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March
2005 Indie Game Monthly Round-Up
(by
The Illustrious Panel - TIP) |
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Shaggy Pals
(February 23)
Download Now!
by Artichoke Games
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A Dweep clone. It succeeds at what it does, but what it does is present
me with big logic puzzles that are real tricky to solve, like you might
want, but once you know what the solution is, you still have about 400
steps you have to walk through at a fairly slow pace in order to
actually do it. Like other games of its ilk, it's just too brainy and
not enough zany for me. Also, the shaggy pals scare me. A lot.
- MH |
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| Shaggy Pals is a pleasant game where
you try to save your furry hamster-like pals but often end up killing
yourself (and them) in bizarre ways. Most of my "must have" ingredients
for a good crate-pusher logic game are here: adjustable movement speed,
can skip to any level, and in-game solutions. One feature I really
missed due to the unforgiving level design is a "Last-move undo". I hate
having to re-playing levels so I didn't play this one long. -
SR |
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| Here's a logic/push puzzle game. You
pick 1 of 5 characters to play, and the other 4 get stuck in cages. The
game is won by moving dynamite around, then igniting it in such a way
that it destroys a cage wall, setting all 4 remaining characters free,
and not blowing yourself up. On the audio side, the music is nicely
composed, and the voices are your common pitched up voices for that
"cute" sound. The puzzles might be a tad crazy, as I can't think of of
any similar game that I had to push and loop around this much. Not a bad
game, albeit nothing really special. - MK |
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Fairy Words
(March 17)
by ZagZag |
This was really hard to figure out at first, even with the directions,
because it simply defies all word game expectations. You actually get to
completely pick your own letters, then try to find words using those
letters. Surprisingly, that's not very hard (in fact, I'm doing it right
now! Look, there's the word "surprisingly"!). There is challenge to it,
and once you get into it you start to get what it's about. But in the end,
it's just not very compelling. If you want, you can make the exact same set
of letters on every single level!
- MH |
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| In this word game you can place any letter anywhere on a scrabble like board
and try to make words with them. As you can imagine it's fairly easy to
make a word, especially since you can make them backwards, diagonal and as
small as two letters. Overall I like this game; it forces you to think a
bit differently than similar games. Gripes: Long words should give
bonuses, it didn't like "palindrome", and it has some scroll bar GUI
weirdness. - SR |
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| Another fine word game. This game gives you a word and you have to
find as many words in it as you can. Since that'd be a short game by
itself, you get to place letters around this word to expand your
possibilities. The game has a really nice look to it, and the music is
very fitting of the theme. It's a shame I don't have more to say.
Good game.
- MK |
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DH: Lore Invasion
(March 18)
by Max Gaming Technologies. LLC
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A pretty good quake deathmatch game with mechs instead of people. The
obvious downside this inherently causes is that while gameplay is
effectively the exact same, mechs are slower and more unwieldy. It also has
mind-boggling load times for which I recommend keeping a gameboy handy.
But, if you can figure out how to play (no tutorials here! Hardcore players
only), and sit through the load times, you will have death matching fun. - MH |
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| This is a well done multiplayer-focused robot fighting game. Think
MechWarrior meets Tribes. It's a good thing this game has an impressive
online lobby system that easily let you find human opponents because the
bots come in only one flavor: Extremely dumb. This distinctively
"Torquish" game delivers on the action but I think the best features are the
attentive developers and great community around it. The tank-like MAV
camera seemed a bit shaky. - SR |
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| Mechs are cool. I've been extremely close to shelling out the green
for Capcom's Steel Battalion, that Mecha game with the massive
controller. I'd hope the immersion of the custom controller would make
a Mecha game feel right, instead of just a slow 3D shooter. Same idea
as an arcade stick with a fighter, or a driving game with a steering
wheel. Now I know independent developers soooo don't have the income
to develop and market a custom controller a game, but as I see it, it's
a flawed genre without that freedom. Mechs are supposed to be advanced
machines more sophisticated than a car after all. Despite my
complaints about the genre, DH Lore Invasion is a well produced game
that'd fit comfortably on a retail shelf. The Mecha designs in the
game are quite cool, and I've noticed a surprising similarity to
Jurassic Park raptors. The music is awesome. It has that great
atmosphere as the tunes in Command and Conquer. Unfortunately, as I
said earlier, Mecha games tend to feel like slow shooters, and despite
the games attempts at an arcade feel, it feels like a slow shooter.
