2005 Special Awards
Though
Game Tunnel has a very extensive set of awards, there are always some games that
deserve special recognition, but don't fit into any of our categories.
For those games we have the special awards! Highlighting specific
achievements and the people's choice, the 2005 Special awards gives you a little
bit of everything.
Kids Game of the Year - Thomas and the Magical Words
| Developer: ViquaSoft Co.,Ltd. | Players: 1 | ||
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| System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP, 500 mhz, DirectX 5+, 128MB RAM | |||
With
the connection of Independent Games to casual games, we get a lot of requests
around here with regards to what the best kid's games are, and this year we
started keeping track!
Of course, it didn't require much work to come up with the best kid's game this
year. The distinction belongs to a cool little magician named Thomas who has been
finding his way into people's hearts young and old since the game was released
in September.
Thomas is the main character in the game, a young wizard who, due to some
trickery, finds himself locked in a book with all of the animals from his
uncle's Pet shop.
Thomas is looking for a way out and has the opportunity to save the pets along
the way. The game is played by creating words from platform to platform as
the player moves across the board.
Longer words move you closer to freedom
and provide more options for the future. Along the way, Thomas will find
more spells to make the journey easier and will learn quite a bit thanks to the
built-in dictionary that provides definitions for each of the words he spells.
With an adventure mode and a survival mode that are each worthy games on their
own,
Thomas and the Magical
Words is simply magical and a wonderful game that we heartily endorse for
kids, and there are lots of adults who love it too!
Best Homage - Alien Abduction
Our
2002 Game of the Year,
Pom Pom's Mutant Storm,
was a visual masterpiece! Using simple polygons and shading with fantastic
particle effects, it created a world that was excitingly dynamic. Certainly we
weren't the only ones to see the beauty of the game, and this year we couldn't
go through the awards without mentioning a game that paid visual homage to that
great game.
Alien Abduction
copies the visual style of Mutant Storm very well, creating a game that looks
like it is from the same universe as Mutant Storm. However, the graphics in
Alien Abduction are
much more crisp and clearly defined, more simplistic and subtle - in a word, a
lot more retro.
Although the game is played on your standard Defender-like 2D wrap-around map,
it features colorful 3D graphics full of nice little touches, like the level
tilting to one side as you move your ship to it, or the fuel depot energy fields
fluttering in the opposite direction of your ship as you zoom past them.
C
ombined with a fluid color-changing background and geometrically designed
enemies, the graphics really make the whole game feel alive.
With glowing neon colors and trippy shapes swirling around on your screen, the
game comes to life brilliantly, oh, and its a pretty good game ta boot!
Alien Abduction is
perfect for those who loved the twitchy finger of Mutant Storm as well as fans
of the game it was actually based on: Defender!
Déjà Vu all over again - Feyna's Quest
| Developer: Eldwood | Players: 1 | ||
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| System Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP, 200 mhz | |||
Feyna
proves that is worthwhile to travel the same road twice. This game first
came to us back in 2003 as a solid RPG that we thought quite highly of.
After a couple more years of tweaking, Feyna was released again with better
graphics and more quests under the same name.
Feyna's Quest by Eldwood is an adventure game not unlike a cross between
"Zelda II: The Adventures of Link" and "Castlevania II: Dracula's Curse"
for the NES. You jump and attack the various enemies to find items to
complete your quests. You also talk to various characters, who give you
information to use or assign you to new quests. Part of the challenge
is just finding your way to the next area.
In this game, you are Feyna, a dark elf sorceress. You find that the
humans, once thought to be mythical creatures, have invaded the dark elf
world and have either killed or enslaved everyone. You are not powerful
enough yourself, and the dark elf masters couldn't even stop the humans,
but you want to stop them. And so you begin your quest.
The story has themes from reality, showing that games can be art. You are
introduced to the religion of the humans quite early in the game, and their
rituals are very similar to real life religion. It
makes a statement since you have to consider the humans as the enemy
when you might otherwise relate to them.
It is certainly to be saluted any time a developer returns to an earlier work to
make it better, and this second chance for gamers to check out
Feyna's Quest, with
much more detailed graphics that nicely complement the parallax scrolling world.
In addition, the story has been expanded. In the new version, players
begin earlier in
the conflict and get to see all new cut-screens that further describe the
background of the conflict. If you missed this game the first time
there are plenty of good reasons to make sure you don't miss this wonderful RPG/Adventure
again.
RPG Game of the Year - Cute Knight (Kishi Kawaii)
| Developer: Hanako Games | Players: 1 | ||
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| System Requirements: Windows 98/2000/XP, 16 MB Video Card, DirectX 8+ | |||
Breaking
away from the typical puzzle and casual games that come to mind when many people
think of the female video game audience,
Cute Knight is an
RPG game aimed at women, but with enough features and intrigue that most anyone
can find it enjoyable.
