Posts Tagged ‘Review’
23 items.
Buddrick, the creator of Pixel Killer, is back with another challenging platformer and this one’s sure to drive you up a wall with its willy-nilly gravitational manipulation. Experiment 13 packs fifty brutal levels, all of which are hell bent on putting you through your platforming paces.
Gameplay
Expirement 13 utilizes the typical platforming mechanics in tandem with an on-the-fly gravity manipulation system. The combination of these systems, produces a frighteningly difficult platformer that mercilessly kills you repeatedly through fifty levels.
The gravity mechanic in Experiment 13 really takes the center stage of the game. It is the differentiating quality that sets it apart from traditional platformers and is the main source of the game’s considerable challenge. Put simply, the gravity of the world will shift to whatever direction is marked on a tile you come in contact with.
The primary implementation of this gravity system messes with the player’s spacial acuity by forcing them to platform in unusual orientations. Experiment 13 accomplishes this by simply altering the orientation of the worlds gravity, forcing the player to platform on the walls or even the ceiling. During this time of gravitational inflection, the controls remain static, meaning that if, for example, gravity was rotated ninety degrees clockwise you would use “Up” and “Down” to move the character in what is now the forward and backward directions.
Another way the game will use these gravity tiles is to create free fall situations that can traverse entire maps. In a free fall style scenario, the player will need to fall through tiles, one after another, to make their way around the map to the objective. These parts, as well as some of the trickier platforming parts, are mostly dependent on the player learning from failed attempts in order to clear the stage.
Finally, one of the more infrequently used tricks of the gravity mechanic is slingshotting. This tricky little maneuver only shows up a handful of times, but the concept is fairly simple. In certain situations the player must bounce through a gravity pad with enough momentum to pass through it completely and then have the now reversed gravity whip them around and on to the top of a safe platform. As I said, this maneuver can be a pain in the ass, but when you nail it you tend to feel as though you’ve accomplished something pretty bad ass.
The Experiment 13 gameplay experience was mostly a positive one. However, in terms of accessibility, the game doesn’t seem intended for anyone seeking a casual friendly platformer. Even experienced players will die over and over again in this game. But, for whatever reason, when you finally nail that hard ass jump and beat the level you’ve been stuck on, you really do feel a sense of accomplishment that almost makes it worth it.
Audio Visual
Here lies most of the negatives of Experiment 13, because it looks and sounds like a proof of concept rather than a fully developed game. The graphics could only have been more spartan if the character sprite had been a dot bouncing on line segments, which oddly enough is nearly what Buddrick’s last game, Pixel Killer, was. But for some strange reason Pixel Killer’s level of simplicity worked quite well, while Experiment 13′s is overly harsh to look at.
On a more amusing note, there are messages sprinkled through out the game on the walls, that appear to be painted in blood. Probably my blood, I certainly left enough of it laying around. Some of the messages just straight up lie to you, in a Portal like sort of way.
The audio is completely generic sound effects and there’s no music to speak of. So, I wont speak of it.
Summary
Experiment 13 is available on XBLIG for 80 Microsoft points and, for hardcore fans of platformers, it’s worth it. It has fifty challenging levels, of which I only managed to beat forty seven because forty eight made me cry like a little girl. The average play through of Experiment 13 is going to vary based on skill, for instance I had logged over four hours on my way to forty-eight. However, to anyone seeking a casual platforming experience, you will not find one here and should look in the direction of games like Kaleidoscope, Arkedo’s Pixel, Alien Pyramid Challenge, or Pixel Killer.
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What does being a well endowed bottle chopping cosplayer have to do with ninja training? Who cares, it doesn’t need to make sense when you can dress up a manga girl in a maid’s uniform complete with cat ears and have her karate chop through bottles. Did I mention that the bottles are filled with milk and upon chopping them causes milk to splash all over your ninja girl, covering her in wholesome milky goodness? Yeah, that’s not suggestive at all.
Gameplay
Ninja Chop’s gameplay is extremely simplistic, in fact I would go so far as to say you simply can’t unintentionally fail at it. Its only mechanic is that of the chop gauge, which acts identically to the job mini games’ in Fable II. The gauge comprised of a fixed line, a pulsing line, and a fail range. A fixed line indicates when you must time your chop. When the pulsing line aligns with the fixed line you hit “A” to execute your chop. Each time the pulsing line bounces back and forth your fail range will shrink, basically acting as a timer by decreasing the acceptable margin of error as you go.
