aight guys, I'm going to try and rip through a bunch of these today, so the reviews are gonna be short and (hopefully) sweet.
That said, Flux is broken. Yay?
I start the game up and the music ans SFX start playing but there's no video. Oh well. Next.
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26614
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
Fluffy Puff Rampage
I'm going to start out this review by paraphrasing the great Yahtzee Croshaw, as I oft do, and throw my support behind his notion that a game that fails due to over-ambition is much preferable than a game that fails because it tried to play it safe. Fluffy Puff Rampage strikes me as an ambitious project that eventually frustrated its creators to the point where they decided to throw up their arms and say "screw it, that'll do."
Making a game must be a lot of work, and Fluffy Puff Rampage is, I hope, proof of that. It's riddled with design choices that strike me as "quick fixes" to problems that the devs didn't know how to fix. "Hey, boss, I don't know why, but the save feature isn't working." "Did you look over the code?" "yeah, I don't know what's wrong." "Alright, just create a bunch of default save files that start off the player from every conceivable angle so that the game at least has the semblance of having a save feature" "now that I can do!"
From a gameplay standpoint, Fluffy Puff Rampage is okay. The levels are short to the point of being unsatisfying and the controls are quite sticky, especially when trying to pull off fancy combos or special moves, which all involve the use of that finicky block button. Other than that, it's a standard 2D beat em up not quite as good as the ones that litter Newgrounds.com.
The visual style is really good...I think. The levels are all themed really well and the enemy sprites seem to have a good bit of variety to them, but they're gone so soon after they appear that you don't really get any time to appreciate them.
Honestly, my only real gripe with this game is the whole "sticky controls" thing I grazed over. Everything else can be looked past, but this game really is a button masher on account of the sticky controls. Some people like that sort of thing, but I'm not a fan of button mashers. I find them to be repetitious and dull. Pulling off combos seems cool at first until you realize that spamming "kick" is infinitely more effective. Dominant strategy, yo. Were it not for that, I might have given this game my seal of approval.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay aggressive
Links
The Pillow Fights Back: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=426
Making a game must be a lot of work, and Fluffy Puff Rampage is, I hope, proof of that. It's riddled with design choices that strike me as "quick fixes" to problems that the devs didn't know how to fix. "Hey, boss, I don't know why, but the save feature isn't working." "Did you look over the code?" "yeah, I don't know what's wrong." "Alright, just create a bunch of default save files that start off the player from every conceivable angle so that the game at least has the semblance of having a save feature" "now that I can do!"
From a gameplay standpoint, Fluffy Puff Rampage is okay. The levels are short to the point of being unsatisfying and the controls are quite sticky, especially when trying to pull off fancy combos or special moves, which all involve the use of that finicky block button. Other than that, it's a standard 2D beat em up not quite as good as the ones that litter Newgrounds.com.
The visual style is really good...I think. The levels are all themed really well and the enemy sprites seem to have a good bit of variety to them, but they're gone so soon after they appear that you don't really get any time to appreciate them.
Honestly, my only real gripe with this game is the whole "sticky controls" thing I grazed over. Everything else can be looked past, but this game really is a button masher on account of the sticky controls. Some people like that sort of thing, but I'm not a fan of button mashers. I find them to be repetitious and dull. Pulling off combos seems cool at first until you realize that spamming "kick" is infinitely more effective. Dominant strategy, yo. Were it not for that, I might have given this game my seal of approval.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay aggressive
Links
The Pillow Fights Back: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=426
Floor It!
Floor It is a game by the McLovin Squad (no, I'm not joking) that captures the emotional roller coaster of the tale of a ghost car wandering through a barren city, desperately trying to find fulfillment in his endless purgatory of existence.
April fools. It's just an unfinished racing game.
First off, I thought one of the prerequisites to being called a "racing" game was that there had to be a "race" of some kind, but the car you control is the only animated thing in the whole city.
More glaringly, however, the game just *feels* unfinished. I don't know whether to blame the engine or the graphics or what, but a game that can have you phasing through buildings to get swiftly to your next checkpoint doesn't really seem like a finished product.
When I found out that you could go through buildings without getting hurt, the game just became a round of "point your car in the direction of the little phallic arrow above you and hold 'W' until the arrow changes direction."
Then, I drove straight into a lake and transformed into what I think was a boat. Then the real fun began. At least as a car, I could enjoy the revving of my engine and the adrenaline rush that came from the speed I'd gather. In the boat, there are no such things. At least there was another boat chasing me, though. Even though it did absolutely nothing even when it rammed into my backside, it at least gave the whole experience the semblance of a racing game.