In Cute Knight you
play a young girl who is seeking out her past and her future. As she
attempts to discover her past she must try to survive day to day life in a
forgiving city.
Each day offers players a plethora of choices. Players may decide to get a
job sweeping, stacking books, sewing or one of the many other jobs available in the
game, venture into the dungeon, take classes at the local college, or perform in
the city square (just to name a few options).
Every action chosen not only determines what money and items you
have in the short term, but it also shapes who you are becoming as a
person. This is where the game really shines as it gives players the
option to work on your friend-making skills and charm so that you have a chance
to win the
beauty pageant on your way to becoming a princess, or maybe win the cooking contest on
your way to becoming a chef.
There
are over 50 different endings in the game, allowing players to become just about
anything they want, and with randomly generated dungeons the game is brimming
with replay value. It's a true role-playing game that allows players to determine what the future of their character
will be instead of just
playing through a predetermined fantasy story. It is the originality of the
experience, as well as the fact that it is a great game, that makes it our Role-Playing Game of the Year.
Best First Person Space Shooter - Cellblock Squadrons
| Developer: Super Furious Software | Players: 1 | ||
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| System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, 1 Ghz Processor, GeForce 2+, ATI Radeon 8500+, 128MB RAM, DirectX 8.1+ | |||
Right
away Cellblock
Squadrons from Super Furious Software gets brownie points for offering a
refreshing change to the space shooter formula. Rather than playing the typical
“hero” character you are given the role of convicted enemy of the government,
forced to work off your substantial debt to society by flying combat missions
against a multitude of alien aggressors.
The gameplay takes place in 1-week increments that begin in your cell with your
Prisoner Access Device, which allows you to check for e-mails from the warden,
other inmates, or your “automated psychiatrist”.
Once your basic e-mails are dealt with, you select or review the upcoming
mission and find out how much you will be paid…if you survive. During combat you
are given points based on the amount of damage you do to the enemy and the
points-leader gets to select the mission to fly the following week. This is
important and provides good motivation to be aggressive. Some of your squad
mates will select the low paying but relatively safe missions whereas others
will choose the risky but highly rewarding ones. You must walk a fine line
between repaying your debt quickly and remaining alive.
Cellblock Squadrons
offers a truly unique slant on space fighter simulation. It was clearly
developed with a care and attention to detail that's rare even for mainstream PC
games and if you enjoy this genre even a little,
Cellblock Squadrons
is sure to find a place in you heart (and on your hard drive) for quite a while.
Cellblock Squadrons packs enough original ideas and slick production value to
stand out as a new high point for the genre.
Player's Choice Award - DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold
| Developer: Caravel Games | Players: 1 | ||
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| System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Linux, Mac OS X | |||
DROD
is a hard game to categorize. It feels something like a puzzle game, but more
along the lines of an RPG, but not really an RPG, it's a Role-puzzling Hack &
Slash, but in the end we pegged it as a quest game. In Deadly Rooms of Death –
Journey to Rooted Hold, you play the role of Beethro, who appears to be a member
of a troll-like species, and whose job it is to get to the bottom of whatever
dungeon he enters while clearing the vermin out of all the rooms, and, of
course, he must do this without dying himself. You have a sword which always
points in the direction you last turned, marking a kill zone for Roaches,
Spiders, Wraithwings and other mobs you encounter in the dungeons. Sometimes you
are accompanied by NPCs like your nephew Halph, who have special abilities and
behaviors that factor in as parts of the current puzzle's solution.
There is some kind of story line, with humorous voice-over dialogue, but, as you
are told in the tutorial, you can solve the game without listening to the
dialogue at all. However, the funny remarks and retorts the characters have in
store for each other make the game that much more entertaining.
Your movements are entirely turn-based, meaning that you can meticulously plan
your every move – and in fact, you must! In later levels, every step you take
must be a part of your solution unless you want to get eaten alive by a giant
cockroach – or worse. Doors need to be triggered in time, your sword needs to be
sticking out in the right direction, and your NPC friends need to stay put or
follow you around at the right moments. The game is very challenging and
sometimes frustrating because of the high degree of precision and discipline it
demands from its players.
Deadly Rooms of Death –
Journey to Rooted Hold has a sizeable fan base, mostly since the DROD series
has already been around for a couple of years and because Caravel Games goes to
great lengths to please the community. That community certainly loves the
game and worked hard and long to ensure that DROD won the Player's Choice award
for the best game of 2005!
By: Russell Carroll
Posted: Tuesday December 27, 2005
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