*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
Thursday, January 3, 2013
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:
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
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.)
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
A Series of Tubes
Oh God...oh God it hurts...
there are just no words. Play the game. Please, take 5 minutes to play the game and see for yourself how frantic this game can truly be.
There is no such thing as acceleration in this game. You take off faster than the speed of light and come to a complete stop the second a lava globule hits you. If you drive over a boost, may God have mercy on your soul.
I just...I just can't. I know it's kind of pathetic for me to break so easily but I just...can't!
If either of my fans out there wants me to go into more detail, I will. Honestly, though, this game speaks for itself. As for now, I'm drained and I need to go pick up my sister from the airport.
Experience for yourself A Series of Tubes, but be warned: you may never be the same again.
links
A Series of Mindrapes: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=16248
there are just no words. Play the game. Please, take 5 minutes to play the game and see for yourself how frantic this game can truly be.
There is no such thing as acceleration in this game. You take off faster than the speed of light and come to a complete stop the second a lava globule hits you. If you drive over a boost, may God have mercy on your soul.
I just...I just can't. I know it's kind of pathetic for me to break so easily but I just...can't!
If either of my fans out there wants me to go into more detail, I will. Honestly, though, this game speaks for itself. As for now, I'm drained and I need to go pick up my sister from the airport.
Experience for yourself A Series of Tubes, but be warned: you may never be the same again.
links
A Series of Mindrapes: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=16248
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
A Flipping Good Time
Well, isn't this narcissistic? They literally reviewed the game in the title! All things considered, it's a pretty generous review too. I would call it more of a slightly amusing time; and there wasn't much flipping either. Just a few aggravated grunts followed by relieved sighs.
A Flipping Good Time is a 2D platformer which blurs the line between floor and ceiling. There's honestly not a whole lot to say about it. You jump around, collect fireflies (because hey, they're shiny), and avoid big shards of crystal that, for some reason, make a blunt, smacking sound when you run into them rather than a squelch.
The game feel is good. Damn good. it feels gratifying to collect the fireflies, and pulling off a long sequence of difficult jumps is very rewarding. Really the only complaint I have is that I wish checkpoints were a little more frequent, because the flow that this game induces very well is hindered by having to repeat the beginning of a long section of a particular levels multiple times.
The difficulty is spot on, the music is amusing, the aesthetics are pleasing...It's just a good game. Not great, but good. After all, the levels are a bit samey and the powerups are infrequent enough that you may forget they're even there.
If you'll excuse the education pun, it seems like the makers of this game were really doing their homework. They know how to make a fun game. It's certainly not the next big thing. It doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it's still amusing and I suggest any platformer enthusiasts in my audience download it real quick and give it a shot. This game gets my seal of approval.
Until next time, fellow gamers.
links
Le Game: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24624
A Flipping Good Time is a 2D platformer which blurs the line between floor and ceiling. There's honestly not a whole lot to say about it. You jump around, collect fireflies (because hey, they're shiny), and avoid big shards of crystal that, for some reason, make a blunt, smacking sound when you run into them rather than a squelch.
The game feel is good. Damn good. it feels gratifying to collect the fireflies, and pulling off a long sequence of difficult jumps is very rewarding. Really the only complaint I have is that I wish checkpoints were a little more frequent, because the flow that this game induces very well is hindered by having to repeat the beginning of a long section of a particular levels multiple times.
The difficulty is spot on, the music is amusing, the aesthetics are pleasing...It's just a good game. Not great, but good. After all, the levels are a bit samey and the powerups are infrequent enough that you may forget they're even there.
If you'll excuse the education pun, it seems like the makers of this game were really doing their homework. They know how to make a fun game. It's certainly not the next big thing. It doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it's still amusing and I suggest any platformer enthusiasts in my audience download it real quick and give it a shot. This game gets my seal of approval.
Until next time, fellow gamers.
links
Le Game: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24624
0xCELERATOR
Welp, this is not a fun year so far...
0xCELERATOR is a game produced by then freshmen at Digipen, but you already knew that if you clicked on the link at the bottom of this page like a good little internet troll.
Quick disclaimer before we begin: I don't claim to be an expert in game design. All I have is my 17 years of experience playing and loving the medium. I only made one game in my life and it was a sub-par, text-based rpg that I don't even have on my hard drive anymore. The team who made this has nothing but my utmost respect because I couldn't make a game like 0xCELERATOR if I tried...then again, after playing it, I'm not sure I'd want to.
The game starts off promisingly enough with the Digipen logo smoothly fading in and out before making way to a pleasing synthesizer loop along with the menu screen. In fact, the game's entire soundtrack is pretty good, if minimalistic.
