This month at Game Tunnel we have TWO Games of the Month!  Never before in the history of Game Tunnel have we had two games we felt equally deserved that title in a single month.  Both are equally deserving of your download and very likely your purchase.  Stranger still, both games are adventure games, so all you adventure gamers out there will have your hands full of puzzly-goodness.  There's plenty to pick from this month at Game Tunnel, so go nuts and try them all!

Tales of Monkey Island: Part 1

The original Monkey Island holds a special place in many gamer's hearts. Its mix of challenging gameplay, interesting plot/characters, and hilarious narrative made it a classic. Ah, the good old days...

The game begins with our dashing hero, Guybrush Threepwood, in the midst of attempting to save his wife Elaine while confronting his arch nemesis: the evil ghost pirate LeChuck. Guybrush's valiant attempt to defeat the villain is foiled, and he ends up (via some unfortunate coincidences) knocked overboard. He's washed ashore on Flotsam Island, where all the wind flies into the island, making it impossible to leave on a boat. Logic won't stop Guybrush though: he's got a wife and nemesis to catch

The graphics are fully 3D, and quite impressive. The game eschews realistic graphics for a very cartoony and stylized look, which definitely adds to the humor (Guybrush's facial expressions are quite amusing). The environments are detailed and very interactive, as is expected from an adventure game such as this.

And if the visuals don't blow you away, the music will. The original composer for the Monkey Island series returns with more reggae-ish tunes. Also, the original voice-acting cast has returned as well, and they give wonderful performances.

Monkey Island has just about everything that a loyal fan could ask for, and it's just as awesome for the uninitiated. My one complaint is this: this is part 1 of 5. It will take 5 months before we'll see the entire game's completion. I WANT IT NOW.

Read the full review...

Time Gentlemen, Please!

I complained this year that comedy, in games, is dead.  This month I stand corrected 100%.  TGP is the sequel to Ben There, Dan That, a time-traveling related adventure game full of paradoxical situations and laugh out loud comedy.  TGP takes Ben There, Dan That, amplifies the graphics, comedy, and outright fun to a level on par with gems like Space Quest. 

TGP picks up with BTDT left off, with Ben and Dan leaders of the free world.  Lets just say they wind up killing off the entire planet in the opening credits and decide the best way to save the world would be to stop their future selves from abducting their previous selves (undoing the plot of the original game) by ensuring the coat hanger never gets invented.  Well, long story short, Hitler and some dino-clones end up conquering the world and trapping Ben and Dan in the 1940s.  Good luck undoing that mistake! 

I went in expecting a second rate adventure game and came out with a game rivaling the greatest adventures of all time.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll probably part with a mere 5 dollars for this awesome time-traveling adventure!

Editor's Note: This game contains some foul text, blood, gore, nazis... and other things that could offend someone. Play with care ;)

Big Brain Wolf

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? Well, after playing Big Brain Wolf, I'm not really any closer to having luposliphobia (look it up), but I certainly feel humbled. Why? Because Big Brain Wolf made me think harder than almost any game I've played. And it hurt.

The main character in Big Brain Wolf comes from a long line of man-eating wolves: the kind you see all the time in story books and fairy tales, known for devouring old ladies and being terrifying, etc. The protagonist, however, prefers veggies and playing chess to the carnivorous/villainous alternative. Needles to say, he's a bit of a disappointment to the rest of his family. Not only that, but he's almost finished his studies to become a genie.

The game revolves around Wolf's efforts to bust his mom out of prison after she's been wrongly accused of murder (via digestion). Some of the humor will be lost on younger audiences (the Star Trek references, for example), but it is still accessible for all ages for the most part.

Since Wolf is training to become a genie, his mentor follows him around throughout the game. This provides an explanation for all of the puzzles that crop up as the hero performs what would normally be mundane tasks. And the puzzles aren't your typical "move these blocks out of your way to advance" puzzles. They're logic puzzles, which are a LOT harder. They start off plenty hard, but eventually, your mind starts to think the way the game wants it to, and the solutions come a bit more naturally. That's the first half or so of the game. Second part? The difficulty level skyrockets. It gets to a point where those who struggled in the first half may find the game too difficult to complete.

There are lots of little touches that are fun to look out for, and some of Wolf's mannerisms are a riot (watching him take his inhaler never stopped being funny). If you're looking for a game that will truly challenge you and make you think, Big Brain Wolf will satisfy. I even felt my brain get bigger after I played! Though, that might be from bashing my skull with random blunt objects as I tried to solve one of the puzzles...;

Read the full review...

Deadly Sin

Once more, an RPG-maker game is under the microscope here at Gametunnel. Deadly Sin is much like every other old-school-style RPG out there, so if you're a rabid fan of the genre, this review probably won't sway your opinion much. The game is a decent specimen, but it's got some glaring problems holding it back.

As with every other RPG of this sort, motivation comes from the story. Deadly Sin tells the tale of Lorelai, an orphan (of course) who is sent to deliver a letter for her master. Long story short, she gets some party members, fights some Hellspawn, and then finds out some life-changing details.  The plot thickens, twists, and gets pretty epic; as is expected.

