound effect of metal being crushed. Yay me!" That's the extent of the excitement this game can dole out.
And honestly, I wouldn't be so bitter if the game were at least straightforward, but there are so many dead ends and intertwining paths that navigating the world is just plain tedious.
But hey, if you played Rogue and liked it, then go nuts. You'll be able to critique this game it better than I was. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay robotic
Links
walking, walking, still walking, robot, walking: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26147
Apparently, this game is paying homage to Rogue, which I've never played, but I guess that game had pretty crappy visuals, because that's the only excuse this game has. I mean come on, you didn't have to animate anything, you could at least make the sprites look decent; this isn't some super early game, either, it was made in the 2011-2012 academic year. But oh well, a homage is a homage, I suppose. What really matters is the gameplay.
And the gameplay is booooorrrriiinnngggggg.
Look, maybe I shouldn't be too harsh to a project I couldn't emulate if I tried, but nothing happens! Occasionally you'll run into a robot and think "ooh, now I get to point at it and hear a sound effect of metal being crushed. Yay me!" That's the extent of the excitement this game can dole out.
And honestly, I wouldn't be so bitter if the game were at least straightforward, but there are so many dead ends and intertwining paths that navigating the world is just plain tedious.
But hey, if you played Rogue and liked it, then go nuts. You'll be able to critique this game it better than I was. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay robotic
Links
walking, walking, still walking, robot, walking: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26147
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Swarm and Synaesthete
Father forgive me for I have sinned; I didn't post yesterday and I only started writing at 10:49pm today. Blah blah blah, you guys know the spiel by now. My schedule is unpredictable. To make it up for you, I played 2 games today.
First up is Swarm, a game wherein you are the Hivelord, a badass looking albeit very vulnerable fishlike creature who has the ability to transform plankton into soldiers of war. There are (I'm assuming), three different kinds of soldiers you can transform the plankton into, but I only played far enough to unlock two before I got frustrated.
Swarm isn't a bad game, it's just not quite my cup of tea. See, I like games that give you freedom to choose your own strategy. I like a game to challenge both my mind and my reflexes. That's why I'm such a Deus Ex nerd; to me, anything that deviates from that formula is a mistake (I know how closed off that sounds, but it's my mind and it does what it wants).
what bothers me about Swarm isn't so much the fact that it doesn't let you choose your strategy, more so the potential it exhibits, yet forgoes, to do so. Why not let me solely utilize the heavy-hitting ravagers to dispatch enemies quickly at the expense of forgoing the slowing effect of the stingers (yeah, I know, I'm using game-specific jargon. Play it for yourself if you're confused)? Instead, the game tells you straight up that the only way to go is to make an equal number of ravagers and stingers. Indeed, that is, statistically, the best strategy. There's no reason to experiment: the game tells you how to win.
Though, I probably wouldn't have ragequit if the game weren't challenging. I couldn't get passed one level in particular, which ended with a boss fight that looked cool, but to me was laughable because all I was doing was holding my mouse over it while I swam around trying to avoid taking hits. It's a rather unengaging mechanic, to say the least, to simply mouse over your enemies and wait for your minions to take care of them, and it makes for an even less engaging boss fight. Still, though, if you're an adrenaline junkie and you like a game that tests your skill without making you think too hard, there's a lot of fun waiting for you in this one.
Right, then, let's talk Synaesthete. It loses points right off the bat for being friggin impossible to spell without referring back to the gallery, but I digress. After all, it's an IGF finalist. ooooohh, fancy.
The first thing I noticed about Synaesthete was its uncanny similarity to Resonance. My first criticism of the latter was that it got repetitive after only a few minutes of play, but that didn't happen with Synaesthete. I attribute that to its being a lot less cluttered than Resonance. In the latter, you had to balance regular attacks with musical attacks and special attacks all while keeping an eye on the enemies and the other eye on the rhythm bar and the whole thing was such a convoluted mess that you ended up just staying in one place and playing the riffs in time to the best of your ability and ignoring half of the stuff that was going on at any given time. Synaesthete knows that there's a limit to how much the human brain can take in, and has you attack solely by keeping in time with the music(and, occasionally, using a super OP spell move that is quite satisfying and easy to execute).In addition, getting hit by an enemy does more than just make you lose a femtometer of health. You will be stunned and the music will be interrupted. This added punishment gives you an incentive to keep moving and avoid enemies while you play, giving the whole game a hectic yet manageable and very fun feeling.
And that's Synaesthete in a nutshell. The only other thing to mention is that the tutorial is a load of ass on toast. It commits pretty much every tutorial sin there is: unskippable text, context-sensitive controls, slow voice overs (also unskippable), it's just the worst. The rest of the game, though, is a-ok. More than that, even. Not that many games have me deliberately pull myself away from them, even though I want to keep playing, just so I can write up a damn review, but this game is one of the few and proud. Amazing music, fun gameplay, charming graphics (your character looks like one of those incongruous disasters I'd throw together in Blender one night when I'm bored, and I love it), and satisfying feel all combine to deliver a heck of an experience. Give this one a shot. It earns its IGF Finalist title.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay focused.
