|
|
May
2006 Indie Game Monthly Round-Up
(by
The Illustrious Panel - TIP) |
|
|
|
|
|
RIP: Strike Back
(March 31)
($19.95)
by White Elephant
|
Mike Hommel: 8
 I liked
RIP, and this is improved in every way. It's not perfect by any
means, but it's fun, and has big bosses and many levels, including vehicles
to control. The biggest negatives for me were that the level-ups come very
rarely and are very weak and offer few choices. The characters also seem
imbalanced. So do the weapons - the default Uzi is far better than the Thunderball. Luckily, the weapons are defined in a text file you can edit!
The game continues the RIP trend of being somewhat buggy as well,
responding horribly to the CPU being busy for one example.
Seth Robinson: 8
 In less than six months the hoard shooter RIP has a sequel. Despite being a
bit cheesy, the notion of the lord of darkness brandishing duel UZI's is
sort of sweet. You now can walk around and in later levels drive tanks
instead of only sitting in your turret. Unlike the original, this one packs
enough variety to keep it fun. You'll get your moneys worth of sadistic
bloodshed here.
Mike Kasprzak: 5
 I think I've played this game before. Yes, I get that feeling. Ha ha!
My suspicions are true! So here's the sequel to Rip. The game plays
more or less the same as I remember. Even the levels, while clearly not
the same, feel the same. Maybe if I *really* liked the original, I'd
have liked this one.
Russ Carroll: 9
 Crimsonland is often looked at as the best of these types of games, but I
have to say that RIP: Strike Back is certainly my favorite to date. Being
able to move around objects adds a lot of fun to the game, as does the
RPG-like progression with cool power-ups. Of course the tanks and turrets
make the whole experience more fun, though the ability to choose between
single shot fire (left-click) and machine-gun like fire (right-click) has got to
be the best feature.
The moment that made me realize just how much fun I was having was
when I picked up a second uzi and was blasting away with a gun in each hand.
Definitely too cool to miss. |
|
|
|
American History Lux
(April 12)
($20.00)
by Sillysoft Games
|
Mike Hommel: 8
It's Risk! This is a weird review right by Battle Of The Generals, because
they're virtually the same thing, only I really like this one. Both take a
board game and pit you against the computer in a single-player-only version
of that game. This succeeds where the other fails in a few places: it's a
much much more fun board game, it offers a bunch of unique scenarios instead
of a single generic conflict, and it has a more helpful interface. The
downsides: only single player, sometimes confusing connections between
'countries', and a weird bug (or rule?) in moving troops around.
Seth Robinson: 6
This is an easy to learn strategic war game that plays out on simple Risk
style maps. It's so simple in fact, there is only one unit type! It's
designed well and the historical aspect is interesting and fun. The downer
here is it's severely crippled compared to Lux Delux ($5 more) - it's
missing multiplayer, rankings, and map creation.
Mike Kasprzak: 7
Neat. It's like Risk, through American History. The game plays and
looks good, though while I was getting used to the game, I wish I could
undo in unit placement and fortification phases. Being the only non
American on the panel, I think I'm supposed to find it strange the game
has the American's taking over Mexico, Canada, and Europe. Meh...
somehow that doesn't bother me.
Russ Carroll: 7
Clearly a great game for Risk enthusiasts, which is probably why I just don't get into Lux. I have the WORST luck ever. You remember
how when you played RISK your one army would stand up and wipe out 10 armies of the opponent and
then they got irritated while you cheered? If you are the one and I'm the 10, then you start to understand why I don't like RISK. My luck continually leads me to losing with ridiculous odds in my favor. So with that being the case I find myself hard-pressed to get into Lux, though if you like Risk you should give it a try, it does a great job of creating historical battles that are interesting to play. |
|
|
|
QuesTrix
(April 4)
($19.95)
by Cubic Games
|
Mike Hommel: 5
Okay, the "pitch up your voice" trend in games has to stop. There's nothing
cute about man's voice cranked up eight octaves. It's also hard to
understand. Aside from that, this is the first Tetris clone I've played in
a long time! The good is that it's Tetris, which is good. The bad is that
the stuff it adds to Tetris doesn't really improve it in any way, and it's
so incredibly slow that with a full half-hour on the play timer, a cleared
board, and no chance of losing anywhere in sight, I finally just held the
down arrow to end the pain. I love leveling up, but this was just too slow
to justify it.