Then, I morphed into a plane and rocketed off into the sun, a confused, broken shell of a man.
The end.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay complete
Links
A Series of Roads: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=16249
April fools. It's just an unfinished racing game.
First off, I thought one of the prerequisites to being called a "racing" game was that there had to be a "race" of some kind, but the car you control is the only animated thing in the whole city.
More glaringly, however, the game just *feels* unfinished. I don't know whether to blame the engine or the graphics or what, but a game that can have you phasing through buildings to get swiftly to your next checkpoint doesn't really seem like a finished product.
When I found out that you could go through buildings without getting hurt, the game just became a round of "point your car in the direction of the little phallic arrow above you and hold 'W' until the arrow changes direction."
Then, I drove straight into a lake and transformed into what I think was a boat. Then the real fun began. At least as a car, I could enjoy the revving of my engine and the adrenaline rush that came from the speed I'd gather. In the boat, there are no such things. At least there was another boat chasing me, though. Even though it did absolutely nothing even when it rammed into my backside, it at least gave the whole experience the semblance of a racing game.
Then, I morphed into a plane and rocketed off into the sun, a confused, broken shell of a man.
The end.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay complete
Links
A Series of Roads: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=16249
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Flip's adventure
It's Easter n stuff...yaaaay.
Flip's Adventure can best be described as a very competently put together 2D platformer with a few fundamental flaws.
Let me get the praise out of the way first. As I said, it's very competently made. I say that because the presentation is beautiful. Color theming, high framerate, satisfying sound direction, etc. You'd be hard pressed to fine even a professionally made 2D platformer out there with objectively better presentation than this one.
That said, I think the team behind Flip's Adventure was a bit too eager to get a-programmin' and, as a result, made one major fundamental design contradiction that makes the game seem quite reminiscent of the Bubsy series. The level design and the control contradict each other. What I mean by that is that the level design is somewhat akin to Castlevania's level design in that it's all designed around the path you would take if you just tried to zoom through it. The challenge comes from the unexpected; the game demands that you think about what you do before you do it.
On the other hand, the controls are kind of similar to the controls from a Mario game. The jump is super powerful and you gather momentum as you run. Both the level design and control are nigh flawless on their own, much like perfectly made peanut butter and marinara sauce. Put them together, on the other hand, and you have a monstrous concoction that you'd feel guilty giving to a goat.
Okay, that was a bit harsh. Flip's Adventure is still very fun and is definitely one of the better freeware 2D platformers out there (yeah, I said it). That said there are just too many moments when my momentum forces me to slide into a wall of spikes or when my rocket jump is so powerful that holding it down for an extra quarter of a millisecond sends me careening into a wall for me to give it my seal of approval. Everything else about the game is very well done, though.
Well, I suppose I should probably mention the whole "achievement" part of the game. See, for every level, you get rewarded for completing a perfect run (no deaths), a speed run (with a very convenient little meter on the bottom left corner of the screen to tell you how much time you have left) and/or collecting an item (or puzzle piece) somewhere in the level. This is all fine and good, but I don't think it's even possible to get a speed run and not also get a perfect run. What's even the point of treating them as two different things if the clock doesn't reset when you die?
Ah, well. That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay pretty.
Links:
What's with DigiPen 2D platformers and the word "flip?": https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25439
here are some videos of Ego and Jontron talking about Castlevania and Bubsy, respectively:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aip2aIt0ROM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTAlr5raV2U
Flip's Adventure can best be described as a very competently put together 2D platformer with a few fundamental flaws.
Let me get the praise out of the way first. As I said, it's very competently made. I say that because the presentation is beautiful. Color theming, high framerate, satisfying sound direction, etc. You'd be hard pressed to fine even a professionally made 2D platformer out there with objectively better presentation than this one.
That said, I think the team behind Flip's Adventure was a bit too eager to get a-programmin' and, as a result, made one major fundamental design contradiction that makes the game seem quite reminiscent of the Bubsy series. The level design and the control contradict each other. What I mean by that is that the level design is somewhat akin to Castlevania's level design in that it's all designed around the path you would take if you just tried to zoom through it. The challenge comes from the unexpected; the game demands that you think about what you do before you do it.
On the other hand, the controls are kind of similar to the controls from a Mario game. The jump is super powerful and you gather momentum as you run. Both the level design and control are nigh flawless on their own, much like perfectly made peanut butter and marinara sauce. Put them together, on the other hand, and you have a monstrous concoction that you'd feel guilty giving to a goat.