While chopping your way through bottles in Ninja Chop, you’ll earn experience. The experience awarded is based on the number of bottles successfully chopped in a single pass, the more bottles chopped the more experience awarded. When all five bottles are chopped in back-to-back chains a significant experience bonus will be awarded. Achieving chains of varying length will greatly expedite the process of leveling up.
So here’s where the game gets interesting. As you level up you’ll be awarded new articles of clothing. There are several full outfits ranging from a traditional school girl’s uniform to a nurse’s outfit complete with hat. All of which can be equipped so that you can splash “milk” all over your ninja girl’s new garb.
There are 100 levels and a handful of items, but to be honest the offerings seem pretty skimpy. The game feels overly simple and took only 50 minutes to play through the first time. To escape being just a novelty game it really needed about 50 or 100 more levels with a similarly expanded wardrobe. Even with its variable difficulty and tracking of longest chop chains, I don’t see the game having much of any replay value.
Audio Visuals
The graphics of Ninja Chop are pretty decent with a few caveats. On the positive side of things, the environments are quite interesting, featuring a traditional looking Japanese courtyard surrounded by trees. One of nicer touches in the game is the changing of the environment’s season. In spring the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom and will then change after a few chops to the lush green trees of summer. However, the trees themselves appear to be part of a 2D texture on a simple 3D model with some foliage attached to it to fake depth, the result is a somewhat peculiar looking landscape.
Our lady ninja’s character model is probably the single most important part of the game, since the whole point is to dress her up. While the model is adequate, it leaves a little to be desired as her proportions seem less than anatomically correct. In addition to the character models oddities, the animations are at times just as strange, for example her skirt seems to defy gravity of its own accord. That could be a selling point, I suppose, if shimapans had been an unlockable item.
Audio, it’s there, she squeals like an anime girl, nuff said.
Summary
Zerozerozero’s Ninja Chop is 240 Microsoft Points, and is painfully close to being worth it. Unfortunately, you’re simply left wanting more from just about every aspect of the game. To be honest, you can garner nearly all the enjoyment there is to be had from the game by playing the demo. So I suggest doing that and then going and spending your $3 picking up Soulcaster instead.
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.
Convextrix by Matthew DeLucas is a fairly conventional “falling block” style puzzle game that would be rather amusing and pretty playable if it weren’t for a series of bad design decisions that make it annoying to play.
Gameplay
I consider myself a connoisseur of of the block placement puzzle genre. It started with Tetris and it continues to this day with Lumines and Chime, so I’m always on the look out for something that takes the genre and makes it interesting in a whole new way.
The falling blocks of Convextrix come in single lines of three squares, each of which is a random color from a set of five colors. Not only can you rotate a block, you can also shuffle the squares around inside the line. To remove blocks from the field and score points, you simply have to connect blocks of the same color in any configuration. Where Convextrix makes this interesting, is that it changes the number of blocks necessary to do this as play goes on as a means of increasing the difficulty. What I initially thought was a fairly leisurely block game turned into a brow-sweat inducing nightmare when I had to focus on getting chunks of seven blocks together to make room. This, however, is also where I thought the game failed. A match doesn’t last long once you reach the six or seven block requirement, because there are too many different colors to make it feasible to continue playing. For my money, a good falling block game should allow a skilled player to continue on for a good deal of time. My PSP Lumines save, for example, has a high score table filled with 999,999 entries, because I got so good at it that I could basically go on indefinitely, and that was fun.
Audio Visual
The visuals of Convextrix are somewhat annoying. While the individual blocks are colored, they are also shaped differently. I can understand this as a great idea from the perspective of any color-blind gamers, but the shapes are badly designed. It doesn’t help, then, that those same shapes are used as an animated background motif by randomly flying across the screen.
The game font is designed to match the look of the shapes, which makes its appearance even worse. A font should not be difficult to read as the Convextrix font is.
While the incidental sound effects are serviceable, I disliked the music. It’s kind of an “urgent-sounding” techno, where I would have preferred something more soothing.
Summary
There’s something enjoyable about the ideas presented in Convextrix. But the execution leaves something to be desired. If Convextrix 2 updated the graphics and font, and tweaked the mechanics (color-bombs, anyone?) I would definitely give it a buy. Convextrix is available on Xbox Live Indie Games, for a mere 80 points which you should spend if Lumines and Chime are too good for you.