Seth Robinson: 6
This is tetris with special items you can buy and use. Relying on the
user's repeat key delay to control movement is a bad idea; I had to adjust
my global keyboard settings to make this feel right. There is an annoying
tick sound blocks makes as they fall that can't be disabled. Being able to
quit and save your game is a nice touch. Not a bad game of tetris, but
internet scoring would have really helped.
Mike Kasprzak: 4
Hmmm... well... Tetris. It meets the spec to be out there as a
sell-able product (colorful, nice audio, some variation like items), but
... well ... it's Tetris. Albeit, not a very good controlling Tetris.
Moving and dropping pieces feels rough and jerky. Comparing it against
Game Boy Tetris, you should know what I mean. Not that it matters,
after all, it's just Tetris.
Russ Carroll: 6
This RPG meets puzzle game is definitely adventurous with a fun power-up and
experience system, but it seems to fall short in the puzzle game play.
Playing Tetris is something most everyone has done in their lifetime. That
being the case, there are certain expectations in how the pieces should
rotate and the ability to slide pieces as they reach the bottom of the
screen. QuesTrix, strangely, does things differently than other Tetris
games that you've played, leaving it feeling odd and not as enjoyable as it
could be. |
|
|
|
Olaf & Elmar
(March 25)
($19.95)
by Wiering Software
|
Mike Hommel: 6
There's enough unique here that those of us who don't run clone-bashing
sites couldn't fairly call this a Sokoban clone. The size differences,
multipushing, and power potions take it a step beyond, making it almost like
the Stockboy genre, but simplified. What I really don't like is the
straightforward one-after-the-other level progression, the extremely awkward
mouse control (even in the menus!), and just that it's a rather boring type
of puzzle for me. It looks very nice, except oddly enough the characters,
who suffer greatly from the straight top-down perspective.
Seth Robinson: 7
Sokoban-ish puzzle game sporting switch-able characters with different
specialties. All the things to make this really work are here: multiple
undo, in-game solutions, a very nice internet ranking system, and something
often overlooked but vitally important: a button to hold down for ultra fast
movement. I guess my biggest gripe is pretty shallow; the graphics are drab
and a bit CGA era looking. Mouse support is just plain broken. I likes.
Mike Kasprzak: 7
Your standard push puzzle, but with a clever twist. Two sizes of
characters! OK, maybe you're not impressed, but it makes for some
interesting puzzles. Graphics, especially the still screens are nice,
but some of the in game graphics look funky due to the top down
perspective. The mouse characters movement might be a little too
sensitive, at least when trying to minimize your number of steps. But
the seemingly limitless undo is great way of correcting those mistakes.
Not bad.
Russ Carroll: 7
An interesting twist on the old sokoban theme. Olaf and Elmar are an
elephant and a mouse respectively, each with specific abilities when it
comes to moving around boxes. Olaf can move large boxes and larger sets of
boxes, Elmar can only push small boxes. The two together add a new element
to the game that makes it enjoyable though it doesn't make the genre wholly
new. Mouse control just doesn't work for some reason, but otherwise it's a
pleasant enough game. Sokoban fans should definitely check it out! |
|
|
|
Eets
(March 27)
($19.95)
by Klei Entertainment Inc.
|
Mike Hommel: 9
A really solid and original puzzle game. The emotions work out as a really
interesting aspect to the puzzles, and the physics-y nature of it all makes
the puzzles a little more lenient and freeform than you get in more
tile-based puzzles. It's also got a completely random and really strange
style - radioactive ginseng? - and very nice cartoon graphics. Each set of
levels introduces really new elements. A trophy room, level editor, and
downloadable puzzles round it out with tons of juicy goodness to chew on.
Seth Robinson: 9
Eets combines a lot of elements you've seen before to create something new.
A mix of physics, pixel accurate level destruction (think Lemmings), and
tons of unique items to place (a pig that shoots exploding pigs out of its
butt?) keep these logic puzzles fun. Eets successfully avoids getting
overwhelming with the many items and rules by keeping the levels flexible
enough to be solved in many ways and also with a great user interface.
Check it out!
Mike Kasprzak: 8
If you do some basic stalking, you could discover through a bit of
scroll wheel manipulation and clicks my interest in the whole abstract
Incredible Machine'esc styles of game, and games that look a little
different. Eets fits the bill, and introduces some nice gameplay
variants. Instead of just the set it up and let it run scheme, it adds
real time manipulatable elements. I'm not sure how much I like them,
but bonus points for that none the less. And unlike a certain PuffBOMB
game I maintain some sort of ... association with, Eets puzzles don't
feel very tweak heavy, which I think is great. The physics seem a
little twitchy sometimes, but do the job. Very nice.