Okay, that was a bit harsh. Flip's Adventure is still very fun and is definitely one of the better freeware 2D platformers out there (yeah, I said it). That said there are just too many moments when my momentum forces me to slide into a wall of spikes or when my rocket jump is so powerful that holding it down for an extra quarter of a millisecond sends me careening into a wall for me to give it my seal of approval. Everything else about the game is very well done, though.
Well, I suppose I should probably mention the whole "achievement" part of the game. See, for every level, you get rewarded for completing a perfect run (no deaths), a speed run (with a very convenient little meter on the bottom left corner of the screen to tell you how much time you have left) and/or collecting an item (or puzzle piece) somewhere in the level. This is all fine and good, but I don't think it's even possible to get a speed run and not also get a perfect run. What's even the point of treating them as two different things if the clock doesn't reset when you die?
Ah, well. That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay pretty.
Links:
What's with DigiPen 2D platformers and the word "flip?": https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25439
here are some videos of Ego and Jontron talking about Castlevania and Bubsy, respectively:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aip2aIt0ROM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTAlr5raV2U
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Fling
This was another one of those "not real exe" things, but thankfully, I was able to find a download link on this team's personal website. This lead me to discover that Fling was made by the same people who made Bossinabox, which I found to be mostly functional and amusing if nothing else.
Well I'm glad to say Fling is a bit more complex than Bossinabox...a bit. The basic gist of the game is that you control a catapult and your goal is to destroy the other catapults that are trying to destroy you. If you have friends, they can play too. I don't, so I just used the computer. The flow of events is very natural. You start off flinging rocks haphazardly at trees to collect resources and get a feel for the control and soon enough you've locked onto your enemy and are bombarding them with rocks of different shapes and sizes.
You have a variety of different rocks to choose from, but honestly, I didn't find much of a difference in any of them. Some do more damage than others, so the only strategy this particular design choice allows for is "pick the strongest one that you have enough resources to use." To be honest, I'm glad they didn't design the game around different strategies, because I tihnk the beauty of this game lies in its simplicity.
To be honest, that's really all I got in terms of a review, and it wasn't even a review. More of a summary. I'm glad I don't get graded on these blogs, because any critical writing professor would tear me apart. Since I'm not trying to get into Harvard with this or anything, I feel comfortable in leaving my final thoughts at this:
Fling is a fun game with a very simple control scheme, decent graphical style and rewarding feel. It's kind of like Bontago in reverse. Instead of trying to build stuff from a distance, you're trying to destroy stuff from a distance. Fling is much simpler than Bontago, sure, but if you've played both games, you know what I'm talking about.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay on target.
Links
the broken one: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=596
The real one: https://sites.google.com/site/habibloew/games
PS- the soundtrack for this game is the Lord of the Rings soundtrack...huh.
Well I'm glad to say Fling is a bit more complex than Bossinabox...a bit. The basic gist of the game is that you control a catapult and your goal is to destroy the other catapults that are trying to destroy you. If you have friends, they can play too. I don't, so I just used the computer. The flow of events is very natural. You start off flinging rocks haphazardly at trees to collect resources and get a feel for the control and soon enough you've locked onto your enemy and are bombarding them with rocks of different shapes and sizes.
You have a variety of different rocks to choose from, but honestly, I didn't find much of a difference in any of them. Some do more damage than others, so the only strategy this particular design choice allows for is "pick the strongest one that you have enough resources to use." To be honest, I'm glad they didn't design the game around different strategies, because I tihnk the beauty of this game lies in its simplicity.
To be honest, that's really all I got in terms of a review, and it wasn't even a review. More of a summary. I'm glad I don't get graded on these blogs, because any critical writing professor would tear me apart. Since I'm not trying to get into Harvard with this or anything, I feel comfortable in leaving my final thoughts at this:
Fling is a fun game with a very simple control scheme, decent graphical style and rewarding feel. It's kind of like Bontago in reverse. Instead of trying to build stuff from a distance, you're trying to destroy stuff from a distance. Fling is much simpler than Bontago, sure, but if you've played both games, you know what I'm talking about.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay on target.
Links
the broken one: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=596
The real one: https://sites.google.com/site/habibloew/games
PS- the soundtrack for this game is the Lord of the Rings soundtrack...huh.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Flight
Flight is one of those "give me an A- and get out of my face" kinds of games. At least it was for me. If might not be that way for everybody, and I'll explain why later.
