Review: Kingdom Elemental January 3, 2007
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , 3 commentsGame: Kingdom Elemental
Developer: Chronic Logic
Version: This is a review of the full version of the game.
Recommendation: Try it
I bought this game without playing the demo. I almost never do that. But it’s from Chronic Logic (the makers of the fantastic Gish), who I trust to show me a good time, and it was getting all kinds of acclaim, including placing well in a couple of GameTunnel’s Best of 2007 categories. I don’t regret that purchase for a second. This is a fun game.
It’s like a cross beween Starcraft and Master of Defense. (Which are both games I’m glad that I own.) You start each level with a limited budget, which you can spend on placing some units onto a battlefield. Then, when you’re ready, you signal the start of the round, and then you have to face off against several waves of enemies with the units you hired.
The units types are pretty diverse, and once you get the hang of controlling them, the game feels like playing a massively multiplayer roleplaying game, but now you got to control the entire group. You’ve got your “tank” unit, the warrior, who can’t do much damage, but can sure take a pounding, and can taunt the enemies to keep them away from your weaker units. There’s the archer, who conversely does tons of damage, but can’t take much of a hit at all. Priests can heal your other units, and if you upgrade them, can bring your units back to life after they die. Druids can give a couple of major buffs to one unit, and bards give minor buffs to everyone. Necromancers instill fear into an enemy, sending them fleeing, as well as summoning a warrior skeleton from fallen foes. My favorite class is the ridiculously powerful, but incredibly expensive wizards, who can pull meteors down onto the enemies heads, summon pets that do incredible damage, and can create a magic shield around any unit, making them virtually invincible. (There are a couple of other units, but these are my favorites.)
Since there are so many different types of units, there are alot of different ways to play the game. You can build a balanced team, putting your warrior types up front, with healers nearby, with a couple of damage dealers in the back. You could go completely aggressive, with all heavy hitters, and try to take the enemies down before they get you. You could be conservative, and use enough healers to keep all of your units alive. You can try to outmaneuver the enemies with your fast moving units, while plinking them down slowly. There’s lots of options, and I love that.
One complaint I’ve read a few times is that the game is too difficult, even on easy. I disagree, but I think that’s because I understood what the developers were going for. You need to find the perfect strategy for every difficult battle. Just throwing out a few warriors, archers, and priests isn’t going to be enough to win every battle. But I love working on perfecting a strategy, and recognize that it’s not for everyone.
I recommend you go grab the demo. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Gameplay movie (from YouTube):
Review: Mr. Robot January 2, 2007
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , 2 commentsGame: Mr. Robot
Developer: Moonpod Games
Version: This is a review of the full version of the game.
Recommendation: Buy this game without delay!
This is a game I’ve been waiting a long time to play. On October 18, 2005 the guys from Moonpod started started posting development information into their dev journal on gamedev.net. (It’s over here if you’d like to read it.) From the moment I saw those first concept sketches and screenshots, I’ve been really excited to get my hands on this game. And now I have it!
The game was released upon the world in late December 2006, which sadly was too late to make it into the running for any of the end of the year game awards, which is a shame, because the game is fantastic. Without a doubt, this is the best indie game I’ve ever played, and I’d be willing to put it on the same level with some of the big budget non-indie games I played this year. Really, I’m not kidding. But I guess I should stop gushing about how much I liked it, and actually tell you about the game.
In Mr. Robot, you play as Asimov, a small, friendly, hard-working maintenance bot. He’s eager to impress his boss so that he can be promoted into a more specialized job, and gain the respect of his peer robots. (Such as Zelda, who Asimov might have a bit of a crush on, the strong bully Samson, and the brooding super-intelligent Raistlin.) But not long after Asimov is activated and begins getting to work, some strange things start happening.
On the starship Eidolon, which is where the game takes place, everything is controlled by a main computer program called HEL. The main job of HEL and all of the worker robots on board the ship is to protect the safety of the passengers and crew, who are all spending the long trip in stasis pods. When HEL starts issuing orders that don’t make alot of sense, and it’s discovered that some of the humans on board might be in danger, it falls to Asimov and his friends to figure out what’s going on.