Bot AI was lacking, as in one map I was standing in the clear and
slaughtered nearly 20 of them and they didn't even look at me, and
another I watched a couple bots jump around like it was some sort of
workout. Another problem was finding enough people to play as the
servers were rather empty. The real players I could find clearly
played often, and smoked me, so I really couldn't find a nice middle
ground to become any bit skillful. It's still a nice game, but it
doesn't stand out. - MK |
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Invasion 2
(March 9)
by
Wildsnake
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| First off my chest: nothing looks crappier than having standard windows
dialogs pop up within the game! YUCK. I know this game is supposed to be a
cross between space invaders and pinball, but what it really feels like is a
breakout game where you have virtually no control over where the ball goes.
This makes the "last brick syndrome" (or last alien in this case)
horrifically bad. I like pinball games a lot (mmm, Buffy pinball!), and I
like Space Invaders games too. But putting them together isn't chocolate in
my peanut butter - it's more like tuna fish in my ice cream.
- MH |
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| This sequel has a lot of improvements over the original invasion. It's now
more like "pinball meets breakout" instead of "pinball meets space
invaders". The pacing is much better now, in fact, between the four
flippers, catching enemy shots and constant multi-ball some might even be
overwhelmed! Nice music. - SR |
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| So here we have pinball space invaders. Now, I like my pinball video
games (Pinball Fantasies and a few others), and real life pinball too.
And on the odd occasion, I've been known to enjoy games like space
invaders, and real life space invaders. Like a television commercial
announcement of a breakfast cereal, now better because it combines it's
famous taste with dried fruit, is this a formula for success? Ermm...
maybe, but are some problems. A major critique of the game is it feels
badly tuned. Playing it I found it extremely difficult to hit shots
that weren't either around the circle, straight horizontally across the
screen, or directly in to the center. Despite the gameplay
shortcomings, I did really like the audio, which is a good combination
of ambiance and music, especially one part of the soundtrack I found
rather appealing (spacey piano part). It's a nice concept and it looks
good, but it's a tad frustrating to play. - MK |
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Airstrike 2: Gulf Thunder
(February 14)
Download Now!
by
Divo Games
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| Good game. It's got your classic shoot-em-up stuff going on. But it is
lacking something. It has the fancy 3D view, but your bullets act like it's
a 2D view. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that it was designed to work
with the 3D view, the Top-Down camera option would be the far superior game
mode (as it is, it's still superior, but you can't see everything coming as
well). It would be a better game if the enemies took fewer hits, and so did
the player. What's with shooters having life meters these days (both player
and enemy for that matter)? - MH |
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| This is basically a top down shooter but with a slightly 3D view. The 3D
models and music are done very nicely, I guess my only gripe would be it
could be a little more obvious when you're doing and taking damage, it just
all kind of blends together in a glowing hailstorm of bullets. Had a few
odd crashes.
- SR |
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Here's a lovely game. When I first fired it up, I was greeted with
some nicely done comic book style cut scenes. At this point I was
excited, thinking "Oh cool! This is going to be a comic book shaded
shmup!". Alas, I was wrong. Despite, it's a beautiful game. The
world here is very alive. The tree's sway, NPC's drive around minding
their own business, it rains, you name it. For a 3D shmup, it does a
fine job of showing off the 3D, as bullets sometimes fly at you growing
quite large as they go off screen. When something blows up, you get a
nice smooth shake of the camera. The lighting looks great too. The
terrain seems mostly destroyable as well, thanks to some sweet looking
super weapons. Nukes, barrages of missiles, and of course Air
Strikes. Aside from my love of how good this game looks, it plays well
too. My main beef short of variety (some unique shmup elements) is
killing some enemies appears odd, as after the last shot hits they just
fall... slowly... towards the ground until they finally crash. A
smoking or flaming crash like Jets and Guns would have sealed the
deal. On that note of unique shmup elements, the 2nd mission was
suppose to be recon... however I went in guns blazing. Shouldn't recon
involve stealthily taking pictures or something of that nature, not
annihilation? Either way, it's a quality game. - MK |
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Tanks 3D: Reign of Steel
(February 22)
by Deaddy Bear
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| A great game! My computer actually couldn't handle all the graphical
effects going on and I had some slideshow moments. Also, in general, it's
often hard to tell what's going on through all the smoke and explosions.
