June 2004 Indie Game Monthly Round-Up
(by The Illustrious Panel - TIP)

Puzzle Express
(June 15)



by Hipsoft

A fun and relaxing game to play, I actually put together a larger review on this that you can read here.  The graphics are solid, but the lack of variety in game play and similarity of this game to one of the puzzles in YOHOHO! Puzzle Pirates left me wanting for more.

Beautifully polished, this is a work of production genius. The game play's somewhat disappointing, though. It's well done, and not really a bad concept either, but just not very compelling. It seems to require the ability to visualize multiple pieces in multiple configurations, unlike a simpler game like Tetris, where your only concern is how the current piece (and maybe the next) can combat the rising tide.

I must say, that I've been enjoying Puzzle Express much more than Hipsoft's other releases, but that's not saying a whole lot. The graphics are smooth for the most part, even if the pictures you work so hard to reveal are uninspired to the extreme. The idea of having gameplay happen in various parts of the country is interesting, but underutilized for my taste, it would have been nice to see more variety. The two gameplay types seem a little too similar to me, with even the leisurely mode getting a little too hectic at times. Maybe I'm just dumb.

This one is really a re-release and the graphics unfortunately show their age a good bit.  The game itself is a Centipede update and it plays well enough, but I definitely struggled to get past the graphics and I doubt I'll be alone on this one.  Ok, but not great.

It's Centipede. I could leave it at that, but there are other elements that help it stand out, good and bad. Themed environments that have a nice consistent feel, nifty mini-games that break up the sometimes monotonous gameplay, and a finger cramping default fire mode that will leave you wondering why the enemies move faster than you're physically capable of shooting. As you would expect from Hamumu, there are a ton of levels to keep you going, if you're still interested after you play the demo that is.

My first thought was that the graphics were the only reason to play this game.  However, once I got past the awkward movement of the character there is a good amount of enjoyment here.  The different weapons kept me interested, but the game doesn't get more than a average score.

Wow. I have never seen so much treasure in one game. It's no wonder the dwarves came back for it! There's apple treasures, necklace treasures, burger treasures, wedding cake treasures, gem treasures, even dimes and pennies as treasures! For adults, this game might be a little too easy, but it would be an excellent choice for young kids. The constant chinging of vast treasures is a little addictive, while the game play is a little simplistic.

Back for Treasures may not be the best side view adventure game you ever play, but it's a solid game that gives you yours money's worth. Sure, your character's movement is stilted, the combat is lackluster, and but the levels look and feel fantastic, and there's plenty to keep you coming back for more. The relative ease at which you'll complete each levels means there's very little frustration when making your way through the games' 100 levels, which is good, because that's a ton of levels.

Here's how a typical Dark Ore gameplay session went for me: 1: Float around trying to figure out what to do. 2: Knock around your astronaut buddy like he's some sort of blow of boxing dummy. 3: Get attacked by pirates several dozen times and watch them fly into asteroids at top speed. 4: Finally figure out what you're supposed to do. 5: Wait for something interesting to happen. 6: Exit to Windows and play something else.

Visually this game is fantastic, but unfortunately that is the only part of the game that is good.  Game play is difficult to understand at best.  As a PacMan clone it tries to take the game a different direction, but lacks the strong game play of last year's Firefly that would help get it there.

Pac-Man/shooter cross. Move a wizard around a grid collecting fairylike souls while dodging or shooting monsters. Grid movement is frustratingly unresponsive, controls cannot be customized, and the game is almost entirely unexplained - Why do some monsters die when you shoot them and others don't? What do any of the power-ups actually do? Buried here somewhere is a cute game concept, but as it stands it's too frustrating to be fun.

This Pac-Man clone is actually much worse than the screenshots make it out to be. Sure, the graphics are pretty good, and the whole medieval theme is interesting, but the gameplay itself is quite bad. The controls in particular will have you wondering how anyone could even consider releasing it with such obvious problems. The biggest issue is the fact that the controls are completely unresponsive. Need to make that turn halfway across the screen? Better start slamming the arrow key now, cause your wizard does not turn on a dime. In fact, he usually refuses to turn at all. Combine that crippling gameplay mechanic with levels that require you to turn constantly and you've got serious trouble.

More of a pseudo demo of Dr. Lunatic Supreme with cheese, this game plays well for freeware, but unfortunately doesn't show off the coolness of that title.  A fun romp, but probably a little too difficult and not compelling enough for hard core gamers to come to an appreciation of the goodness that is Dr. Lunatic.

Let's say you're completely broke, but you feel like playing Dr. Lunatic Supreme With Cheese. That $29.99 price tag is a little intimidating for something that is so "unique." Why not give this recently re-released 5 year old game a spin? After all, it is free and it feels exactly like Dr Lunatic: SWC, it even sounds the same. Run around and toss hammers at bad guys while you get upset over the fact that you can't seem to be able to hold on to your weapons from one level to the next. To be honest the game isn't particularly fun, but once you start playing you feel compelled to continue.