Mr. Robot has two gameplay modes. In the first, and the one you’ll probably spend the most time in, you control Asimov by arrow keys and two action keys. (Control and Shift, by default.) In this mode, the game is very much like a platformer with puzzles. Asimov doesn’t have any weapons to defend himself, so you’ll have to be careful to stay away from other robots. (Most of which are electified and will damage Asimov if they touch him.) Most of the puzzles involve figuring out how to get across a room full of dangerous objects and other robots. Sometimes this is as simple as pushing boxes around so that you can jump onto platforms, and sometimes you’ll have to improvise, like standing on top of another robot’s head (the only part that’s not electrified) and riding him around.
The second gameplay mode is called Ghost Hack. A ghost in Mr. Robot just refers to a computer program that can be used to hack into another computer system. The robots in Mr. Robot each have one installed, and at the beginning of the game you’ll just have access to Asimov’s. But you’ll get more as the game goes on. In Ghost Hack your ghosts are very similar to characters in a computer roleplaying game. You can equip each one with different weapons and armor. And each one has different skills, similar to the spells you might find in an rpg like Final Fantasy. Zelda is really good at healing, Raistlin is good at damaging, Asimov is more well rounded, and the big brutes like Samson don’t have any at all.
The game also comes with a level editor. While I haven’t had a chance to play with it, and therefore can’t tell you anything about it, I’m hopeful that after the game has been out awhile, there will be a nice set of user created adventures, similar to what you can find for Neverwinter Nights. That would be super sweet.
I recommend you go grab the demo right now. Make sure you have plenty of free time, though. I couldn’t put it down until I’d finished it.
Here’s the trailer, which was posted to YouTube:
Review: Eets December 13, 2006
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentGame: Eets
Developer: Klei Entertainment
Version: This is a review of the full version of the game.
Recommendation: Buy this game right now!
Try it! - Buy It!
In my review for FizzBall, I mentioned that Professor Fizzwizzle was my favorite indie game of last year. I received an email from a reader asking what my favorite indie game of this year is. I think I’m going to have to cheat and declare it a tie between Titan Attacks by Puppy Games (it’s been on my list of games to review since shortly after I started the website) and Eets by Klei Entertainment.
Several months ago, I saw a screenshot of Eets and downloaded the demo thinking that my wife might think it was cute. I started playing it, and I was caught completely unaware by how great this game is.
There’s this little guy, called Eets. He’s collecting puzzle pieces, and needs your help. Unlike the heroes in most games, you don’t get to control Eets directly. Instead, you modify the environment around him by carefully placing various toys and by clicking on the other objects around him. And Eets is an emotional little fellow. His emotional status effects how he moves through the level. If he’s sad, he is far more cautious and unwilling to jump. If he’s angry, he throws caution to the wind and jumps a great distance whenever he encounters a gap.
There are several objects that you can interact with in the environment to help Eets along. There are Prankster Whales who will inhale any object in front of them (including Eets!) and then send them flying through the air. There are clouds of chocolate chip cookies that can fire chocolate chips from a gun placed on their heads. Explosive carts will explode, blowing holes in walls and floors and sending nearby objects flying. Ejection carts will pick up other objects and send them flying when you click on them. This is just a small sample of the objects in the game. There are many more.
What I liked:
There is so much that I liked about this game. I love the Prankster Whales, the exploding pigs shouting “Freedom!”, the Marshomechs, the Merch. (Oh my God! It’s the Merch!) I like that there are sometimes multiple solutions to the puzzles. For example, with the explosive effects you can sometimes punch totally new paths into the levels that weren’t there before. That kind of emergent game play really means a great deal to me.
What I disliked:
When I installed the game on my wife’s computer, we had some trouble getting the text in the tutorials to appear. It made it a little difficult getting started.
Games it reminded me of:
The obvious connections are Lemmings and The Incredible Machine. It’s a platform based puzzle game, so it might draw some comparisons to games like Professor Fizzwizzle, but the controls are so completely different that they don’t have much in common. (But that’s okay, I love them both.)
