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

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

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

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

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

Super Space

Can't do it, guys.  Sorry.  The game makes it very clear that in order to play it, you need Xbox360 controllers and friends.  I have neither of those things.

Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26067

Super Massive Shooter

You've got to be careful about adding words that are synonymous with "good" in the titles of your projects.  In fact, pretty much any adjective used to describe the game itself rather than something in the game (The "Dark" in "Dark Souls" for example, is fine) is generally a bad idea.  Super Massive Shooter decided to forget all that and pretty much name itself "you will have fun playing this."

And, for all it's worth, you will have fun.  There are, however, a few frustrations that you'll have to deal with.  First, though, let's talk about what this game does right.

First off, the "level design."  I put the air bunnies there because I'm really talking about enemy design, but in a shoot 'em up like this, those two terms are pretty much synonymous (I've been using that word a lot lately, huh.  Maybe I should find some synonyms...whoa).  The screen fills up with just enough enemies and their projectiles to keep the game challenging without ever feeling like demise is inevitable.  For me, the hallmark of a badly made bullet hell is when I've just given up on trying to conserve my supply of lives and I just bombard the enemy with as many shots as I can before I'm dead for realsies.  That never happened in this game; I was always trying to maintain a bit of strategy.  Gold star for that.

As you progress throughout the levels, you will gain bigger and better weapons to take down bigger and badder enemies.  This keeps the player immersed at all times and gives them the rewarding feeling of getting stronger.  It's the kind of lip-biting satisfaction that games like Sugarbaby will never be able to achieve.  The presentation is great; the hitsparks are beautifully satisfying and the game runs at a cool 60fps.

Then there are some things that just seemed pointless.  For example, throughout the entire tutorial, your ship will be blinking and emitting a noise similar to the one when your health runs low in a Zelda game.  In Zelda, though, the noise serves a purpose both as a punishment for being careless with your life and a motivation to get some life back.  in SMS, it's just there for no apparent reason.

What got my goat the most, though, are the things that genuinely decrease the quality of play.  There's a reason most bullet hell games have enemies come exclusively from the top of the screen: that's because anything else will make the game feel cluttered and confusing.  In SMS, not only do enemies blend into the background very easily, but they also spawn at random locations, leading to more than one occasion where I was killed by a completely invisible enemy.  That just ain't fun.

And you know what else?  I don't even think you can pause the game.  Maybe I'm wrong, but "esc" didn't work.  When I play games, I like to be able to stop what I'm doing and chat with a friend on the facebooks or something.  A game that demands that you devote your attention to it nonstop until you're done with it is just selfish.

Anyways, while Super Massive Shooter is not entirely super nor to any degree massive, it's certainly a shooter, and an entertaining one at that.  That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay kersplosive.

Links
Standard Message Service: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25997