|
|
November
2005 Indie Game Monthly Round-Up
(by
The Illustrious Panel - TIP) |
|
|
|
|
|
Magic Stones
(October 26)
by Winter Wolves
|
Mike Hommel: 7
 I keep wanting to play this game to get more stuff and raise my stats. But
as a card battle game, it's pretty darn weak. There are very few cards
compared to most such games, and no customizing the deck, leading to
repeating the same strategies over and over. There's also an enormous
imbalance in the monsters and spells. The spells are almost all worthless
(healing 5 points when everybody inflicts 20-30 per attack? I could've
spent that mana on a monster!), with a select few that are indispensable.
The monsters are similar. Still, I keep plowing away at the battles,
because it earns me more upgrades! I am a sucker for upgrades.
Seth Robinson: 6
 This is a respectable card dueling game that lets you gain experience and
improve your character as you find new cards and spells to use. My main
beef here is the strategy element is a little weak; strong cards duke it
out, any weak card can be used to generate more mana (25% a pop) to get more
strong cards. Using this method, I went undefeated in the tourney and quest
mode. Unique traits of cards made too little difference in the scheme of
things.
Mike Kasprzak: 8
 I didn't like this game when I first played it. I couldn't win any
battles, yet I seemed to be doing everything correctly. I came back to
it a few days later, and noticed even though I was losing, I was gaining
experience. That and even though I lost, any enemies I killed would
stay dead. Ooohh! So within a dozen or so battles, I gained enough
experience and levels to actually win, and then the fun began. After
playing it for a while, I really started to enjoy the game. Lots of
cool and useful stuff to unlock, and some good strategy to it, despite
my first impressions. Cool game.
Russ Carroll: 6
 Magic Stones is an RPG card-playing game that is good repetitive fun until you start realizing just how repetitive it is.
Playing the same level over and over just to make a little progress wasn't all that entertaining to me (though notably that is what you do in MOST games). I enjoyed some of the higher level avatars and found myself nearly invincible once I figured out how to cast spells to go along with my avatars, but in the end it wasn't something that really made me want to come back for more. |
|
|
|
New Star Soccer 3
(October 21)
by New Star Games
|
Mike Hommel: 7
This is not a game for me, and yet I had some real fun with it. I actually
would've enjoyed it more if I could turn off the action portion and just
manage my soccer star's career. The action is fairly bad, it feels like
playing Speedball, which I love, except much tougher to control and
slower-paced. I imagine it feels more exciting and more like you're in
control when your stats are higher, but it's drudgery in the early going. I
really like the simulation bits though. And some of the training mini-games
were a bunch of fun as well. It's just the full blown games that feel a
little pointless and tiresome.
Seth Robinson: 8
In this hardcore soccer simulation you don't call the shots - you're a lowly
player working your way up through the leagues. The detail is
awe-inspiring; I gambled away my salary, bought house appliances, went into
debt buying performance enhancing drugs, lost my girlfriend, and got
benched. The division of the gameplay engine and the (ugly but usable)
statistic/RPG portion of the game is a bit jarring but hey, if you like this
kind of game, you won't be bugged by such superficialities anyway.
Mike Kasprzak: 8
Cool soccer game. Contrast to the so called "Soccer Manager" genre of
games, in this one you play the role of a soccer player. And just like
the pseudo real life of a professional athlete, you have many issues to
deal with. Your pay, your fame, keeping good with your friends and
family, training, your gambling and drinking problems, drugs, just like
real life. A tip for those checking it out. Pick a good name for your
player. If you do register the game, your code is for that player name
only. Fun game.
Russ Carroll: 9
A game that is really a couple of fixes shy of being great. In NSS3 you take a player and make them a soccer star.