All obvious jokes concerning the graphics aside, Blades of Avernum seems to be another great Spiderweb RPG. I've only had a chance to play it for a couple hours, but I'm really getting into it. The idea that once I finish the games sizable quest I'll also be able to download user created campaigns is intimidating but exciting. With any luck I'll have this one on my hard drive for quite some time, just wish I had the time required to really appreciate it.

Horribly clunky interface, very tiny dated graphics almost reminiscent of Apple II games, tons of reading. and tremendously addictive, involving, and fun! Spiderweb Software's RPGs aren't for everyone, but everyone should try the demo to see if they might have an inner geek who will stay up until 4am unable to tear themselves away from the screen! You may be surprised.

The graphics are the only real letdown here, but they really should be better.  Those who put time into the game will be rewarded with a great game and enjoyable music.  Very similar to last year's Overball, just not as polished; I loved the 2-player Co-Operative mode it was a wonderful addition that should be in more games.

Super Monkey Ball in 2D, looks much more old school, plays much more complex. The tutorial was not terribly clear, but a couple minutes of play had me understanding all the power-ups and threats fairly well. It was difficult to control the ball at times, with narrow passages especially being a major pain. Overall, a fun game with an uncommon style of play.

Out of all the games on this list, Hazard Ball was the one I was looking forward to playing the least. Let's face it, the screenshots look like they were lifted from some second rate arcade game collection for the NES. But once I started playing (and got the whole graphical styling) I couldn't stop. The game play is very straight forward, and deceptively simple, but the levels have a great sense of exploration without giving you that lost in the woods sensation. If I could only buy one game from June's release list, it would undoubtedly be Hazard Ball. Go play it, right now, just ignore the screenshots.

When people think of Indie games, Skools Out is the kind of game that I think they think of.  It is very different then what you typically find as you control a student doing different things during different periods of the school day.  The control could certainly use a little polish as could the interface, but this is definitely a title worth checking out just on the basis of the originality of it.  Before you ever start controlling the little car around the school grounds you'll probably already be pretty impressed with the gaming goodness offered here.

Skools Out does a decent job of marrying a number of disjoint game play styles together into a single package that seems to work pretty well, so far. Running around the school yard getting into various mis-adventures is as entertaining as going to class and answering various class related questions from the blackboard. Sure, the game is lacking polish, and the camera control is frustrating, but it's fun to see a developer try something different, even if that something different is modern day remake of a classic title.

Much better then I thought after looking at the screen shot.  Would like to not need to set up the board again after failing a level, and being able to speed up how fast everyone walks when you are trying a level for the 13th time would be a plus, but honestly I really enjoyed this one and I don't typically take to logic games.

Really simple classic puzzling - Chu Chu Rocket without the manic mayhem (except in the bonus rounds, where it becomes Chu Chu Rocket!). One flaw is that if you fail, you'll have to set up the level again from scratch, which can be annoying. Otherwise, there's really no downside to it - if you like logic puzzles with arrows involved, you should be all set!

I really love ChuChu rocket and almost all games like it, which is why Arrow Antics is such a let down. I won't knock the game for it's substandard graphics too much (was there a contest to use the same graphics as often as possible?), but the poor level design, overly zoomed out camera, and frustrating controls are inexcusable. Why does the entire board have to reset every time I see if my arrow placement worked or not? Playing the same level over and over again is great in some games, but not in this one, and not when you're forced to because of poor design choices.

Yet another redo of Super Collapse, of course with its own little twist and Arcade Lab games are always nearly flawless in presentation with this one being no exception. Solid presentation and colorful graphics, but in the end nothing really all that new and different.

Yet another color-popper. That's really about all that can be said for this game - it's not a bad one, it's very well done and polished. But it isn't substantially different in any way from similar games like Bejeweled, Pumpkin Pop, or Walls Of Jericho. If you want a game of that type, this isn't a bad choice, but it doesn't stand out from the crowd either.

ArcadeLab really cranks out the games, don't they? In the past year they've produced several games of exceedingly high quality that are fun to play long after you've played through all the available levels. Although not as strong as their other titles, Funny Faces is enjoyable enough seriously consider purchasing. Sure, it's yet another "line stuff up, watch it go away" style game, but ArcadeLab has provided a decent twist with the rotatable sections, a game play mechanic that rewards you for thinking a few turns ahead. If you're as burned out on line-up puzzle games as I am you might not find Funny Faces worth buying, but spend some time with the demo and find out.

A very involved game that I think most gamers will find to be just too hard.  Mixes game play somewhat like Beesly's Buzzwords with something like Tetris where you use the shapes from the words you made to fill up the board.  A lot of thought has gone into making this game superb, which provides some interesting gaming depth, but it is likely too hard for the casual gamer.

An extremely challenging word puzzle game that combines spatial skills exactly like Puzzle Express with classic word-finding skills. A complete lack of tutorial, or even instructions for that matter, made a confusing and tough game even harder than it needed to be.