Recommendations:
This game is brilliant, and was worth your immediate impulse purchase when it cost $19.95. But now they’ve dropped the price to $9.95. I can’t come up with any reason not to buy this game. Go buy it right now!
Review: Fizzball December 7, 2006
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentGame: Fizzball
Developer: Grubby Games
Version: This is a review of the full version of the game.
Recommendation: Try the demo
What happens when you mix Katamari Damacy with Arkanoid? You just might get something that resembles Fizzball, the newest release from Grubby Games. If that name seems familiar to you, and it should, it’s because that’s the company that bought us Professor Fizzwizzle. (Which is, in my opinion, the best indie game of last year.)
In Fizzball, the Professor (and his robotic friends) discover that all the people have fled the islands, and the animals are mysteriously vanishing. Luckily, the professor has a new invention that just might be able to help. He calls it a fizzball. It starts out small, and looks like a simple bubble. But when it comes into contact with something smaller than it, it will pick up the object, and then increase in size. At first it can only pick up butterflies and apples, but pretty quickly it’s big enough to pick up cows and horses. Once all of the animals are safely gathered together, the professor can take them to an animal sanctuary he has constructed, where they can be safe from whatever is causing them to vanish from the islands.
The gameplay is essentially very similar to Arkanoid. You control the professor, riding back and forth on a track at the bottom of the screen. When the fizzball comes down, you simply place him in the way, and the fizzball will bounce back up the screen. If you miss, the fizzball will fall out of play, and you have to start over. When you run out of fizzballs, you’re all done. In addition to collecting animals, you can also break open crates, which often contain money, or items that will make your fizzball grow in size. Sometimes they also contain powerups.
Some of the powerups are simple things, like speeding up or slowing down the movement of the fizzball or inreasing the size of the barrier the professor uses to keep the fizzball in play. Some of them, however, are incredibly powerful. There’s a bulldozer powerup that will make the fizzball smash through any obstacle that gets in its way. This is very handy to get to animals that are sitting behind a pile of crates or a fence. There’s a gravity well powerup that makes the fizzball attract any nearby object, making it so that you just have to get somewhat close to objects instead of having to come directly into contact with them. If you get both of these powerups at the same time, you’ll absolutely fly through the level you’re playing.
But it’s not quite that easy. Somebody has left barrels of toxic waste laying around the island, and if you break those open, it’s bad news for everyone. And once you get a little ways in to the game (the end of the second island) you’ll encounter some enemies that will actually try to hurt you. They have laser guns, and if you get hit, you’ll be stunned and unable to keep your fizzball in play.
What I liked:
Just like with Fizzwizzle, the guys at Grubby Games put alot of work into adding special little touches to the game. When your fizzball collides with a tree, apples or acorns will fall from the branches. When you run into an animal that’s too big to pick up, they’ll respond to it. For example, dogs will bark, ostriches will hide their heads in the ground, and chickens will lay eggs. The soundtrack is also really nice, and fits well with the mood of the game.
What I disliked:
While I enjoyed playing the game, after about a half hour of playing, I was ready to stop. I guess I’m just not very into Arkanoid style games. Of course, I was glad to come back later and play a little more. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t have a big sense of accomplishment when I beat a level. Perhaps I’m just not the target audience. I gave my young step-sister a chance to play it, and she was absolutely hooked.
Games it reminded me of:
The obvious choices here are the previously mentioned Arkanoid and Katamari Damacy. (Though the latter is only in spirit. That’s a totally different style of play.) The mouse control will be easy to pick up for someone who is used to Luxor or any of the games like it.
Recommendations:
I suggest you grab the demo, and give it a whirl. While it isn’t the kind of game that I would normally buy for myself, I think it’s very likely that I’ll be buying a few copies for family members as gifts. I think it’ll be a big hit, especially with the younger members of my family. It’s a very well made game, and I’m excited to see what the guys at Grubby Games come up with next.
Review: TalisMania August 14, 2006
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentGame: TalisMania
Developer: Popcap Games
Version: This is a review of the trial version of the game.