Links
Free Will? Wazzat?: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25990
Musical Murder: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=383
First up is Swarm, a game wherein you are the Hivelord, a badass looking albeit very vulnerable fishlike creature who has the ability to transform plankton into soldiers of war. There are (I'm assuming), three different kinds of soldiers you can transform the plankton into, but I only played far enough to unlock two before I got frustrated.
Swarm isn't a bad game, it's just not quite my cup of tea. See, I like games that give you freedom to choose your own strategy. I like a game to challenge both my mind and my reflexes. That's why I'm such a Deus Ex nerd; to me, anything that deviates from that formula is a mistake (I know how closed off that sounds, but it's my mind and it does what it wants).
what bothers me about Swarm isn't so much the fact that it doesn't let you choose your strategy, more so the potential it exhibits, yet forgoes, to do so. Why not let me solely utilize the heavy-hitting ravagers to dispatch enemies quickly at the expense of forgoing the slowing effect of the stingers (yeah, I know, I'm using game-specific jargon. Play it for yourself if you're confused)? Instead, the game tells you straight up that the only way to go is to make an equal number of ravagers and stingers. Indeed, that is, statistically, the best strategy. There's no reason to experiment: the game tells you how to win.
Though, I probably wouldn't have ragequit if the game weren't challenging. I couldn't get passed one level in particular, which ended with a boss fight that looked cool, but to me was laughable because all I was doing was holding my mouse over it while I swam around trying to avoid taking hits. It's a rather unengaging mechanic, to say the least, to simply mouse over your enemies and wait for your minions to take care of them, and it makes for an even less engaging boss fight. Still, though, if you're an adrenaline junkie and you like a game that tests your skill without making you think too hard, there's a lot of fun waiting for you in this one.
Right, then, let's talk Synaesthete. It loses points right off the bat for being friggin impossible to spell without referring back to the gallery, but I digress. After all, it's an IGF finalist. ooooohh, fancy.
The first thing I noticed about Synaesthete was its uncanny similarity to Resonance. My first criticism of the latter was that it got repetitive after only a few minutes of play, but that didn't happen with Synaesthete. I attribute that to its being a lot less cluttered than Resonance. In the latter, you had to balance regular attacks with musical attacks and special attacks all while keeping an eye on the enemies and the other eye on the rhythm bar and the whole thing was such a convoluted mess that you ended up just staying in one place and playing the riffs in time to the best of your ability and ignoring half of the stuff that was going on at any given time. Synaesthete knows that there's a limit to how much the human brain can take in, and has you attack solely by keeping in time with the music(and, occasionally, using a super OP spell move that is quite satisfying and easy to execute).In addition, getting hit by an enemy does more than just make you lose a femtometer of health. You will be stunned and the music will be interrupted. This added punishment gives you an incentive to keep moving and avoid enemies while you play, giving the whole game a hectic yet manageable and very fun feeling.
And that's Synaesthete in a nutshell. The only other thing to mention is that the tutorial is a load of ass on toast. It commits pretty much every tutorial sin there is: unskippable text, context-sensitive controls, slow voice overs (also unskippable), it's just the worst. The rest of the game, though, is a-ok. More than that, even. Not that many games have me deliberately pull myself away from them, even though I want to keep playing, just so I can write up a damn review, but this game is one of the few and proud. Amazing music, fun gameplay, charming graphics (your character looks like one of those incongruous disasters I'd throw together in Blender one night when I'm bored, and I love it), and satisfying feel all combine to deliver a heck of an experience. Give this one a shot. It earns its IGF Finalist title.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay focused.
Links
Free Will? Wazzat?: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25990
Musical Murder: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=383
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Super SternKampher Assault (kinda) and Surprise Bummies
Super SternKampher Assault crashes only a few seconds into play, so oops.
Surprise Bummies is an interesting mix of Bejeweled and tower defense. You are presented with a grid of different kinds of eggs. You move those eggs around by "throwing" them with the mouse (a very good immersive of the mouse, might I add). If you double click on a group of 3 or more eggs of the same type, those eggs will turn into projectiles and shoot toward the onslaught of enemies trying to make all your base belong to them.
Different eggs have different effects, so the gameplay is very complex, which is fine as long as the mechanics are presented adequately. Unfortunately, it's really hard to convey mechanics this complicated without using text, but that doesn't mean it's okay to completely phone it in and explain everything via text. So yeah, the tutorial needed some work.
Upon completion of the first real level, though, I was introduced to two power ups. I got frustrated and ragequit after the next level, so I'm not sure if the game keeps up this difficulty curve, but at least I can say they were off to a strong start.
I'm not sure how at fault the game is for this, but my gameplay experience was completely broken by the mouse lagging up. I was having some problems with my mouse before I started playing, so it might be a problem on my end, but I tried starting up the game 3 different times, and each time the mouse lagged up.