To be fair, the whole game isn't terrible. It was just frustrating as all hell. Allow me to briefly describe my play experience.
I started the game and was immediately dropped into the action, which is good. I never like it when games feel the need to map out the functions of the buttons rather than simply designing the game well enough for the player to figure it out on their own. I then pressed the right arrow key for a while, occasionally pressing space to dodge treacherous 2-foot high jumps, and basically zoned out until my sprite burst into a million peices, accompanied by an explosion sound effect. This was either because I won the level or I died. 0xCELERATOR didn't feel obliged to distinguish the two events. Following this pattern, I worked my way swiftly through the levels before coming to a grey screen. the game had hidden itself behind a grey screen. I pressed buttons and heard sound effects, but with no video, and integral part of the VIDEO game was lost. So, I quit the game, started it up again and found that all my progress had been wiped.
let me go ahead and repeat that for you...
all my progress had been wiped.
This game requires you to beat it all in one go.
How is this considered acceptable? I appreciate that in the days of the NES, when gaming was a new thing and the hardware had severe limitations, such blunders were annoying but accepted like a relative who plays with their food at thanksgiving. 0xCELERATOR was made in 2012! Even that crappy text-based game I made a few years ago had a save feature, and it had a total playtime of about ten minutes!
On top of that one very noticeable flaw, the game feel isn't even that good. As I said before, all the player really does is hold the right arrow key and enjoy the spectacle, but the game's graphical style (which literally consists of nothing but colored lines) isn't much of a spectacle to behold. The controls have a sickening warm-up time to them, making the button presses feel more like polite suggestions than commands.
Then again, that's just my opinion. Why not click the link below and see for yourself? It's a small file, so your total experience from clicking "download" to finishing the game shouldn't last more than 10 minutes.
For a freshman project, I suppose it could have been a lot worse. Perhaps I've been spoiled by the triple-A world of gaming. Maybe this year will teach me to appreciate the work it takes to create a video game. After all, I'm sure the physics in 0xCELERATOR were fairly difficult to program.
Oh well, that's all for now. Frankly I wish I was more enthused about the rest of the year, but hey. Somewhere along this huge line of games, there has to be at least one other Nitronic Rush to make it all worth it.
As always, thanks for viewing. Keep gaming and stay beautiful.
links
0xCELERATOR: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26134
youtube page that I assume belongs to Macklin Guy, the art and level designer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00DxZNBP01o&list=UU3xnn_4T3UiC6pAY-Dv2--w&index=2
0xCELERATOR is a game produced by then freshmen at Digipen, but you already knew that if you clicked on the link at the bottom of this page like a good little internet troll.
Quick disclaimer before we begin: I don't claim to be an expert in game design. All I have is my 17 years of experience playing and loving the medium. I only made one game in my life and it was a sub-par, text-based rpg that I don't even have on my hard drive anymore. The team who made this has nothing but my utmost respect because I couldn't make a game like 0xCELERATOR if I tried...then again, after playing it, I'm not sure I'd want to.
The game starts off promisingly enough with the Digipen logo smoothly fading in and out before making way to a pleasing synthesizer loop along with the menu screen. In fact, the game's entire soundtrack is pretty good, if minimalistic.
To be fair, the whole game isn't terrible. It was just frustrating as all hell. Allow me to briefly describe my play experience.
I started the game and was immediately dropped into the action, which is good. I never like it when games feel the need to map out the functions of the buttons rather than simply designing the game well enough for the player to figure it out on their own. I then pressed the right arrow key for a while, occasionally pressing space to dodge treacherous 2-foot high jumps, and basically zoned out until my sprite burst into a million peices, accompanied by an explosion sound effect. This was either because I won the level or I died. 0xCELERATOR didn't feel obliged to distinguish the two events. Following this pattern, I worked my way swiftly through the levels before coming to a grey screen. the game had hidden itself behind a grey screen. I pressed buttons and heard sound effects, but with no video, and integral part of the VIDEO game was lost. So, I quit the game, started it up again and found that all my progress had been wiped.
let me go ahead and repeat that for you...
all my progress had been wiped.
This game requires you to beat it all in one go.
How is this considered acceptable? I appreciate that in the days of the NES, when gaming was a new thing and the hardware had severe limitations, such blunders were annoying but accepted like a relative who plays with their food at thanksgiving. 0xCELERATOR was made in 2012! Even that crappy text-based game I made a few years ago had a save feature, and it had a total playtime of about ten minutes!
On top of that one very noticeable flaw, the game feel isn't even that good. As I said before, all the player really does is hold the right arrow key and enjoy the spectacle, but the game's graphical style (which literally consists of nothing but colored lines) isn't much of a spectacle to behold. The controls have a sickening warm-up time to them, making the button presses feel more like polite suggestions than commands.