You’re man’s man, you’re a man’s man’s man. In fact you’re the type of man who parachutes into danger to trap wild animals with nothing but a revolver and a stylish pair of shorts. This is Bush Hunt, the misleadingly titled XBLIG game from Riddlersoft that involves not the quest for fuzzy Triforces nor does it set on a Texas ranch.
Gameplay
The objective of the game is pretty simple, someone or something has caused the release of all sorts of zoo animals and it’s your job to go out and “trap” them by shooting them with bullets –Yeah I’m a little sketchy on the details of how that works too. You are parachuted into each fairly confined level and all sorts of animals are released into it from boxes that are triggered by you moving over certain areas. The game offers twenty levels, two difficulty settings, two player co-op, and a four player survival mode.
I’m going to jump right into it guys: Bush Hunt isn’t a great game. It’s not even a particularly good game, because it suffers from some serious bugs and design flaws. In fact, during my play through of the game, I managed to crash it twice. On top of that, it’s plagued with frame rate issues that slow it to a crawl. The frame rate issue is further exacerbated by it being a platformer/shooter that requires a certain amount of achievable rhythm to adequately play. In addition to this the controls give you the sensation of playing in peanut butter, which without chocolate is s neither delicious or sensual.
To add a little insult to injury, there are some strange happenings in the world of Bush Hunt. During platforming you will at times run into some sticky corners that can require you to back out of them and give it another go. On a similar platforming note, the moving icy platforms do not behave as such. They will act as normal terrain until they begin to move at which point the game will just try to slide you off of them leaving the physics feeling faked.
If compared to other games, Bush Hunt is similar in gameplay to that of titles such as Nasty in that they are both platforming shooters that take place in confined areas with numerous enemies. Unfortunately, Bush Hunt lacks polish and has a fundamental design flaw that makes it a less enjoyable experience than Nasty. The first issue is the lack of polish, which I have previously explained and the second issue is the fixed forward firing mechanic, which worked fine in things like Pixel Killer but is simply insufficient for Bush Hunt.
It isn’t a total bust though, Bush Hunt has a few bearable points. The parachuting bits are pretty amusing, although they seem to largely act as a distraction from the lengthy load times. There is fun a progression element to the game in that you’ll gain gun reload improvements allowing for more rapid firing, as well as more hearts to improve your longevity.
Audio Visual
The two brightest spots of the game are the visuals and the music. The pixel art assets of the game are pretty good and are quite bright and colorful with their primary colors. I especially liked picking the color of my characters outfit –red shorts FTW. The four environments, each possesses their own unique stylistic qualities, were visually interesting as well.
The music is enjoyable and with its percussive sound gives a fitting background to the safari look of the game and its characters. The howling sounds on the other hand were a little irritating, they kept making me nervously look about to see what was trying to eat me.
Summary
Bush Hunt is 80 Microsoft Points on the XBLIG Marketplace. Unfortunately, even at that price point I can’t give the game a good recommendation. For those who are looking for a solid platforming shooter, there are numerous alternatives, two of which are Pixel Killer and Nasty that I think both offer a better experience and a better value. All that said, I get the impression that the developer worked quite hard on the game and probably learned a lot in it’s creation; so in that respect, I look forward to seeing that experience applied in future projects.
ARIKA’s follow up to the block dropping puzzle game Jewelry Master Twinkle is out and brings with it some nice value. The new version, Jewelry Master Twinkle Light, cuts down on fluff but still features the same basic gameplay of the original at a much more palatable 80 Microsoft Point price.
Gameplay
The gameplay is simple, drop the blocks consisting of gems and stones into position in typical block dropping game fashion. The gems and stones can be made to disappear in two different ways. Gems are done away with by boxing them in using stones. Once a gem has been boxed in, it and all other gems of the same color will instantly disappear. The stones, which come in different shapes and sizes, will only disappear when a full row of stones is constructed.
The game presents itself as some sort of block dropping date simulator and I have no idea how the two of these things are supposed to go together. Unless of course, you’re talking about dropping the ol’ I block in for a Tetris, if you know what I mean. All that really seems to happen in Jewelry Master Twinkle Light is your “date” occasionally rambles about pickles or going for a ride on a Ferris Wheel as you score more points. I never really make it past talking about going on the Ferris Wheel though, so I suppose, in that sense, it is a pretty accurate dating sim.