But it's really fun - a very simplified arcadey deathmatch. There's a lot
more I would've liked to see in it (I always prefer CTF games to deathmatch,
for one), but for what it tries to accomplish, it does a fantastic job.
Extra credit for having 1/3 as many buttons as Dark Horizons. - MH |
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| This is a 3D multiplayer tank battle game that also contains a token
campaign mode. The assortment of power ups and weapons is good, little
effects like being able to knock down trees go a long way. The engine could
use some work however, one serious problem was I could only play about 10
minutes before the game because too slow and jerky to continue. The large
map size was also a bit slow. - SR |
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| A fun tank blasting game that was a
little too plain in the map graphics for my taste in this type of
game and a little difficult to control. It definitely has a lot
going for it with really cool weapons and the kind of frantic action
that keeps trigger-happy fans coming back for more. - RC |
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Astral Masters
(March 9)
by Apus Software
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Really cool! I like collectible card games, especially on the computer
where you don't have to pay for all the cards. I haven't played enough to
say this definitively, but there appear to be some big balance issues. It's
quite possible that I just haven't mastered the right counters and so on,
though. It's fun and much easier to understand than your typical CCG too.
What it's lacking is what so many games seem to lately: a good single player
campaign. It offers only single duels, or an 8-match tournament, rather
than some wacky quest where you go earn new cards or whatever. - MH |
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| This is a really addictive card battle game somewhat like Magic: The
Gathering I would guess. The simplicity of only keeping track of life,
"astral power", and mana makes this game very approachable. The mechanics
behind the game are very solid. The only downer is all multiplayer modes
except "hotseat" are "coming soon" at the time of this writing. However,
the "League mode" which creates a virtual tournament with AI players is very
fun. - SR |
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| Hey cool, a card game. Take Magic the Gathering, and simplify it by
replacing the concept of colored mana with sacrificing a card, and
behold! So with that in mind it's an easy game to get up and playing
if you've played Magic. Like any good collectible card game, it has
fancy artwork on each card. The game also sports a nice array of
avatars portraits in various art styles. The audio is well done. I
think we have a winner. Not to mention, it has some of the grooviest
"Please Register" music ever. - MK |
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Darwinia
(March 4)
by Introversion Software
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| This game has a really nice original style to it, and I have an innate
interest in mouse gestures for some reason. It is also incredibly confusing
and strange, and needlessly difficult and complex in places. Once you get a
grasp on how it all works and what it all means (something I certainly haven
't reached), I think it would prove quite enjoyable. - MH |
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| Darwinia is a really beautiful game that ultimately feels like a god game
mixed with Tron. Layer upon layer of complexity is smoothly added until
you're eventually giving orders at record pace in this fantastical digital
world. Questionable path finding and a few other small issues only slightly
mar this overall unique and compelling experience. Go play it! - SR |
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Here's a stylish real time strategy game. The concept of mining
polygon's has to be one of the coolest I've heard in some time. This
is a game that's been receiving a lot of great press, including a
feature in Game Developer Magazine. It's reminiscent of the good
things from Molyneux's Black and White, and unique enough to hold it's
own. It's very nostalgic in it's look, combined with some quality
audio. I can't say enough good things about it really. The down side,
well it's all me actually. For one reason or another, like Black and
White, I just can't get in to it. It's a shame really, I know there's
a lot there, but I'm just not all that interested in finding out what
that is. Darwinia is a game I really like, but don't enjoy. - MH |
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I of the Enemy: Ril'Cerat
(March 14)
by Enemy Technology
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| Totally identical gameplay to I of the Enemy in every way, just different
levels. Did give me a chance to figure out what bothers me about the game
though - it demands too much of you, it's all micromanaging. I ended up
quitting because I got to a level where I was supposed to meet up with a
second force, and I played it for a few minutes before realizing I had to
control both forces at the same time. My brain just revolted and said no.