If you're in the mood to have your brain tingle, I'd definitely recommend this game. The art style has that kiddish Spy Fox appeal, the gameplay is fun and interesting (provided the mouse doesn't get temperamental on you), and it's challenging enough for all you smartiepantses out there.
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay a'shuffling.
Links
The one with the long name: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=451
not Raving Rabids: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24363
Surprise Bummies is an interesting mix of Bejeweled and tower defense. You are presented with a grid of different kinds of eggs. You move those eggs around by "throwing" them with the mouse (a very good immersive of the mouse, might I add). If you double click on a group of 3 or more eggs of the same type, those eggs will turn into projectiles and shoot toward the onslaught of enemies trying to make all your base belong to them.
Different eggs have different effects, so the gameplay is very complex, which is fine as long as the mechanics are presented adequately. Unfortunately, it's really hard to convey mechanics this complicated without using text, but that doesn't mean it's okay to completely phone it in and explain everything via text. So yeah, the tutorial needed some work.
Upon completion of the first real level, though, I was introduced to two power ups. I got frustrated and ragequit after the next level, so I'm not sure if the game keeps up this difficulty curve, but at least I can say they were off to a strong start.
I'm not sure how at fault the game is for this, but my gameplay experience was completely broken by the mouse lagging up. I was having some problems with my mouse before I started playing, so it might be a problem on my end, but I tried starting up the game 3 different times, and each time the mouse lagged up.
If you're in the mood to have your brain tingle, I'd definitely recommend this game. The art style has that kiddish Spy Fox appeal, the gameplay is fun and interesting (provided the mouse doesn't get temperamental on you), and it's challenging enough for all you smartiepantses out there.
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay a'shuffling.
Links
The one with the long name: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=451
not Raving Rabids: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24363
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Super Squirrel
Forgive me for being a bit underzealous as of late, but between my Art History and Russian Literature classes, I've been squeezing my brain dry for any semblance of wit I can wring out of the poor overworked bastard. It doesn't help that most of these games make no real mistakes but make no real triumphs, either, leading me to just phone it in and say "yeah, it's well made"
well made is a term I shouldn't throw around as much as I do, though. If a game simply doesn't offend me, that doesn't mean it was well-made, just that it was competently made. "well made" should be a term reserved for games like Super Squirrel; games that rely not on some creative gimmick to be fun to play, but on the ingenuity of its design and its mastery of pre-established formulae.
Super Squirrel is a platformer in which you have a gun and a sword to chop and blast enemies with. You start out in tutorial forest where you learn the basic ropes through a combination of good level design and obtrusive, unnecessary text. After that, you move to an overworld whence you can enter one of four levels.
Now, it's worth noting that I only completed the forest level and then went on to the desert, where I died and had to start from the very beginning of the game. That's right, once you lose all your lives, it's game over for realsies, which I think is one of the game's biggest missteps. I was very impressed, for example, of how the game gave me a wall-jump ability after the forest level and how useful it was during the desert level. I assumed that a new ability would be given at the end of each level and that all the levels were designed with ample opportunities to use them. However, since I don't have enough time or willpower to continue from the start every time I make a mistake, I can only assume, and I can't make recommendations based on assumptions.
I can, and will, however, recommend this game based on what I experienced: a genuinely well-made platformer with fantastic art style and game feel (the feeling of collecting massive amounts of acorns provides a sense of accomplishment not felt since A Flipping Good Time). If you're up for a challenge, check it out. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay careful.
Links
widdwe squirr: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=483
well made is a term I shouldn't throw around as much as I do, though. If a game simply doesn't offend me, that doesn't mean it was well-made, just that it was competently made. "well made" should be a term reserved for games like Super Squirrel; games that rely not on some creative gimmick to be fun to play, but on the ingenuity of its design and its mastery of pre-established formulae.
Super Squirrel is a platformer in which you have a gun and a sword to chop and blast enemies with. You start out in tutorial forest where you learn the basic ropes through a combination of good level design and obtrusive, unnecessary text. After that, you move to an overworld whence you can enter one of four levels.
Now, it's worth noting that I only completed the forest level and then went on to the desert, where I died and had to start from the very beginning of the game. That's right, once you lose all your lives, it's game over for realsies, which I think is one of the game's biggest missteps. I was very impressed, for example, of how the game gave me a wall-jump ability after the forest level and how useful it was during the desert level. I assumed that a new ability would be given at the end of each level and that all the levels were designed with ample opportunities to use them. However, since I don't have enough time or willpower to continue from the start every time I make a mistake, I can only assume, and I can't make recommendations based on assumptions.
I can, and will, however, recommend this game based on what I experienced: a genuinely well-made platformer with fantastic art style and game feel (the feeling of collecting massive amounts of acorns provides a sense of accomplishment not felt since A Flipping Good Time). If you're up for a challenge, check it out. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay careful.
Links
widdwe squirr: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=483
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