Recommendation: Try the demo
A week or so ago, I saw a message on the indiegamer forums that Popcap had just released a new game. That is always great news for me to hear, because I love a bunch of Popcap games. (Dynomite, Zuma, and Heavy Weapon being my favorites.) And since I had some time to kill while setting up my new development machine, I happily snagged the demo and got to playing. (I played in story mode.)
My first impression is that the graphics are great. I really love the way the characters look during the “cutscenes” between levels. But then, if there’s one thing Popcap is known for, it’s great looking, well polished games. Honestly, I wish their artists would do the graphics for my games.
In the story, King Midas has turned everything around him to gold, and he’s feeling remorseful. He’d now like to use his new power to benefit others. Luckily he has a staff of talented builders, and if you raise the necessary money, they’ll create buildings for the people.
Gameplay:
On the game board are two (or more) energy points, and you need to connect them by rotating them and the connector pieces that make up the rest of the game board. The connections can be made of bronze, silver, or gold. The more tiles you use in the chain to make a connection, the better your next round will be. And at the end of each level, if you’ve used enough silver and gold, you’ll get a bonus and your workers will create some especially nice buildings. As you progress to more difficult levels, you’ll have to worry about special tiles, with mythical creatures such as Medusa or minotaurs showing up. If you don’t use them as part of your chain, they’ll make life harder on you by wreaking havoc on your game board.
Between levels you’ll sometimes get to play a bonus round, where a Greek god or goddess will challenge you. If you win the challenge, you’ll win a special statue for the villagers.
What I liked:
As I said, the graphics are great. The sound is also perfect. I also enjoyed the gameplay mechanics, especially when the mythical creature tiles started coming into play.
What I disliked:
Since there’s no time limit, you can take as long as you like to try to find a perfect chain and always get a great score. This leads to a lack of difficulty since I can just win by trial and error. Guys in the indiegamer forum brought this up, and apparently that’s exactly what the Hero game mode is for. Unfortunately my time limit ran out before I thought to give that mode a try. Maybe that mode shouldn’t be locked away, or should be unlocked sooner.
Games it reminded me of:
The idea of connecting end points reminded me of games like Pipe Dream, although obviously the gameplay mechanic is quite a bit different. It also has similarities with another game I’ve played lately, called ConFuse Box.
Recommendations:
If you’re a fan of puzzle games, especially brain teasers that reward you for pouring over the board to come up with a perfect plan, this game could definitely be for you. Grab the demo and give it a go.
Review: Pizza Frenzy July 17, 2006
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentGame: Pizza Frenzy
Developer: Sprout Games
Version: This is a review of the full version of the game. (Speed mode.)
Recommendation: Try the demo
Back in college I worked as a pizza delivery guy. It was a fun job. You get to drive around all night, listening to music in the car, and deliver pizzas. And people are (almost) always happy to see you coming. I felt like Santa Claus. In Pizza Frenzy, you are in charge of the delivery crew for Stromboli Pizza, which is trying to revitalize the world’s interest in good pizza.
The gameplay is reletively simple, and if you’ve played games like Diner Dash then you’ll pick this up pretty quickly. You see a map which shows houses, pizza stores, and a police station. When you get a call for a pizza, you have to click on the order, then click on the appropriate pizza store. A little while later, a tip will appear at the house that placed the order, and you need to click on it to pick it up. The faster you take the order, the bigger tip you’ll receive.
The combo system in the game gives you extra points as well as upgrades. If you deliver five of the same type of pizza in a row, you get a frenzy. (Levels are Pizza Frenzy, Double Frenzy, Triple Frenzy, Super Frenzy, Mega Frenzy, and Ultra Frenzy.) As you score frenzies, you’ll be able to take multiple orders of the same type at once, though you’ll never be able to pick up order of different types at the same time.
You also need to watch out for a few different special customers. There are crooks, prank callers, and graffiti artists that you need to report to the police. If you deliver a pizza to them, you’ll be penalized. There are movie stars who give good tips, but are impatient. The gossips will get everyone to change their orders to the same thing so you get easy combos. Clowns will convince everyone to switch to a new pizza at random. Monks will meditate and slow time. Bankers will help you collect your tips.
Between towns, you’ll get the chance to score extra points in a bonus round. You’ll be shown a pizza, and you have to drop toppings on a new pizza to try to match it. You’ve got a time limit, so hurry!
