Here are a couple new gameplay videos out of GDC of Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP. The project is a collaborative effort between Craig Adams, music man Jim Guthrie, and Capybara Games and is an adventure/action game for the iPhone & iPod tough. Personally, I can’t help but think how cool it may play on the iPad where my man hands will take up less than 47.3% of the screen.
The first video shows some of the adventuring along with the stylized environments. The second video gives us a good taste of what the combat will be like in the game. The point and click adventure style looks to work quite well for the form factor.
TokyoGameBros’ latest game, Drooop!!, featuring a puzzle solving blue blob hit XBLIG last week. The game packs in three modes of play, tons of levels, and some fresh puzzle mechanics that are completely devoid of falling blocks.
Gameplay
Drooop!! is a 2D puzzle game in which you take control of a little blue blob like character who has the ability to rotate “fields” and sometimes jump to achieve specific objectives. The fields themselves are little movable segments that make up the grid like structure of the game’s levels. The fields can be rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise by using the shoulder buttons. When a group of fields become isolated they fall taking everything on them with them.
At the beginning of each level you are presented with specific objectives, such as collect all coins, drop all enemies, or connect all fields. You’ll almost always utilize the turning mechanism to solve your puzzles but in some situations a jump power-up will be provided giving you the ability to jump for the duration of that level.
In addition to the challenge the field manipulation presents, there are also a few types of creatures in the world of Droop!!. The creatures themselves come in various colors and styles of movement. Some enemies will chase you across the grid at various speeds, while others will remain stationary. The level objectives may ask you to deal with them in groups or even ask that you not drop any of them at all.
The game is comprised of 3 modes: easy, hard, and endless. The easy mode serves as sort of a tutorial, and will offer up explanation of game mechanics as you play its 21 levels. Hard mode really seems to be the mode the game expects you to play, it features the same mechanics of easy but with no tutorial dialogue. Endless is the most unique mode, it presents puzzles similar in nature to that of the other modes but with a time element and the next puzzles scroll on to the screen as the last one scrolls off. While endless mode is obviously endless, I’m not entirely sure how long hard mode is, since the farthest I got was 39, which took about an hour of playtime each attempt and brings us to a couple points of contention.
Droop!! has no check points, nor does it have any option outside of “Pause” to save progress. This isn’t a major issue in most puzzle games but in Droop!! it is exacerbated by the level’s static and unchanging nature. Further worsening the issue is the sheer volume of levels and their time consuming nature –as I previously noted it took me roughly an hour each play through to get passed level 35. This all adds up to a game that is pretty difficult to play through.
Its marathon style gameplay aside, my experience with Drooop!! was a positive one. The game is fun and challenging and presents a pretty fresh puzzle mechanic that sets it apart from the herd of block based games. On top of that, the game is built quite well and I experienced no bugs or crashes during my few hours of play.
Audio Visual
Mentioned earlier, Drooop!! is a 2D game of simplistic design featuring some basic pixel art sprites with some equally simplistic animations. My only issue regarding the visuals of the game is that there’s only one static background. I would have really liked to see some different backgrounds with maybe a little movement or diversity.
The audio and sound effects of Drooop!! are very old school, much as the graphics are. They don’t have the modern feel you get from a lot of new retro styled game and feel straight out of a NES cartridge. Which basically means, it works pretty darn well for the game and its intended style.
Summary
TokyoGameBros’ Drooop!! will set you back 80 Microsoft Pogs on the XBLIG Marketplace. The game has a few drawbacks in terms of accessability to casual players but still manages to offer up an enjoyable puzzle experience for those who have the time. If you are looking for a puzzle game of the non-block persuasion Drooop!! is probably a pretty decent choice.
This video demonstrates easy mode in its entirety and thus contains spoilers for that mode.