Russ Carroll: 10
Wow! Eets to me feels like the Incredible Machine, but with a more
puzzle-like approach and even more incredible results. The game stars Eets,
a wacky little dude who is either timid or a go-getter depending on his emotions,
which can be triggered, among other ways, by what he's eaten. It would take paragraphs to
explain how Eets works and the HUGE variety of in-game objects that make
this game fun. Since I don't have the space I'll just state that you MUST
download this game. The visual style is unlike anything else you've seen
and the game plays like the one-of-a-kind gem that it appears to be. |
|
|
|
The Odyssey: Winds of Athena
(March 28)
($19.99)
by Liquid Dragon
|
Mike Hommel: 9
Hooray for originality! This is a very cool and very unique game. The
graphics are great, the gameplay is fun and unique with just a hint of
thinking. The only thing bringing it down from a 10 is that there's a lack
of any extra stuff - just the levels to complete - and that it's just not
exactly the game I want to play. Doesn't click with me completely,
though I definitely enjoyed it. It fits into our newly created "frenzied
clicking" genre, but with more thought than usual, and of course, it's
actually very original, unlike your usual clicker.
Seth Robinson: 7
Sometimes this feels like a game and other times it feels like a tech demo
for Liquid Dragon's fluid dynamics engine. It's a neat new experience to
swirl the water and watch the current flow around your tiny fleet. The
later levels become a swirl and click-fest that feel a little out of control
but overall I like this game. Especially the auto level skip option that
pops up when you restart too many times.
Mike Kasprzak: 7
Neat concept. The game's a bit like a Lemmings with boats. It's a bit
tough to control, but I really like how you move things in the game, via
manipulation of water currents. There's also wind strength, which you
control via a mouse gesture of spinning it in a circle. It seems I'm
not very good at the game, but do like it.
Russ Carroll: 9
This is a very original strategy game that I would love to play on my
Nintendo DS. Instead of controlling your units, you try to steer them in the right direction by modifying their environment. Players use the wind and the currents of the sea to guide their army towards its goal. Using the mouse players create currents in the water simply by dragging their finger (the mouse pointer) through it. Wind is created by spinning up clouds with the mouse. Over time, winds die down and currents return to their normal course, making for a need to concentrate continually on affecting the environment
as well as the enemies. The Odyssey is as about as unique and innovative a game as I've ever played, with a cool story
adaptation around the book 'The Odyssey' that keeps the game's momentum moving
forward. It breaks down a little by feeling repetitive
after a dozen levels or so, but if you are looking for something different you must play this game! |
|
|
|
Bone: The Great Cow Race
(March 12)
($12.99)
by Telltale
|
Mike Hommel: 7
It's your standard point-n-click adventure! The good: astounding graphics,
fancy (which means tolerable) voicework, and lots of spit and polish (mostly
polish, less spit). The bad: super slow movement and conversations that
drag on and on with no way out except to drag them on further to their
conclusion. When I just wanted to get on and solve a puzzle, I had to sit
through these long talking segments and wait for Bone to walk where he was
going. You can skip talking with the spacebar (why not a click in this 100%
mouse-driven game?). but then of course you don't know what was said!
Seth Robinson: 8
This lavishly produced mouse driven adventure game does a good job of using
3D graphics while retaining a warm Disney-ish painted look. Delivering
chunks of the game in serial form should work out if they're all at least
this big (4-5 hours of gameplay?). It's a bit slow paced (hint: space-bar
can speed up dialog) and a little more interactivity would be nice but
overall I can't help being very impressed.
Mike Kasprzak: 9
Wow. I haven't played the first episode or read the comic, but I'm very
impressed. So exactly where this relationship between this
walking/talking marshmallow and a girl started is beyond me. But hey,
that's OK, I'm there. Beautiful animation, great production, ... great
everything really. If I had to pick a beef with it (and that might just
be a bad cow pun in disguise), I might say I was a little less than
impressed with Thorn as a character. But short of that changing the
story in to an epic of the 3 Stooges, I'll return to my original
thought. I like it.
Russ Carroll: 8
I was at an 9 on this until I went back and played
Out of Boneville.