Too much pressure and not enough fun. - MH |
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| This is a free mission designed to promote the real time strategy game I Of
The Enemy. It's really a generous amount of gaming and will take you a
while to get through it. I kind of see this as healthy sized demo with new
content. The whole trick to I Of The Enemy strategy is to learn that long
range rocket guys are the key to everything and can destroy any army from
screens away. Seems a bit buggy, sometimes my guys would refuse to attack
the enemy. - SR |
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| I feel bad for missing my review of IOE back when they sent us actually
boxed copies of the game. Anyways, they're both Real Time Strategy
games in the style of Starcraft, but the perspective of Command and
Conquer. Ril Cerat is a sort of free expansion pack prequel for the
original IOE, that's conveniently totally playable without the
original. The game's story is a "deep sci-fi" one, where unlike a
"deep involving" story it has many unpronounceable races, planets, and
worlds. Previously Russell pointed out some big name actors that voiced
characters in the game, but to me the dialog seemed quite long, complex
and as unexciting as a TV court battle. I actually couldn't tell it
was professional actors. The path finding still seems like it could
use something, as I would sometimes click in places not too far from
where my group was and get told it's impossible to go there. Getting
past all the little things that you take for granted in classics like
Warcraft and Starcraft, it's still a nicely produced RTS. - MK |
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Mr. Figgles
(March 20)
by HandY Interactive
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My theory is that this game began as an experiment: see just how minimal a
game can get. Then they gradually plopped in power-ups and features until
they reached something with some entertainment value. Unfortunately, it's
not a lot. It's not horrible, it's sorta fun, but I quickly got very tired
of grabbing stars. Another real disappointment is that the fun slot machine
bonus becomes utterly pointless by the third level, due to the fact that you
can't risk more than 3 stars at once. - MH |
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| Mr Figgles takes the insanely simple concept of "dragging around your cursor
to touch star shapes" and makes a game out of it. The "levels" consist of
different colored backgrounds with stars and simple obstacles you must avoid
splattered in random fashion. The many power-ups you can purchase are nice,
but it's a bummer that nothing you buy is a permanent enhancement. Because
of this, all the levels feel basically the same and I grew bored quickly. - SR |
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| You know those web sites with the little java scripts that make
something chase after your mouse cursor? This is the next evolution of
those. Mistah F is hip game where you hint where you want the Mistah
to go using the mouse. He then chases after it collecting any stars on
his path. Enemies and traps eventually pop up, so things become a tad
more difficult. As you collect stars, you optionally spend them to
purchase power ups for the next level. It's a nice combination of
several elements (java-scripts, collection and items), but as a product
it doesn't offer much value beyond the demo. To it's credit, it would
have made a fine Ludum Dare competition entry back when our theme was
indirect interaction. - MK |
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Wonderland Secret Worlds
(March 2)
Download Now!
by
Midnight Synergy
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This is another of those logic puzzle games with a variety of elements. Let
's call it the Stockboy genre for no particular reason. This one is a very
good example, with really responsive controls, interesting puzzles that don'
t overwhelm too much, a nice map system, bonuses, and the two-character
puzzles to make things more interesting. I would recommend it if you like
puzzles at all! - MH |
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| To be honest, my first impression of this game wasn't great. Seemed like a
fairly standard crate pusher, with some questionable color schemes and
squar-ish 3D graphics. However, the game slowly wins you over with its
amazingly huge and detailed over-world map, fantastic level design (for
instance, there is one level straight out of Indiana Jones) and huge variety
of objects to manipulate. It's just fun. - SR |
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| Don't let that smile deceive you. He's a deceptive one that Stinky,
smiling because he knows the puzzles are killer. Actually I'm
strangely impressed with art in this game. As deceptive as that lead
character is and the in game and title art, I like the look of the
characters in the cut scenes. What's nice about the game is it starts
out as a regular push puzzle, then a few stages later becomes a sort of
team push puzzle, as you find your ally Loof. I didn't have the time
to see if the demo would let me get any of the other characters, but it
appears from the preview shots you get either 2 or 3 more people to
help you. And of course with that, the puzzles grow exponentially in
difficulty. Nice. -
MK |
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Battalion
(March 23)
Play Now!
