Adv: Glace [by Tommy Visic]

Game Review:  Glace
Release: October 17, 2004
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Tommy Visic
System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 128Mb RAM, DirectX 8.1+, 600mhz CPU
Players: 1
Price: Freeware
Download Now!


Glace is an odd but cute and fun platformer. It's something like Sonic the Hedgehog meets Yoshi's Island – you (Glace) are the evil scientists' discarded experiment (They threw you out in the trash! Awww...), and you must stop them from collecting all 4 magic beads, which would give them the ability to take over the universe. The graphics are adorable, and much of the game play involves special jumping and collecting lots of gems.

Graphics: 9
There were only 2 graphical problems that I noted, both in the frosty levels: when inside a cave, the background shook disconcertingly, and there was a coloring error in the sprite for the small blue mountain goats. Other than that, I loved the graphics for this game! The shapes were attractive, the colors were clean, bright, and well coordinated, the monster designs were creative and appealing. (Scrubbing-bubble robots and zapp tesla coils and frog-blobs with purple hair, oh my!) The animations and special effects made the game pleasantly immersive.

Sound: 8
The background music was quite good – I particularly enjoyed the xylophone and frog sounds in the swampy levels. The sound effects were a more mixed bag – some were fun and added to the immersion of the game, but a few were actively painful to hear, such at the text-printing sound in the prologue. For those who really dig the music they are also available through the website in .mp3 format, so get your favorite media program ready.

Game Play: 7
The bosses in this game were disproportionately difficult to the rest of the game, which was particularly frustrating when the boss fight was at the end of a level and losing the fight meant you had to replay the whole level. Fighting the bosses in an area multiple screens large also annoyed me, although that's pretty standard for this genre. There were several frustrating monsters who could only be hit when at certain times, and it was nearly impossible to tell when they were vulnerable and when they weren't.

Glace's best game play elements were the magic beads and the jumping. The magic beads made for an interesting weapon because of their unusual levitating physics and only semi-predictable behavior. The jumping was the most action-packed and dexterity-requiring part of the game - really enjoyed being a human failed-science-experiment pinball. It was also nice that there were no spikes or deadly holes in this game, so even if you totally flubbed-up a jump you could just try again.

Some more option controls would have been nice, like a level-select screen after you beat the game the first time, and the ability to turn the background music off if you wanted to listen to a CD or MP3 playlist instead.

Value: 10
This game is fun and free, what more is there to say? It wasn't as replayable as I hoped it would be, mainly because of spending too much time in a row playing with the same scenery, same monsters, same number of beads, etc. But this game was a lot of fun to play, and I know I'll want to play it again if I ignore it for a week or two and give my boredom a chance to dissipate. Glace was definitely at least $10 worth of fun, so if you play it and like it, why not think about making a donation to the developer, because I bet this team could make an even more amazing game with some funding to support their efforts

Concept: 8
This game is not intended to be deep, it is apparently intended to be a cute parody about evil scientists, the monster they created, and the sugary-sweet fantasy world that adopts the monster and thwarts the scientists. That said, it would have been nice if they had checked their facts (that zappy thing is a tesla coil, not a laser as it is called in the prologue) and made some attempt at explaining where the magic beads came from and why the bad guys having all 4 would endanger the universe.

Fun: 8
Well, the gameplay problems I mentioned above did make the game a bit less fun to play. Collecting the gemstones also got boring because they were all the same, they practically collected themselves (duck, heat-seeking gemstones incoming! lol) and they had no effect on the gameplay unless you collected 1,500 or more of them and chose to upgrade your character. The levels were also too repetitious - 4 long levels for each set of monsters and backgrounds was just too much, too much time passed between acquiring additional beads... it was all okay on the first play through the game, but I got bored fast on the second play through, especially when I had to wait through the story scenes again. Lack of gamepad support was another small minus because playing a platformer with a keyboard is hard on your hand and wrist – I was sore after playing this game for 3 or 4 hours.

On the other hand, Glace had a lot of fun elements too. The story was humorously cliché and melodramatic. Glace's elasticity and trick bouncing were amusing. You could do some interesting yo-yo tricks with the magic beads if you jumped and ran while they were in flight. The level design was pretty good, I enjoyed solving the little puzzles of how to get to areas that at first seemed unreachable. And the penguins were great! ;) (Play it and see, I don't want to spoil it.)

Overall: 9
For a free game, this is awesome, and this developer is definitely going places - I know I'll be waiting eagerly to see if their next project is a new Yoshi's Island or Super Metroid. :)

Added: November 30th 2004
Reviewer: Mare Kuntz
Score:
Related Link: Official Website
Hits: 7110
Language: english