5th Place  

Necrotech [by Spectre Software]

Our Review

Released just after our cutoff in early November of last year for the 2002 Game of the Year awards, Necrotech is now a bit more than a year old. 

The game has its share of fans, though the pseudo-3D graphics has its share of dissenters.   NecroTech is a futuristic role-playing game whose game play involves many of the elements of traditional role-playing games. You explore the world, build a party (you can hire 2 mercenaries for a party size of up to 3) and a solid main character, talk to people in conversation and in trade, solve quests, and fight out random encounters to collect experience and items.

In some ways it is fairly standard affair, but for those itching for a pseudo old-style RPG kick set in the future, give it a run.

Score:  4.5

4th Place

Dope Farmer [by Weapon Studios]

Review Coming!

Harvest Moon for Super Nintendo/N64 and Dope Wars have been combined into a simulation called Dope Farmer. In this game, you have to plant your crops, harvest them, and sell them for a profit, just like in Harvest Moon. This time, of course, your crops are marijuana, coca, and other drugs. The real goal is to be the most successful.

There isn't much of a story behind the game. You simply have a small house and a huge patch of land. You have to mow your lawn to clear up the land, then plant your crops and water them with your constantly full water pail (except for mushrooms, since they grow without care). When they grow to a fully mature plant, you can then harvest them. They automatically are placed into shipment, and you receive the payment the next day. Of course, given the nature of the crops, the investment can be a big risk, especially if the authorities conduct a raid and find them. They can be bribed with money, but if you invested it all in the plants, then you lose everything. Also, nature can be your enemy as floods can wipe out your crops or tornados might sweep through your front yard.  If you are looking for something that a bit different and odd in the SIM scene, give Dope Farmer a run.

Score:  3.67

3rd Place

Tennis Critters [by Nerdriot]

Our Review

Tennis Critters takes one of the world's favorite sports and replaces all the players with chipmunks.  The concept sets you up for an interesting game of Tennis that is friendly enough that the whole family will enjoy it.

Despite the fact that the game is clearly set up as more of a for fun that a simulation, Tennis Critters does a good job of offering purists each of the facets of the sport that they love. At the beginning of the game you can choose how many sets you will play. All scoring is carried out as you would expect in tennis, with Dueces, Match Points, and Tie-Breaking Sets to help drive your exhaustion to the edge. Furthermore, the number of different hits you have at your availability is quite large. You can put topspin on the ball, slice it, lob it, or smash it.

Tennis Critters also offers fun network play if you can catch anyone online.  There were few sport games released this year, but Tennis Critters was easily the best Indie Sports game of the bunch.

Score:  3.33

2ND Place

Geneforge 2 [by Spiderweb Software]

Review Coming!

Don't let the graphics fool you!  As many people have already found out, Spiderweb Software is the maker of some of the best RPG games on the market today. 

Geneforge 2 was the offering for 2003, and it has continued to build on the Spiderweb Software tradition of great old-school feeling RPG games.  Those who long for the days of Ultima need not search very far to find a modern-day series of games that has every bit the cult following that the Ultima series had.  The reason why a game with "lesser" graphics would gather such a following?  Great storyline and great game play.  If you are still doubting, download Geneforge 2 now and catch what has been missing in your life all these years.

Score:  1.67

1st Place

Samurai [by Klear]

Review

A well-chosen finalist at the IGF for 2003, Samurai shows that board games can be much better when you mix in a little AI.  In the end, this game won the award of Technical Excellence at the IGF.  It is certainly easy to see why.  Samurai was an extremely well put-together game, that features a wonderful one-player mode, great network play, high production values and wonderful music. 

In fact Samurai is a finalist in 3 categories for the Game Tunnel end of year awards this year.  So what makes Samurai such a great game?  The concept is simple, though honestly it sounds complex when you try to explain it.  The game takes place in pre-unified Japan.  In that period, you play as a Warlord trying to control as much of the land as possible.  To do this, you must gain the backing of the different classes in Japan.  The three classes, peasants, clergy, and nobles are denoted on the board by different icons, rice, Buddha's, and helmets respectively.  These icons appear at locations that are cities.  For example, the square where Tokyo would appear on the map contains all three icons, whereas most cities just have one icon due to their smaller size.  The board itself is set up as a series of hexes.

You have at your side 5 pieces. Each turn, you choose a piece and put it down somewhere on the board. Your pieces have different numbers on them that denote the strength they have. They also have an icon on them that tells you what type of piece they are. Your basic pieces have the icons of rice, Buddha, and helmet on them. So for example, you may have a piece that has a Rice on it, and the number 4. That is the most powerful Rice piece that you will have available to you. So you place it on the board so that it is adjacent to a square with Rice in it. That gives you 4 rice influence over the city. However, if you had played a helmet next to the city with the Rice in it, you would have received no influence over the city as there were no helmets in the city.

Ok? So how does this all add up to one of the best games of the year? The great thing about Samurai is that the concept is simple, but the strategy is not. Easy to pick up, difficult to master...and fun while your are trying to master it. The game takes a lot of thought to play well. Klear has included 4 difficulty levels in the full game in addition to letting you create your own custom game. Each difficulty level increases the AI of your computer opponent, making the game more challenging. The increased difficulty levels also increase the number of computer opponents, and the land available to play on, buy adding the other islands of Japan.

Obviously just because a game is challenging doesn't mean it is fun. What sets Samurai apart in this category is the fact that the challenge is reasonable. Learning how to beat the computer is fun, and even once you have it down, there are custom games you can create and you will rarely beat the computer every time you play against him.  Also you can play multi-player online. 

Samurai is one of the best and in my estimation least appreciated Indie games this year.  It is with great pleasure that I award it the Game Tunnel Game of the Year in the "Other" category.

Score:  1.33