The controls are fully customizable and even in their default configuration work well enough. I didn’t run into any major annoyances other than an occasional accidental instant block drop caused by nudging the thumb stick in the up direction. Really though, once you are aware of this particular control nuance it is easily avoided.
“Jewelry Master Twinkle become easier and re-release ! The jewels drop one after another. Join the jewels and enclose by the stones to erase ! The Graphics and the scenarios are changeable. It will depend on game play. You can enjoy the game kind of like a date. The game system has been changed. It’s Especially recommended for beginners ! “
The above is the developer’s description of the game on Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace. The bold portion of the description seems erroneous as the only visuals I saw that were customizable were in the screensaver mode which allowed you to change the background color. The references to change in scenarios seem exaggerated as well, since the only gameplay that seemed to change what your “date” says to you is how far through the linear scripts you get. This is more then likely a result of a bit of copy/pasting from the previous full versions description and possibly some language barriers.
Audio Visual
The visuals of JWTLight are quite nice, the anime girl is nicely drawn and the backgrounds are animated and lively. One note worthy difference from the original is the inclusion of only one of the original girls. On the same topic, there are no male dates either, which may be a deal breaker for some out there.
The music of the game is descent enough for its stripped down nature, which is a good thing considering there appears to only be one track.
Summary
The price tag sells this one, at 80 Microsoft Points its production qualities are a bargain. There are a lot of less developed block dropping puzzle games out there at the same price, so if you are looking for a bargain in this genre I recommend checking it out.
MagicalTimeBean’s recent Xbox Live Indie Game release, Soulcaster, drops you into the role of a wandering geriatric wizard who, aside from having impeccable taste in hats, appears to have no talents of his own. That is of course until the souls of long ago heroes lend him their strength in an effort to restore peace to the land.
Gameplay
Soulcaster is an action adventure similar in design to The Legend of Zelda in that it features a top-down camera and a real-time combat system. That, however, is the extent of the similarities between the two, as the combat and progression systems differ fundamentally from the old Zelda hack, slash, and find.
Early in the game you come across the heroic souls of an archer, an alchemist, and a warrior. These three souls are summoned by you as combatants who will aid you on your dangerous adventure. The summoning system utilizes Soul Orbs as regents for the process and can not be used again until the Soul Orb is deactivated and recollected. You are initially given three orbs and then have the opportunity to buy two more to allow for the summoning of up to five of the three heroes; for example, you could summon three archers and two warriors if you possessed all five Soul Orbs.
As you may expect, each hero excels in certain areas of combat. The archer can fire arrows over chasms and water, but not over walls or through compatriots. The alchemist can throw explosive potions over walls and compatriots but cannot throw them over bottomless expanses or water and upon death he will explode causing damage to anything in the area. The warrior is a master of close quarters combat, and is equipped with additional hit points and a shield that reduces incoming damage. The configuration of the maps and the adversaries you face will dictate who you summon and in what formation. The focus on strategy and the summoned heroes immobility give the game an almost tower defense dimension.
To add a sense of progression, Soulcaster allows for the acquisition of not only more Soul Orbs but also upgrades for the individual heroes. There are four basic classes of upgrade; a weapon upgrade, an attack speed upgrade, a hit point upgrade, and a range upgrade. These upgrades are all purchasable at the shop keep who, in typical game form, appears throughout the various dungeons.
The death and save systems of Soulcaster are a bit reminiscent of games of yore. Upon your death you will be forced to restart the map you’re on. In the event that you wish to save your progress you pause the game and are presented with a code to write down and then enter when you return. There is no confirmation of a purple leotard code.
The game works really well; therefor, I don’t have much to complain about from a mechanical perspective. The controls at time were a little strict only allowing for movement in the cardinal directions, but this is really an intentional design decision to give the impression of retro or D&D style movement.
If there is one thing to complain about it is the length of the game because it really feels like you are just starting when it ends. The pacing of the game felt perfect, so I do think it was simply a need of, perhaps, another level or two. That said, the game sports two difficulty modes and seems to offer reasonable replay value.