The graphics are great and full of detail; the battles are conducted from a more dynamic camera position (behind the party members), and they introduce a unique "threat" system, which adds another layer of strategy to battles. On top of that, character growth can be customized with the "skill tree" that is introduced; which turned out to be a very clever touch.

Sadly, the battles don't quite cut it, mainly because they're TEDIOUS. They take far longer than they should because your party members deal low amounts of damage, while the basic enemies can waste one of your buddies in about four turns. On top of that, because of the threat system the strongest characters are ganged up on immediately, leaving your weakest characters to fend for themselves once the powerhouses get decimated.

It's unfortunate about the gameplay, because Deadly Sin looks absolutely great. All in all, Deadly Sin is a game of good intentions, but poor execution. This doesn't mean it's bad by any means: it's still perfectly enjoyable if you're in the RPG fan demographic.

Read the full review...

Bionic Heart

Remember "Choose Your Own Adventure" books? The idea was that the reader would make choices throughout the story and shape the story based on their decisions. The reason I bring up those gems from the 90's is because Bionic Heart is basically a Choose Your Own Adventure book in videogame form. It plays out like an interactive book, but the game gives you a bit more freedom in choosing where you go and what you do.

You control Luke Black, a kind of ho-hum guy with relationship issues. One night, after a fight with his girlfriend, he gets a knock on the door from a mysterious lady. Turns out, she's a robot named Tanya, and she's on the run from her creators, or something like that (she doesn't tell you anything at first). The story is hard to explain, because just about every aspect of the story can vary. You don't have to fight with your girlfriend Helen, or you can be a total jerk to her. Heck, you can choose to never meet Tanya, or to turn her into the cops whenever you feel like it.

The game is entirely voiced-over, and that's both good and bad. It certainly makes the game more immersive, since the voice actors deliver their lines pretty convincingly (with a few exceptions, like the guard robots... bleh). The dialogue is decently written, but it can be a little stiff sometimes, and there are a few grammatical errors that stand out pretty harshly. Overall, though, these definitely don't ruin the experience.         

Bionic Heart isn't about deep gameplay or challenging mechanics. It's about telling a story, and that's it. It doesn't try to bring in any extra frills or try to tack on unnecessary hooks and complications.

Rubber Ninjas

Ragdollsoft has been making the same style of game now for years... a ragdoll physics based ninja vs. ninja action combat game. The good news is it is still as much fun as it sounded some years ago and Rubber Ninjas brings a lot of shiny graphical improvements to this brilliant idea.

The game is a fun diversion and the demo totally worth the download. Purchasing, however, is where I feel a little less comfortable recommending Rubber Ninjas as a good buy. Why? Well, there just isn't enough substance to the game. This is not some super-complex fighting game with tons of moves and combos to create and master. The game feels very random at times, and partially by design. At the end of the day I kept thinking the game would be more fun with some more control over my rubber ninja. Multiplayer is fun if you have another person willing to go at it with you, but beyond that the game just felt hollow at its 20 dollar price.

Egyptian Ball

Just about everyone's played a variation of this game: bounce ball on bar at bottom of screen to break bricks up above. It's the kind of game that cell phones and iPods come with, and it's pretty much the same concept no matter what version of it you play.

Egyptian Ball tries very hard to separate itself from the crowd, and bring in something new to the formula. It fails to really do anything different, but it's still entertaining. The best part of the game is probably the sheer amount of chaos and destruction that goes on, especially when you've got multiple power-ups. Things can get kind of hectic once there are multiple balls on screen and you have to juggle them all at once.

This is also where the game falls apart, tecnology-wise. Occasionally the game will enter a downward spiral of lag, which doesn't end until the action settles down (i.e., all your power-ups have run out and/or you're missing a life). Also, some of the powerups are touchy, or sometimes they don't work correctly. Another thing I noticed was the difficulty of gameplay, or rather, the severe lack of it. The game's main challenge is dealing with the semi-frequent technology glitches, rather than the actual gameplay.

Most of the problems are excusable in the long run, and the game will entertain those who are in need of ball-and-bumper action.
 

H-Craft

H-Craft had (I assume) good intentions. It looks like it tried very hard to be an awesome game, since it's graphics are really nice, but unfortunately, it turned out to be a painful experience.

The game is a hovercraft-spaceship-vehicle racing game. This makes it different than normal racing games, because the vehicles don't actually touch the ground. No friction between the ship and the track means that it's a bit trickier to maneuver. Frustrating, actually, because the ship slips and slides around with such reckless abandon that falling off the track into the empty abyss below became a common occurrence. Turns were frustrating, especially when the computer controlled ships zoomed around the hairpin curves at full speed while the player would be attempting the same turn as slow as possible so they wouldn't fly off the edge AGAIN. Basically, the physics were awkward, and that made the gameplay far more difficult than it needed to be.

Besides the frustrations with the gameplay, the game just isn't very captivating. Maybe it's the quiet music, or the lack of action in the races, or the generic designs of the courses, or a combination of all of these, but it seems difficult to really "get into" the races. It just goes to show that pretty games don't always mean entertaining ones.