by Urbansquall
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| This game is exactly like Advance Wars for the GBA, to a degree that's a
little creepy, though not as polished or cute. Advance Wars is a great
game. So if you like Advance Wars (or don't know what it is, but like
simple turn-based strategy with a lot of potential depth), and you always
wanted to play it online with other people, then you're all set with
Batallion. It is exactly that. - MH |
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| This is a 2D overhead view multiplayer turn based strategy war game with
simple icon-like graphics that plays from a Flash client. Why Battalion
works for me is probably because it really does a good job of making what is
generally a complicated kind of game easy to play and understand. I like
that instead of a demo mode, the free version is basically the full game,
but paying gets you extra features. Lots of variety in the scenarios. My
only complaint is the server seemed a bit flaky and killed my game a couple
times. - SR |
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| If the idea of an Online Advance Wars makes you salivate, then
Battalion here to feed your hunger. I actually didn't play Advance
Wars all that much short of the tutorials, and even that was a long
time ago. The first night I got online to play Battalion, the server
was quiet. Fortunately, the developer was online and decided to
personally give me an arse whooping. Despite me horribly losing, it
was enjoyable. I silently vowed to be back to share the whoopage with
some other players. A couple days later I had this chance, and boy oh
boy was there a whooping. You know, it's all about the tender moments
between players, when one pushes past the stalemate and in a single
turn stops any chance of recovery, and all the wonderful four letter
words shared by the victim. Hehehe... Mmmmmmm. My only beef would be
the floating windows (text and building) getting in the way. Had the
game window been made taller, I'd be happier to see them somehow placed
below the playfield, just to avoid this annoyance. Maybe it was the
charm of the developer personally coming out to teach me the ropes, or
just my thirst for victory. Battalion's a great game. - MK |
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Evochron
(February 21)
Download Now!
by StarWraith 3D Games
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This is really not my kind of game, and unless you're a hardcore space sim
junkie, it's probably not your kind either. It requires memorizing dozens
of keys and I imagine to play it well also requires dozens of fingers. It's
not newbie-friendly! But if you are into space sims, this one is very
reminiscent of the old games Privateer and Elite, where you can freely roam
the galaxy making money mining, trading, or just plain killin' (the second
oldest profession). It's very well executed except for the lack of help for
new players, and as I began to understand it more, I saw more possibilities
in the gameplay. For me, it was just too much to manage, but if you like
this type of thing, it is very well done and recommended. In my youth, I
would've been all over it! - MH |
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| This is a very ambitious freeform space mercenary simulator. This is really
tough to score - I've never seen a smoother space to planet surface
transition, but I've also never played a game where skipping the tutorial
too quickly will crash the program. The demo time of an hour wasn't really
enough for me to get the hang of things, we're talking a very stiff learning
curve. But I could see there is a lot of potential here, even if I couldn't
get my tractor beam to mine any asteroids. - SR |
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| Nice. Kicking things off with it's fancy intro sequence backed up by
some nice music and a pair of features that caught my eye. First one
is the inertia mode. Hit a key and you can freely rotate your ship to
aim anywhere around you, as your ship continues in the direction of
it's motion. Then there's jump drive. You plot a course, or pick a
random direction then activate it to do a cool sci-fi hyperspace jump
thing. There certainly seemed to be a lot of complexity to the game,
which I knew I wouldn't have much time to fully explore. The tutorial
is long, but rightfully so it's a complicated game. I do wish I had
more time to explore the game in more detail, as what I saw was nicely
done. Alas there were so many deep games this month, it's a shame I
was in a hurry. Goofing around I quickly found out shooting friendlies
isn't a good idea. Nice. - MK |
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The
Illustrious Panel for this month:
MH- Mike Hommel -
Hamumu
Mike Hommel is known for his hilarious and bizarre games. Though
his site claims that all his games are just 'dumb fun' you'll find that
they are some of the more interesting games around, and will eat hours
away from your life without you realizing where they all went.
SR - Seth Robinson -
Robinson Technologies
Seth has spent the last fourteen years making odd games, including
designing and programming many independent titles such as the BBS hit
Legend Of The Red Dragon, the multiplayer Flash based web game Funeral
Quest, IGF finalists Teenage Lawnmower and Dungeon Scroll and the cult
classic RPG Dink Smallwood.
MK - Mike Kasprzak - Sykhronics
Coming from a game console background, Mike's responsible for bringing
to the market such oddities as Secret Agent Barbie for Gameboy Advance,
The Emperor's New Groove for Gameboy Color, and several other top girl
branded games (not that he's bragging). In indie land, he seeks
redemption. Mike's best known for his "cute but not girly" hamster
blasting game, PuffBOMB.
RC - Russell Carroll - Game
Tunnel
Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Game Tunnel, Russell has been involved in
Indie games for about 4 years. Russell has had a soft spot for underdogs
ever since playing the TurboGrafx-16 and realizing how unappreciated the
system was (Somer
Assault anyone?). When not playing the newest Indie title you'll
find Russell deeply engaged in the world of Baseball. |
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See a game that was missed? Though we do
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games slip through the cracks because we just don't know they exist.
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