Another item that stands out in Soulcaster is the lack of boss battles. However, even without boss battles the creators manage to escalate the difficulty by deploying swarms of normal creatures in less than ideal environments. Now this isn’t really a complaint, it’s more of an observation, though I wouldn’t have minded seeing a boss or two. I have the feeling that the mechanics of the game’s combat system didn’t lend itself to easy boss designing and tuning.
Audio Visual
Soulcaster has a nice retro eerie feeling world filled with pixel art sprites and a classic tile map environment. The aesthetics of the game are going to appeal most to those who are appreciative of retro styling but likely wont hinder players who may be indifferent to it.
One of the bits I enjoyed most about the game was its music. My favorite track is the one played during courtyard scenes in which you talk with the heroes’ statues and receive information pertaining to the world.. The music itself feels a bit more modern than the game looks but it still has that old school synthesized feel to it that keeps it from seeming out of place.
Summary
I got to say I really enjoyed this one and if you are looking for a top-down action adventure role playing game with a retro look and feel it would be difficult for me to not recommend Soulcaster. If, maybe, you aren’t looking for a game that fits in exactly that sub-category and are just looking for a fun game, you should definitely check out the demo as its quite representative of the full game experience. The only aspect one should be mindful of when considering Soulcaster as a purchase is its length, it clocks in on initial play through at around an hour long; but do note, the game has a hard difficulty mode and some pretty decent replay value. Soulcaster rings up at 240 Microsoft Wing Dang Doodles and feels appropriately priced.
After playing Wordzy for a little while, I came up with a title I thought was a bit more fitting. I call this game: “How Many Five Letter Words Do You Know?”
That’s not to say it’s a bad game. Just that the question of how many five letter words one knows has a direct bearing on the playability of this simple little Xbox Live Indie game by by John Sepulveres. As it turns out, Geoff knows very few, and I know quite a bit. So our discussion went something like this:
Geoff: You want to review that game?
Me: What game?
Geoff: Check the contact email.
Me: Yeah, I’ll review it.
Geoff: I tried the demo.
I fucking failed.
First word… buhhhhhhhhhh
Second word rooooooooooooooks is going to have to play this.
And so I did.
Gameplay
Wordzy is a word puzzle game. The basic premise is to attempt to determine the randomly selected word by inputting letters. Letters you get right are marked and move on to the next attempt for you to use. Letters that are in the word, but are in the wrong place are marked with a different color so you have a bit of a hint. A sort of Mastermind using more symbols but with the actual answer limited to a dictionary of words. In this case, as you may have guessed, this dictionary is limited to five letter words. When guessing words, the default options only give you the color-coded clues if your attempt is itself a word found in the dictionary. This keeps you from using a strategy of entering common letters merely to determine if they are part of the word. This can also be a problem if your diction isn’t quite up to snuff, so there is an option to turn this off. There is also a difficulty option which lets you set the random word to something from the game’s entire dictionary or merely a subset of more common words.
The game includes options for both playing alone, or playing with another person, whereby you take turns entering guesses until someone gets it right. You can do this in person or over Xbox Live with a gold account. There are also options to play against a timer or without it.
One thing I can’t help but notice is how much easier this game would be with a keyboard. I type exceedingly fast, think even faster, and the fact you have to enter letters by scrolling slowly through a list using the Xbox controller slows me down considerably. There’s not much that can be done about this, however, and the timer is usually more than sufficient to solve the puzzle using the supplied input method.
Visual
Wordzy has a very simple look to it to go along with its simple gameplay. I must admit I was slightly disappointed with the graphics. The look of the “letter tiles” can be selected from a set of three, with the white you see above being the most readable. The solid black letters were hard to distinguish against the green background on my tv. The background is a static image of a jumble of letters, and the UI is very utilitarian. Considering the interesting stuff that some other indie developers have been putting out graphics-wise, I would have liked to see something a bit more visually interesting. The letters in the background could float and dance and light up when used, for example. The graphics aren’t terrible by any means, but they aren’t top notch either. They simply are graphics.
Audio
The audio present in Wordzy matches up with the rest of the game, it is simple. There are small incidental noises for letter tile selection and placement or errors, and these work alright.
The game also contains a pair of music tracks. One, a light, poppy number played over the menu, and the other a jazzy tune which accompanies the actual gameplay. Both, I think, fit the game fairly well. The game supports custom soundtracks though, in case you prefer playing your own music.