What I liked:
The graphics are nice and clean. In other games of this type, I’ve had trouble distinguishing between background items, and things I needed to click on. There were no such problems here. The music was fun, and the voices and sound effects were well done. I liked the different types of customers, both helpers and hindrances. I really like the user interface.
What I disliked:
Click ambiguity. Sometimes when I go to click on an order or a tip, it’ll hit a different nearby item instead. It’s not a big problem, but you need to be careful where you click, and on some of the harder levels, you need to move really fast. The only other thing that bothered me is that it felt so similar at first to other games I’ve played before. The special customers help to differentiate it, and there were two other game modes that I didn’t get a chance to play. The developers are clearly very talented, and I really look forward to checking out their previous games and anything else they come up with, though.
Games it reminded me of:
I felt it had alot in common with games like Betty’s Beer Bar, Diner Dash, and Mystic Inn. If they’re all considered in the same game genre, then Pizza Frenzy is definitely my favorite of them.
Recommendations:
I probably wouldn’t have registered, but my wife had a blast playing it. I ended up playing it for several hours too, so the purchase was definitely worth it. Pizza Frenzy is a very well made fun game. So I’d really recommend giving the demo a try. The only problem is that you might get hungry for pizza. Don’t play it if you’re on a diet!
Review: DROD: King Dugan’s Dungeon July 7, 2006
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentGame: DROD: King Dugan’s Dungeon
Developer: Caravel Games
Version: This is a review of the full version of the game.
I’m having a little difficulty classifying this game. Certainly, DROD (Deadly Rooms of Death) is a puzzle game. But when I’m waist deep in enemies that are out for my blood, and I’m swinging my sword around like a maniac, it definitely feels more like an action game.
You play as Beethro Budkin, and you’ve been sent by King Dugan to clean all of the vermin out of his dungeon “so that the prisoners can receive their torture in a clean and safe environment.” (Quote from The Story of Beethro.) Your only weapon in this mission is your sturdy sword. (You’ll run across some invisibility and mimic potions, but since they are room specific and you can’t carry them with you, you’d better get used to swinging that sword around.)
DROD is completely turn based. You take an action, then all of the enemies get an action. It looks like it all happens at once, but if there’s an enemy standing near you, you can turn to stab him before he gets a chance to get you. The actions you can take are: Move one square by using the number pad arrows, turn 45 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise with the Q or W keys, or do nothing by pressing 5 on the number pad. Two more buttons are also important. If you press R you’ll restart the current level, and Backspace will undo your last move. It’s pretty simple, though from other games I’ve played I’m used to having my movement keys under my left hand, so sometimes I’ll get confused and turn when I meant to move diagonally and get myself killed.
Fighting the enemies is pretty straightforward. Move or turn so that your sword, which is always in front of you, is sticking into the square an enemy is in, and they die. Since you get to move first, and an enemy will never willingly walk into your sword, there is a good amount of strategy to discover. When I first started playing, I’d try to get all of the enemies into a straight line, and then rush forward through them all. If an enemy ever snuck around behind me or came at me from the side, I was toast. Now I’m dancing around like Errol Flynn.
But the game’s not just about combat. In fact, while killing all of the monsters is your main goal, you’re going to spend a significant amount of your time hitting switches to open doors, or trying to find your way across a room where the floor crumbles under your feet while leaving yourself a patch back out.
What I liked:
As you might have guessed, I really like the combat mechanism. I also like the puzzles. Sometimes they’re tricky enough that I’m ready to pull my hair out. But that just makes it all that more rewarding when I finally solve it. The music is really nice. Good enough in fact that there was a strong demand for a CD Soundtrack which you can order from the Caravel website. That’s pretty cool if you ask me.
What I disliked:
I really dislike the image of Beethro at the top left of the interface. And it’s not just that he’s ugly, which is true, but it’s that I don’t like that drawing very much. (That’s the only bit of art I didn’t care for, though.) I’d like to see a little bit more in the way of in game tutorials. I enjoyed discovering the joys of combat on my own (which is why I didn’t give much strategy above) but there are some things that I’d like a bit more info on. For example, even after a couple of levels of fighting rooms full of wraithwings, I’m still not sure about how they act. Sometimes I’ll be totally exposed and about to die and they’ll run away, and other times I’m toast. (I’m sure they follow some rules, I just don’t fully understand them yet.)