First off, though, let me do a quick overview. There are 2 game modes, "survive" and "destroy the targets" "Survive" is a bit broken because the only shots that have a chance of hitting you are the green homing ones and even those stand no chance against a simple circle-straffe maneuver. Yes, you will die eventually, but the process of getting there is just a bit lackluster. A bit more variety would have helped.
"Destroy the Targets" is a bit more fun in my opinion. The targeting reticule is a bit wonky but very helpful once you get used to it. I like the fact that the only challenge is personal alone, meaning there's no way to be beaten. This, of course, is not something to strive for in all games, but it certainly makes games a lot less stressful.
After that, my experience with the game was over. Some would call it anemic, some would call it neatly wrapped. Personally, I think it's both.
I feel like I'm being a bit too harsh with this game because I'm bitter about one minor design choice. Maybe it was required given the materials DigiPen students can work with, but why is the only way for me to play multiplayer to own an Xbox 360 controller? It's hard to explain, but I get the feeling that multiplayer is the crux of the game. After all, the levels that you create in the level editor aren't accessible in single player. Why, then, does my choice to buy a Logitech Dual Action controller somehow make me unworthy to play the game in its entirety?
Oh well. If the game doesn't let me play it, then I don't review it. This game is no exception, so it only gets half a review.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay complete
Links
Squawk: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18593
First off, though, let me do a quick overview. There are 2 game modes, "survive" and "destroy the targets" "Survive" is a bit broken because the only shots that have a chance of hitting you are the green homing ones and even those stand no chance against a simple circle-straffe maneuver. Yes, you will die eventually, but the process of getting there is just a bit lackluster. A bit more variety would have helped.
"Destroy the Targets" is a bit more fun in my opinion. The targeting reticule is a bit wonky but very helpful once you get used to it. I like the fact that the only challenge is personal alone, meaning there's no way to be beaten. This, of course, is not something to strive for in all games, but it certainly makes games a lot less stressful.
After that, my experience with the game was over. Some would call it anemic, some would call it neatly wrapped. Personally, I think it's both.
I feel like I'm being a bit too harsh with this game because I'm bitter about one minor design choice. Maybe it was required given the materials DigiPen students can work with, but why is the only way for me to play multiplayer to own an Xbox 360 controller? It's hard to explain, but I get the feeling that multiplayer is the crux of the game. After all, the levels that you create in the level editor aren't accessible in single player. Why, then, does my choice to buy a Logitech Dual Action controller somehow make me unworthy to play the game in its entirety?
Oh well. If the game doesn't let me play it, then I don't review it. This game is no exception, so it only gets half a review.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay complete
Links
Squawk: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18593
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Firestorm
For a lot of reasons, time actually not being one of them for a change, this is going to be my only post today, and it's going to be a short one.
I try very hard not to swear in these blogs in part as a personal challenge to myself. I must say no game has made that harder yet than Firestorm.
Anyone who's heard me talk about video games probably knows how valuable I think customization can be in a game. Just like any game mechanic, though, when executed poorly, it has the ability to completely destroy the gameplay experience. Such is the case in Firestorm.
You're given a crapload of credits and an overly confusing series of shop screens to customize the ship that you will throw into battle. Suffice it to say that it's simply much more efficient to use one of the premade (however terrible) ships for a deathmatch that lasts a maximum of maybe 2 minutes.
this game is roughly 90% customization and 10% battle. Unintuitive design and poor conveyance ruin the customization. Sticky, frustrating controls and direct interference from the customization aspects ruin the battle. All-in-all, not a very good game in my opinion.
Links
it hurts my brain: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=427
I try very hard not to swear in these blogs in part as a personal challenge to myself. I must say no game has made that harder yet than Firestorm.
Anyone who's heard me talk about video games probably knows how valuable I think customization can be in a game. Just like any game mechanic, though, when executed poorly, it has the ability to completely destroy the gameplay experience. Such is the case in Firestorm.
You're given a crapload of credits and an overly confusing series of shop screens to customize the ship that you will throw into battle. Suffice it to say that it's simply much more efficient to use one of the premade (however terrible) ships for a deathmatch that lasts a maximum of maybe 2 minutes.
this game is roughly 90% customization and 10% battle. Unintuitive design and poor conveyance ruin the customization. Sticky, frustrating controls and direct interference from the customization aspects ruin the battle. All-in-all, not a very good game in my opinion.
Links
it hurts my brain: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=427
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)