Summary
For a mere 80 Microsoft Currency Units, Wordzy is accurately priced. If you know a lot of five letter words and enjoy a simple puzzle game, you’ll find Wordzy diverting for a time. But I can’t help to think that with some extra visual flair, a couple more twists on the game play and perhaps options to play with 6 or 7 letter words, the game could have been something much more unique and generally better.
Old eccentric GuyBob, everyone thought he was mad. That is, until the evil Dr. Slug came to this world and GuyBob’s sons, Guy and Bob, were called upon to plow through 100 dangerous creature filled levels and save the world. And thus, the stage is set for Kris Steele and company’s platforming shooter Nasty.
Gameplay
Nasty, a traditional 2D platforming shooter, consists of 100 single frame levels. These levels are filled with various combinations of monsters that will require slaying in order to unlock the door to the next level. There is also a point system that, in addition to granting bragging rights, will give additional lives every 10,000 points. The extra lives come in handy because this game (I’m looking at you when I say this Level 70) is quite challenging.
The creatures’ behaviors vary and understanding them is essential to making your way through the levels successfully. Some creatures will simply walk forward until they run into something and turn around, others will bounce off a surface and continue in a new direction, and more yet will display an intent to kick your ass by continually meandering in your direction. The creatures of Nasty also differ from difficulty mode to difficulty mode. An example of these differences is the accountant ghost. In easy and normal mode they simply chase you around until either you die or they die. However, in hard mode once they have been destroyed, they split into four little ghosts who then proceed to resume the chase.
Did I mention the clock? Yeah there’s a clock and, of course, it ticks down! Once the time on a particular level runs out you won’t simply lose, that would be dull. To keep things exciting Nasty will deploy Doom Bolt, a giant ball of spikes that chases you unabatedly until either he impales you or you clear the stage of enemies.
When it comes to death Nasty is seriously retro as it relies on a finite number of lives and a limited quantity of continues that it is all eager to relieve you of. The game has a tendancy to be challenging and at times down right frustrating, but manages to balance it out with a pretty decent death system. This balance is one of the systems used to differentiate between the three difficulty modes. You will receive five lives and fifteen continues on easy, three lives and five continues on normal, and three lives and three continues on hard. On top of this system all modes allow you to save progress every 10 levels by establishing a check point. Once you wipe out all your continues you can start a new game from the last check point you unlocked. This was the first time I had seen these two style systems work together in such a way and I found that I really appriciated them as they managed to balance a sense of penalty for death without really preventing you from progressing through the game.
Power ups and points are sprinkled throughout the world and come in various shapes, sizes, and effects. The power ups persist until death and can, in some cases, be required to finish a level. So don’t die because the power up won’t respawn unless you use a continue which is is less than ideal. The list of power ups is quite extensive; they can stop time, improve your offensive ability, increase your jump hight, or make you invincible. The points are all over the place and don’t require much explaining, go get you some.
Bosses appear every twenty levels or so and are mostly of fairly simple design. They will typically make use of minions and mechanics present in other creatures in the game. One of the bugs I experienced during my play through of the game was during the Hell Snake boss, the segments of the creature would break apart into little minions and fly off in a pattern. If these segment are destroyed while bouncing off the ground the minions will tend to become stuck and difficult to destroy. On a more pleasant boss related note, a character who plagues you through the entire game shows up as a boss and presents you with the opportunity to have your sweet revenge.
There is a cooperative mode as well as a battle mode, I unfortunately didn’t have an opportunity to test these, as I have no friends or enemies, but if the cooperative play is anything like I would expect it is, it’s probably pretty damn fun in that double dragons sort of way.
Audio Visual
As previously noted, Nasty is a retro game and, as you’d expect, the visuals are retro as well. The sprites look good and are animated well as are most of the enemies. The levels are decent looking with some nice background art, though there aren’t really any opportunities for any parallax to show it off since the camera is stationary.
I’m not really sure why, but for some reason the ghosts don’t feel quite right visually. This visually awkward feeling goes for the boss Hell Snake as well. I’m not sure if it’s that they are so large and simple in design that they feel as though they lack detail, when compared to the densely detailed smaller sprites, or what. That said, I found the simplest solution to the problem was to shoot them. Oh maybe they could have little green accountant visors? I did mention they are accountant ghosts, right? Don’t be so surprised, according to A Christmas Carol one in four ghosts are accountants.
