Aether

*disgruntled groan*

This game...has no gameplay.  It simply has no gameplay.  It's impossible to die, there are literally no sound effects, the music stops after about 30 seconds of play, and the HUD makes no sense.  Not even the graphics are passable.  The enemy is just a green, polygonal ape with no features whatsoever.  The fighting polygons form Super Smash Bros were more detailed.  In fairness, the background is almost impressive given the five-person team that created this game.  But then I consider that three of those five were artists and a slightly impressive, moving, 3D background starts to lose its charm.

Technically, this game is a bullet hell shooter, but that would imply that there is some kind of danger or challenge to be conquered.  As I mentioned before, however, it's impossible to die.  Literally impossible.  You can just stroll right up to the enemy and hold "fire" until you win.  A more accurate term would be bullet-purgatory.  As far as I can tell, all the modes are the same game.

If you'll permit brief rudeness, the only button worth pressing in this game is "esc" which closes the game instantly without so much as a "quit game?" screen.

That's all for now, folks.  I have to go study physics (an ostensibly alien term to the team behind Aether).

links
the creation that I hesitate to call a game: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=566

AEscher

*relieved sigh*

I needed this.  That last game left me in a semi-comatose state, but this one was nice and relaxing.

Sorry again for the brief review of A Series of Tubes, but I was still twitching from having played that madness for five seconds.  Not only that, but as I said before, Time is something I do not have much of.  Sorry to say, but most of my reviews are going to be short streams of consciousness because of this.

Speaking of having no time to do anything ever, school's starting up again! yay!  Forgive the pun, but let the games begin.

Okay enough beating around the bush...Let's talk about AEscher.

AEscher is a fun 3D platformer where you control one of those practice baseballs that are designed to make crazy bounces.  You know, one of these monstrosities:

Despite your character's design, the controls are anything but unpredictable.  WASD to move, mouse to look, and space to jump creates a simple formula that, when combined with decent physics, delivers an enjoyable sense of flow.  One feature that really caught my eye was that the double-jump is powerful enough to get you back on a platform after falling off it, but only if you time it right.  This really makes every death feel like your fault, which makes it all the more gratifying to reach that best time for a level.

The graphics, I'll admit, are sloppy.  It looks like this game was created using one of those budget game-maker programs that throws a bunch of models into a grab-bag to be placed around a level editor with no sense of aesthetic continuity.  The platforms are grey and dull whereas the objective points are red and shiny.  In short, let's say Egoraptor would probably not be impressed.

The music is okay.  Nothing to complain about, but nothing to hail.  Like pretty much all of the previous games, it's a short synthesizer loop that plays over and over.  It certainly matches the tone of the game and is not unenjoyable, but it's hardly the game's selling point.

Finally, there's the big flaw with this game.  The one that made me want to tear my hair out and storm angrily from New York to Digipen in Washington just to post fliers all over the walls warning people to avoid this fatal flaw.  Anyone who read my 0xCELERATOR review knows exactly what I'm talking about.  Say it with me now...

There's no save feature.

Why?  Is it really so hard to program something like that into your game?  Let me answer that for you, NO!

I get that AEscher was probably a few students' attempt to get a good grade and was created with the intention of being played by a professor once, graded, turned off and never heard from again, but still!  This game was put on the internet for all to see and the Digipen Game Gallery serves as at least some kind of advertisement for the school.  Games that require me to beat them in one go will NOT sell me on this institution.

Oh well.  All things considered, AEscher is still fun.  It definitely does what I think it set out to do, which is demonstrate expertly programmed controls in a simplistic but still thought-provoking environment.  This is really all I ask for in a game on this list (provided it has the damn courtesy to include a save feature).  I'm not looking for shiny graphics or immersiveness to rival that of Skyrim.  Just a competently made game with functional gameplay will earn my seal of approval.  And this game certainly meets those criteria. 

Personally, playing this left me in good spirits.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the next game can bring to the table.  Until next time. 

Links

AEscher: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18582

a random let's play I found of this game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxy9ZDBJxQE (fair warning: the video lags and therefore does not reflect the actual pace of the game.  Also it's spoken in what I assume is German.  It's hard to tell because the guy's voice is very soft.)