This sequel is certainly an amazing piece of work. The voice acting is
tremendous and the visuals are just fabulous. In fact, the visuals brought
my brand new AMD Dual Core 3800 to its knees and prompted me to buy a new
video card (and even my 'new' 256mb GeForce 6800 wouldn't keep the game from crawling on my home system). It's really hard to go wrong with the Bone games if you are
looking for something that is a fun and challenging mix of old school
adventure and current technology. As noted I think that Out of Boneville is a little better, but either is certainly a treat. |
|
|
|
Battle of the Generals
(April 18)
($14.95)
by blitsoft
|
Mike Hommel: 4
Hey, it's chess! Only it has its own set of rules, which are dramatically
inferior to the rules of chess in terms of fun (all pieces move 1 space at a
time, making for a slow game). You also have to memorize an incredibly
complex hierarchy of which pieces can take which. If you click on one of
your pieces, it tells you what it can take. But if you have none left of a
piece your opponent has, you have no way of seeing what it can take. Simply
put: it's really not fun. It also offers no 2-player mode, mysteriously.
There are lots of much more enjoyable board games. But they don't have that
rockin' soundtrack!
Seth Robinson: 5
While I applaud the effort to make an original strategy board game this one
just isn't that fun. Training mode is like a ridiculously simple Chess and
expert mode feels like an impossible version of Stratego where even after
losing a battle to a piece you don't learn its rank. Missing any kind of
multiplayer play doesn't help.
Mike Kasprzak: 4
It's like Rock Paper Scissor on a chess board. The game's actually kind
of funny like that. The title screen pops up, and this heavy rocking
tune kicks in. As the player you're thinking "Yeaaahh!! Radical!!
Lets rock!!!", but you click play, and you find yourself sitting in
front of what looks like a chess board. At this point I was hooting,
hollering, and cheering the chess board on, but I suspect others might
be a little under-whelmed. The game seemed a bit easy. I'd dance around
the board with my Nuke, toasting all the baddies, and sending up my
slightly better soldier to kill the Privates that could stop my Nuke. I
could probably raise the difficulty, but I'm not sure I'd get anything
out of it. Meh.
Russ Carroll: 5
This game is sort of a
convoluted Stratego. You have a wide variety of
pieces that EACH have their own attack abilities. Remember how the 8s were
the only piece that could take out mines and only the spy could take out the 1?
Well apply rules like (and MORE) that to every piece and require all pieces to move one
square at a time and you'd have something similar to BOTG. With each piece
only killing a specific type of piece, not being able to see what the enemy
pieces are even after attacking them (in
expert mode) makes the game an exercise in frustration. And why can't you
go to the menu during a game without aborting the game? A little too
confusing to really rise above the pack. |
|
|
|
Gibbage
(April 9)
($10.00)
by Dan Marshall
|
Mike Hommel: 6
I like frantic intense battling games, like UT. But this is just too
frantic. Even for 8 year olds with ADD on crack, this is too frantic. It's
like deathmatch with fleas. There's a "Bullet Time" power-up you can get,
and the speed it reduces your opponent to is exactly the speed the game
should be! I guess I'm getting old. There's a really cool style to this
game, but I just find it's really draining to play, and I didn't have a very
good time just because I don't drink enough caffeine.
Seth Robinson: 8
A very hardcore 2D single-screen side view arena battle. This is a very
niche game for those that like quick paced action a bit on the difficult
side. The level unlock system is a bit rigid, you're stuck with only one
level until you can score a win. The AI is excellent; I really learned to
hate that guy! Great variety in the scenery and power-ups make this a
winner, if only for a limited crowd.
Mike Kasprzak: 5
I almost feel bad doing a negative review here, but the game and I
didn't get along all that well. I'd hoped it was just the usual dual
core compatibility hate, but the game really seemed to be a blah
deathmatch game. Sure, it worked for Quake 3, but I don't think it
works here. The problem is the game is a very 1 on 1 sort of battle,
and perhaps that I suck at it. Actually, even the times I did win, they
seemed like lame victories. Despite the game being heavily about the
player vs. player combat, rushing the blue things that make you win
seemed a more useful strategy than trying to kill the enemy, as he often
moves too fast. Thus making the game a platformer race. Meh.