Games it reminded me of:
The combat (at first) feels slightly like The Legend of Zelda, with the way your sword is always out in front of you, but once I got better at it, the combat feels more like a turn based role playing game mixed with chess. There are puzzle aspects that are sort of like other games, but when you add in the mimic potions, I don’t think I’ve played anything quite like it before.
Recommendations:
I played the demo all the way through and then quite gladly bought the full version. I’ll most likely grab the next DROD game (Journey to the Rooted Hold) as well when I finish all of the King Dugan’s Dungeon levels. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes puzzles and a little strategy in their combat. Plus the demo is nice and long. There’s no reason not to at least give it a try.
Review: Fruity Garden July 3, 2006
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentGame: Fruity Garden
Developer: BondarchukV
Version: This is a review of the demo version of the game.
Fruity Garden is a cute game. You play the part of Anna Maria, whose Granny has given her a Fruity Garden of her very own to take care of.
The gameplay is pretty simple. You start out with one fruit tree, and all you have to do is wait for fruit to grow and become ripe (it will shake when it’s ripe) and then you click on it. If you don’t get to them in time, fruit will fall from the tree. If a piece of fruit hits the ground, a caterpillar will start climbing the tree. This will cost you points, so it’s best not to let the fruit hit the ground. As you progress, you will get additional trees to take care of, and birds will start swooping down to take your fruit away. If you move your mouse cursor over them, you can shoot at them with a slingshot. A direct hit will turn them away, and they’ll drop any fruit they picked up. Sometimes when you click a ripe fruit or shoot a bird, you will get a bonus, which is either extra points or powerups. They’ll bounce around the screen, and you just have to click on them to collect them.
What I liked:
The graphics are bright and cute. I can definitely see them appealing to a younger audience. (Which I assume is the target.) The music is also well made, and I imagine a younger audience would be drawn to it. There’s a simple in-game tutorial system, where a fullscreen dialog pops up and you are given advice or instructions. Fruity Garden should be good for developing a child’s hand-eye coordination.
What I disliked:
The difficulty ramps up rather quickly. I was only through a dozen or so levels, and I was having difficulty pulling out perfect scores, and I’m an experienced adult gamer. I imagine that would mean it would be quite difficult for a younger child to succeed at all. (Note: Since my original draft of this review, the developer has posted a comment on the Indiegamer Forums that he will take a look at the easy mode difficulty level. Once taken care of, that will help the game alot, in my opinion.)
Games it reminded me of:
The first game that comes to mind is the carnival classic game of Whac-A-Mole. Take a hammer, and smack every single mechanical animal that dares to stick his head up. Also, there’s an element of Duck Hunt going on when the birds start trying to steal the fruit. (That gives me an idea. Replace the mouse targeting with Duck Hunt style mechanics, and I could easily see this game doing well in a kids arcade or a bowling alley.)
Recommendations:
If you’re an adult gamer, it seems pretty obvious that this game isn’t for you. However, if you’ve got a young child who would like play video games with you, I this is worth a try. There’s a 40 minute trial demo, and that should be enough to see if your child is interested.
Review: Professor Fizzwizzle June 29, 2006
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentGame: Professor Fizzwizzle
Developer: Grubby Games
Version: This is a review of the full version of the game.
The brilliant Professor Fizzwizzle is having a very bad day. The once friendly robots that he created have turned against him, and he’s a long way from his laboratory, where he needs to be to repair things. He needs your help!
At it’s heart, Fizzwizzle is puzzle game. (It’s also really fun to say. Try it. Fizzwizzle, Fizzwizzle.) There are some levels in which it feels like a platformer, where you’re running as fast as you can with a Rage-Bot or two breathing down your neck, but for the most part you’ll spend your time trying to find the key to the puzzle that will let you reach the next level.