Then again, that's just my opinion. Why not click the link below and see for yourself? It's a small file, so your total experience from clicking "download" to finishing the game shouldn't last more than 10 minutes.
For a freshman project, I suppose it could have been a lot worse. Perhaps I've been spoiled by the triple-A world of gaming. Maybe this year will teach me to appreciate the work it takes to create a video game. After all, I'm sure the physics in 0xCELERATOR were fairly difficult to program.
Oh well, that's all for now. Frankly I wish I was more enthused about the rest of the year, but hey. Somewhere along this huge line of games, there has to be at least one other Nitronic Rush to make it all worth it.
As always, thanks for viewing. Keep gaming and stay beautiful.
links
0xCELERATOR: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26134
youtube page that I assume belongs to Macklin Guy, the art and level designer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00DxZNBP01o&list=UU3xnn_4T3UiC6pAY-Dv2--w&index=2
And So It Begins...
Happy 2013, ladies and gentlemen! What better way to kick off the new year than to play FIVE HUNDRED VIDEO GAMES
*ahem*
Alright, time to back up. A while back I watched this movie called Julie and Julia. You know, the one about the woman who tried to cook her way through Julia Child's food encyclopedia in a year.
Flash forward to a month or two later. My buddies and I were killing time in the cafeteria before school, as per usual, when I suddenly had a mini-epiphany. See, I'm one of those people who gets really worked up over video games. As in really worked up. My father is a film professor, and something he passed on to me, in addition to balding and bad joints, is the tendency to look at everything very analytically. Video games are my favorite things to analyze for many reasons. Just go to extra-credits.net if you want to know why.
Anyway, back to my mini-epiphany. A friend of mine, who shares with me a love for both video games and indie stuff, showed me this game called Nitronic Rush. It's an arcade-style racing game made by the folks over at Digipen (for those who don't know, Digipen is a college which focuses primarily on the creation of video games). I'll review Nitronic Rush in detail later, but let's just say it got me interested enough in the Digipen Game Gallery (link: https://www.digipen.edu/gallery/games/) to embark on my own version of Julie and Julia. This year, I will attempt to play and review my way through the entire Digipen Game Gallery. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get a movie made about me where Meryl Streep plays James Portnow or something.
There are, at time of writing, 414 games on this gallery. However, based on the trends in the release schedule, the 2012-2013 academic year will pull in anywhere from a hundred to two hundred more games. Playing through all of them isn't going to be easy for a high school junior like myself, especially considering I'm balancing a ton of other projects like writing a screenplay, looking for a job and playing the lead in a school play. But my love for games knows no bounds, nor does my love for the internet-dwelling creatures who may soon become my audience.
And so, without further ado, let's get this show on the road. I'll be reviewing these things in alphabetical order, so the first game on my list is 0xCELERATOR. This should be a fun year...
*ahem*
Alright, time to back up. A while back I watched this movie called Julie and Julia. You know, the one about the woman who tried to cook her way through Julia Child's food encyclopedia in a year.
Flash forward to a month or two later. My buddies and I were killing time in the cafeteria before school, as per usual, when I suddenly had a mini-epiphany. See, I'm one of those people who gets really worked up over video games. As in really worked up. My father is a film professor, and something he passed on to me, in addition to balding and bad joints, is the tendency to look at everything very analytically. Video games are my favorite things to analyze for many reasons. Just go to extra-credits.net if you want to know why.
Anyway, back to my mini-epiphany. A friend of mine, who shares with me a love for both video games and indie stuff, showed me this game called Nitronic Rush. It's an arcade-style racing game made by the folks over at Digipen (for those who don't know, Digipen is a college which focuses primarily on the creation of video games). I'll review Nitronic Rush in detail later, but let's just say it got me interested enough in the Digipen Game Gallery (link: https://www.digipen.edu/gallery/games/) to embark on my own version of Julie and Julia. This year, I will attempt to play and review my way through the entire Digipen Game Gallery. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get a movie made about me where Meryl Streep plays James Portnow or something.
There are, at time of writing, 414 games on this gallery. However, based on the trends in the release schedule, the 2012-2013 academic year will pull in anywhere from a hundred to two hundred more games. Playing through all of them isn't going to be easy for a high school junior like myself, especially considering I'm balancing a ton of other projects like writing a screenplay, looking for a job and playing the lead in a school play. But my love for games knows no bounds, nor does my love for the internet-dwelling creatures who may soon become my audience.
And so, without further ado, let's get this show on the road. I'll be reviewing these things in alphabetical order, so the first game on my list is 0xCELERATOR. This should be a fun year...
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