Russ Carroll: 7
I think my expectations were too high for Gibbage. I was hoping for a 'n' or
Soldat type of experience and it felt more like a frustrating Flash game where I spent half of the time wondering why controls, AI, and menus were done they way that they were. (how many times do I need to see the game title animate?) This is a serious blood fest that can be a solid deathmatch game if you go for the pixelated graphics. It's got all of the style of a winner and a lot of substance, but in the end it just wasn't enough for me personally to dig it, but I'm sure it will create a HUGE cult following. |
|
|
|
Chain Letters
(April 5)
($19.99)
by OddGoat Studios
|
Mike Hommel: 6
Hmm, there's good and bad. The "AI" in it is bad - when I needed to spell a
word starting with W, it 'helped' me by laying down tons of W's. After a
while, there was only one vowel on the entire board. The AI is bad
in other ways too - you don't lose Speed Mode until there are only 2 tiles
free, but long before that point, you are out of possible words.
Master Mode, as well, doesn't recognize when you can't win anymore, so you
have to manually quit. Some Career Mode goals are nearly impossible and
rely on a huge string of luck and tile swapping. These things, and some
bugs, were a pain. But the gameplay in general is good with 4 modes, some
unique features, and a trophy system. So good or bad? Somewhere in
between.
Seth Robinson: 6
I started off liking this one; chaining combos for outrageous score
multipliers fun. But as I progressed the linked together goals that must be
done in a row became tedious, in fact, some were near impossible. Nice
dictionary with the exception of missing most country names. Overall I'd
have to say unevenness in the difficulty and polish keep this average. Neat
idea on being able to buy furnishings for your 'room'.
Mike Kasprzak: 6
It's not the most exciting word game, which is probably an oxymoron in
the first place, but it does some interesting things. It combines your
free form word finding game (connect any adjacent letters), and swap
matching games. So as you build a word, you can go manipulate the
play-field, moving letters in to more useful positions. It costs you a
buck every time, but you can make it back with big words. Not bad.
Russ Carroll: 6
The fact that I have yet to find a word game that I really enjoy is
definitely reflected in the low score. Chain Letters may in fact be a fun
word game. I couldn't help but fell stupid as I played it, watching myself
fail in each of the modes to the end of a newspaper popping up in front of me to
tell me how badly I played. In fact the whole game has a very dark
dismal feel to it as you work for a constantly frowning boss at the
IRS. The music was the only chipper piece of the otherwise depressing
setting that isn't helped by what I felt were impossible objectives. |
|
|
|
Tower
(May 1)
by Foxhound Produciton
|
Mike Hommel: 4
Definitely one of the less-polished games I've played lately. Lots of weird
issues. It calls me "Badboy", and I see no way to change that name. It's a
little creepy. The gameplay, once you get past the issues and oddly
intimate nickname, is just strange. there isn't really any time to make good
match-3 decisions, so it really boils down to clicking as fast as you can
while spinning the tower in a circle. Kinda like a shooter game where
nothing shoots back. Or moves.
Seth Robinson: 4
Recently I participated in a 48 hour game creation contest, this game has a
lot in common with the entries there - an interesting concept but crippled
with ugly as hell programmer art and poor visual feedback. The idea of a 3d
tower of color popping might be a good one in general - but there are a lot
of "huh?" reactions to the mechanics such as not allowing you to shoot
rockets unless a "penalty block" is currently targeted. Not ready for prime
time.
Mike Kasprzak: n/a
Couldn't get the game to play. I was told to press any key to start,
but that appeared to be a lie. Dual core might be to blame.
Russ Carroll: 5
Despite what seems to have been a total lack of attention to detail,
horrible sound and a pretty poor interface Tower isn't that bad of a game.
Sure it's pretty random, and the best strategy may be to just fire away
while spinning without ever looking at the screen, but at it's core there is
something worthwhile that if finely tuned could be a lot of fun. After all,
who doesn't want to zap those blasted bricks to smithereens? |
|
|
|
The
Illustrious Panel:
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.
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.
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.
Russ Carroll - Game Tunnel
Russell's first taste of action in the Independent Games industry came
doing visuals and some audio work on several independent games for
BCSoft games. While so doing he became aware of the need for a Game
News and Review website dedicated to Indie games and launched Game
Tunnel in 2002 to fill the void. |
|
By: The Illustrious Panel Posted: Wednesday May 24, 2006
|
Action
Adventure
Arkanoid
Fighting
Platform
Puzzle & Casual
Hidden Object
RPG
Shooter
Simulation
Sports
Strategy
Download Games