On the issue of level design, there were some repeats, which is to be expected in a game with 100 levels. I just felt it was worth noting.
How does it sound? It sounds pretty good. The start screen theme is decent, although the game soundtrack gets a little repetitive during marathon play. The sound effects are pretty generic retro, which is a given considering the style of the game. So in essence the sound all works fairly well for the game but it won’t make you weep with joy.
Summary
Nasty costs 80 Microsoft Points on the Xbox Live Indie Games store. Thats a dollar for a game with 100 levels, 3 difficulty modes, cooperative play, and a battle mode. The normal modes have a solid 4 hours or so of play through time. All that said the game is retro and will appeal to mostly retro fans, if you don’t count yourself among such fans I would recommend trying the demo before giving it a buy. The demo is pretty representative of what you will experience in the game and should help you make the right call.
edited 3/5/2010 for grammar
It looks like Toyota isn’t the only one with an uncontrollable acceleration issue, but in this case I think it’s probably working as intended. MotorHEAT is a the latest racing game on Microsoft Xbox Live Indie Games and it comes prepackaged with some seriously addictive gameplay. The game was developed by Alejandro González Fiel and Miguel Herrero Obeso of Milkstone Studios, who in the past brought us titles such as Wool and Little Racers.
Gameplay
MotorHEAT is an arcade feeling racer in that it’s obviously not a simulator and nor does it try to be. In fact, you don’t even have to do much to stay on the road. Your only objective is to dodge other cars, but not so much so that you don’t get dangerously close to them! Yes that’s right your objective is to NARROWLY miss all the other cars on the road. Doing so grants you boost based on how far you were from the cars you pass.
In addition to this boost mechanic, you also level up. The higher the level the faster you go. Anecdotally speaking, I think by the time you are getting around to level 15, your normal base speed is easily faster than your initial boost speed was. To top it off your new boost speed is something that requires calculations from the ships computer, because it ain’t like dusting crops, boy!
One of the most frustrating and yet amusing aspects of the game is the behavior of the White Cars. These little bastards have sentience I’m convinced of it! You think I’m kidding but these cars will change lanes and without fail, wined up directly in your path. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so because there is actually an award called “They Do It On Purpose” which is achieved by getting tore up by 150 of these sons of bitches.
Other than the cars on the road you will also find an array of bonuses that will offer up extra time, more boost, score multipliers, score points, and invulnerability. They pretty much do what you would expect them to do. The only one that may not be imediately obvious is the invulnerability boost. The nice part about this guy is that it will let you drive right through all the other cars and quickly max out your boost bar.
In terms of cons of the game, one I experienced was related to these bonus items. The first is that they can sometimes obstruct a car that is right on the other side of them, as soon as you collect your bonus your boned. The second relates to the blue box vans that look exactly like the blue power ups. Now I know you can tell the difference because one rotates and the other doesn’t but there is only so much sensory data you can process while traveling at the speed of holybajeezus.
On the bug front MotorHEAT does have a current issue with the score boards. The issue being, as far as I can tell, they don’t work at all. The developer has already commented on this and stated that a patch is going to be submitted this Friday and we should be one upping one another in no time. Which is really good because I think it is probably a very important element of the games replayability.
Audio Visual
MotorHEAT looks quite good, it has a full 3d environment with some nice dynamic lighting and weather effects that really up the ante. The game will start you out in regular daylight, toss you in fog, throw you in the dark, and I’m pretty sure there is a snowy effect too. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more after that but I usually sucked and died right around there every time so I can’t say for certain. The music also fits well with the game and has a good sound to it. It flows quite well in the game and as such it is pleasant regardless of the length of a single play sessions duration.
A features I think I would have liked to have seen was some vehicle diversity. The only customization that appears to be available in the game is changing the paint job. A few models or ground effects could have been a nice touch, but considering the value offered here already I don’t think it hurts the game.
Summary
MotorHEAT is 240 Microsoft Points, that’s three puny human monies, and is a very good indie racing game with some serious psychological hooks to keep you playing. I think if arcade style racing is what you are looking for it’s an easy buy recommendation. If you are just plain looking for a good indie game, it is also worth looking into, but you may want to check out the demo to decide for yourself. All and all MotorHEAT is a really great offering by its two person development team.