Let me first say that I've only played the demo of this game, so there may be differences in the full version. Hopefully one of those differences is the ability to create words by connecting letters diagonally. After all, a screenshot from the developers website show this standard word-game tactic being employed. Assuming I'm just overlooking some obvious game play mechanic, Wordcrafter has the potential to be a lot of fun. Create Tetris like blocks out of letters and put them on a board, it's like playing two games in one. Hopefully I'll also figure out how to get rid of those pesky one and two square spaces, because it would seem absurd to have a minimum block size of three, but so much unfortunate opportunity for one and two block spaces. Hmm...

Graphically great and so-so at the same time.  This update of the classic Dig Dug misses the rounded edges as you move around, but ads a bit to the story and overall feel of the game.  I played this one a few times and enjoyed it each time, but if you don't like Dig-Dug, you'll be looking elsewhere fast.

There sure are a lot of Dig-Dug clones out these days, fortunately most of them aren't all that bad. That is except for Rock Story, which is quite terrible. The game has multiple scrolling backgrounds that serve no purpose except to help you lose your lunch. Your character's unresponsive movement is straight out of DemonLisher. And the levels are far to easy to become trapped in. The fact that the developers charge money for this is a little surprising. The fact that the game has earned nearly a dozen awards from various download sites has convinced me that the either A: their rating system is flawed beyond repair, or B: people really do just post those awards in hopes that the download sites won't care.

Graphically this one isn't quite there yet, but I assume that will change with future patches and updates.  I really felt at home in control of the ship, a more simple man's space shooter than SW4 or Starshatter.  Difficult to get noticed among all the others, but I liked the game play.

This could be a decent game once it's actually finished. If the developer were to actually add graphics to the various ships. Remove the sound of laser fire you get when trying to shoot a laser with no power. Give the player some idea of what in the world is going on. Give the player better control options. What I mean to say is that it's usually a good idea to finish production on a game before charging people for it. The only reason I didn't give this one a 0 is because I'm holding out hope we'll see a finished product that builds on the games positive aspects, such as the sometimes enjoyable dogfighting, which features some killer explosions (and concussions to boot).

Unfortunately I had heavy static in the sound on this game which took away from an otherwise amazing game.  Star Wraith has set itself as one of the standards in the space shooter over the last three renditions of this title, and this the newest version, is definitely the game for a die-hard who wishes there had been another Freespace title.  The movement and ability to track where you are in relation to your enemies in 3D is a wonder that makes playing the game much easier for those who have been intimidated by 3D Space Shooters in the past.  Probably still not quite as polished as Starshatter, but a wonderful game with solid graphics.

Reminds me of Alien Shooter, but just nowhere nearly as well done.  Has it's moments and probably worth a quick download of the demo, but you'll probably loose interest after playing it just a couple of times.  Jerky and often repetitive blocky graphics didn't help.

It's not a good game. but it's a good beta of a game! It has a lot of issues from a dizzying camera, to bad English, to very quirky and challenging combat/enemies, to overly self-mutilating weaponry, to the occasional crash. But it's a solid idea, and I always enjoy games where I can place bombs and run away. Another plus is that it reminds me of Dungeon Keeper. Even though they're not remotely similar.

Frankly I'm not even sure what this is supposed to be. Running around with a 3rd person camera view while you kill stuff has always been fun, until this came along. Why is it even the most basic of firearms is so expensive to purchase that you'll spend most your time attacking goblins (in a SPACE MAZE) with a pick axe? How come tossing a grenade at a barrel causes half the level to go up like the Battleship Maine, and getting anywhere near it's blast radius means instant death. If the developer wants gamers to kill monsters in a SPACE MAZE then give us a couple decent guns early on and bring on the hoard, don't make getting killed by everything easier than getting from point A to point B.

Tremendous music and adventure await you with solid graphics.  Voyager is a card playing game, but set in a world of adventure making it very different than last year's Astral Tournament.  In addition to using cards in battles, you do quite a bit of adventuring through different lands.  There is a good deal of story in the game, so be ready to read, but the graphical representations of the different lands lend themselves well to helping you visualize the experience.  You won't be ready for it to end when the demo does.

The interface is very difficult to get a grasp on, but when you get some clue, this is a really fun toy. It's not a game at all, as there are no goals - it's simply a simulation of a train set, and it does a nice job of it. I had to check the manual a few times before I was able to get a train moving, but once I did, it really felt like the fun of a real train set.

Is this even a game? It felt more like a Sunday spent in the attic sitting on a roll of insulation in front of a plywood table. In some circles this is called relaxing. Build a town, lay some tracks, and watch your train chug around an all-too-small piece of property. Sure, the graphics look great, and the controls aren't as terrible as they could be, but shouldn't having a horrific multi engine pile-up be a little bit easier to pull off? After all, that's why people buy model trains to begin with, isn't it?