The tools you have to work with are boxes and barrels you can push around, magnets which will stick to anything metal, a freeze gun, and some other handy gadgets. In your way (in addition to the Rage-Bots) are locked gates, sand that will prevent you from pushing boxes, icy floors which can leave you stranded or send you flying, and the ever-present danger of falling to your doom.
What I liked:
This game has alot going for it. The graphics and sound are great and fit perfectly. I never once found myself pulled out of the game saying, “This just doesn’t belong here.” The puzzles are challenging, but the guys at Grubby Games did a great job with the difficulty progression. If you happen to get stuck, there’s a feature to show the solution. It can definitely come in handy.
It’s also loaded with extra little features. There are cavemen and animals frozen in blocks of ice, which don’t add to the gameplay at all, but they certainly amused my wife. When she stopped by to ask about them, I let the professor idle and he just started breakdancing! The game was registered and we were playing through the levels together immediately. When you finish the included levels, you can go to the Grubby Games website and download a bunch of user submitted levels. Or you can use the included level editor to create your own levels.
It’s pretty clear to me why this game won GameTunnel’s Casual Game of the Year award, as well as being a finalist in last years IGF competition.
What I disliked:
I know I just wrote that I liked the ability to see the solution, but it’s also something I didn’t like. I wish I could have disabled it so there was no temptation to cheat. I have absolutely no willpower. I guess that’s not really much of a complaint.
Games it reminded me of:
The game has some elements of Sokoban, though the game I immediately though of was The Adventures of Lolo on the NES. Especially when you get the freeze gun. If only Lolo could ride on barrels or accidently freeze himself in a block of ice!
Recommendations:
If you like puzzle games, buying this game is a no brainer. But even if they aren’t usually your favorite, I really recommend at least downloading the demo and giving it a whirl. I really loved this game. (And so did my wife.)
Review: Master of Defense June 28, 2006
Posted by Jesse in : Game Reviews , add a commentGame: Master of Defense
Developer: Voodoo Dimention
Version: This is a review of the full version of the game.
Master of Defense is a pretty simple game. On one end of the map is a town, full of vulnerable peasants counting on you for protection. On the other end is an entrance from which wave after wave of monsters will come. Between these two points lies the road the monsters will follow to reach the town. You must stop them.
When the game starts, your defensive arsenel is pretty limited. You can build towers that can only attack monsters that walk on the ground, magic towers that can only attack flying monsters, and plant towers that can attack both, but do far less damage. Once you complete the first level, you gain the ability to spend experience points to upgrade your towers, or to gain access to two new towers. Freeze towers will slow a monster down, and with a few upgrades can easily hold a monster still while your other towers do some real damage. Fire towers aren’t really towers so much as big fires that you can put on the road. Any monsters that walk through the flames catch on fire and will burn for a short duration. Another upgrade gives poison damage to plant towers, which is pretty nice. Between the poison and fire, you can do a large amount of damage over time with just a couple of towers.
What I liked:
I really enjoyed this game. I’ve now played through all of the levels without losing a single peasant, and even managed to make it into the top 20 of the online high scores. (I’m currently in 18th place.) I love games where I can play again and again and get a totally different experience by choosing a different upgrade path. The environments and towers are really nice looking, and I really like way the towers animate as you upgrade them.
What I disliked:
There were only a few things I didn’t care for. At the start of each wave of monsters, there’s a very strange growling moaning sound. It’s somewhat unpleasant. After playing for awhile, it was starting to bother people around me, and I had to turn down the volume. I also didn’t like that there is only one save file. I couldn’t find an easy way (short of copying files around, which I didn’t try) to keep multiple saves so I could go back and try out new things on different levels. Finally, once I got the hang of things I spent most of the time playing at the highest speed, which made the game feel short. A few more levels would definitely have been welcome.
Games it reminded me of:
The game feels like playing a real time strategy game if all you could build were towers. So it reminded me of Starcraft or Warcraft 3. I guess this makes sense, as the game was inspired by a Warcraft 3 game type called Tower Defense, from what I understand.
Recommendations:
I’m glad I bought it, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the base building portions of real time strategy games. I’m personally hoping for a sequel or expansion pack of some sort.