The graphics are certainly nothing to write home about, but the depth of the simulation (What kind of house will you buy? What kind of girl will you date? Are you going to do the
interview on TV) is really fascinating. What is more, building your player's skill in the game really requires building your own skill, a nice twist! However there are a couple of glaring issues. My confidence disappeared after a couple of games so I spent the next 3 HOURS not playing, just trying to increase my skills. Eventually, after my team
made special shirts about me, and I even got sponsor deals, but hadn't
played, I went to the website to find out that I have to drink alcohol to improve my confidence (what the?). So finally I got on the pitch, scored two goals in two games, and when transfers came up I had a change of heart and rejected each of them, wanting to take my current team up into the super liga and make the national team...at which point the game just disappeared taking my hours worth of work with it (I'd turned off the horrendously slow auto-save feature...grrr!). Notably the game is MUCH better with a good joystick...and
yeah well I think it is one of the best games I've played this
year...just pointing out those couple of issues that would take it to a
perfect 10. |
|
|
|
Paperball
(November 3)
by e-giraffa
|
Mike Hommel: 6
This is most definitely Breakout. Just like SO many other games. The
newness here is in the look, which is rather cool. Aside from that, it's
pretty much all the usual. One interesting twist is that there are so many
power-ups that you actually spend more time dodging bad ones and catching
good ones than you do worrying about the ball (which is fine, since usually
you have about 700 balls in play at once).
Seth Robinson: 6
This is a fairly standard brick-breaker with the exception of two unique
points: Crayon on paper art style and directional blocks. The lack of any
meta-game elements and mostly nondescript levels (they aren't named nor
numbered) leave me classifying this game as average. Somehow hip-hop audio
loops are a poor match for this kind of game. The easy to use level editor
is a plus.
Mike Kasprzak: 7
If you were intrigued by the screenshots, then you'll likely be just as
intrigued with the music. To put it a way that'll make sense only to a
small group of people, as far as the audio goes, it's the Katamari of
Arkanoids. Now for those not up on the hip and cool terms the kids are
using these days, it's weird, but entertaining weird. The opening track
is this odd singing melody with appropriate backup instruments. This is
followed by a funky guitar breakbeat track, and something unmistakably
R&B. The choice of music here is almost funny. As for the
arkanoidness, it's what you're used to, but with a neat power-up that I'll call
"ball tracking". This shows you the directional vector and reflection
vectors for the ball. Very cool. And then there's how it looks. It's an
entertaining sort of ugly, and quite a surprise to see the menus, which
by contrast are sharp and cleanly done. Magic Blackboard in my opinion a
wackier game, but there's a lot of wacky strong points to this one.
Russ Carroll: 8
When I first started playing I was excited about the graphics. As simple as they look they look really good in the game. I was also very pleased to see the ball tracking ala Ball Attack incorporated here. Those were just the beginnings to a great game with a lot of innovation in the board design, specifically through the arrow bricks that will have you staring at the screen trying to figure out where each arrow goes. Overall it is a solid arkanoid game with a good board editor to keep you playing for some time to come. |
|
|
|
Flatspace II: The Rise of the Scarrid
(November 7)
by Cornutopia
|
Mike Hommel: 7
This game is really compelling, and will suck you in for endless hours. Or
it will if you can figure out how to play. It offers no tutorial and very
very little by way of explanation. It also vastly overcomplicates things
that could be far simpler, like docking at a space station: press B, R, 2,
1, then fly into the circle and press D. I'm not kidding. But if you learn
the intricacies, you'll find it a very slow-moving (hours of play got me
just a couple of weapon advancements, not even close to the money needed for
a better ship) but rewarding game. I would rate it higher for pure play
value, but the control scheme and learning curve set it back. Oh yeah,
controls - the mouse control of your ship is obnoxious. Why not a cursor
that the ship turns to face?
Seth Robinson: 7
Learning curve? It's more like a right-angle. Once you find the rhythm of
this space trading/battle sim it's quite exhilarating warping around the
galaxy blowing up things and outfitting your ship. Random seed based
worlds, people, and starport locations keep each game unique. Hmm, no
planets exist in this universe I guess. The navigation system is a bit
clunky but gets you where you need to go. I likes.
Mike Kasprzak: 9
Well, it seems I was off to a good start with this game. I smashed my
usual WASD keys to get going. Interestingly enough, you have an alarm
button sitting on the A key. Excellent. Past my slow learning of the
controls, it's a really good game. Those players looking for something
more hardcore or complex than Weird Worlds, I have some good news.
There's a big aspect of space trading to the game. Buying stuff at one
space station, and finding another to sell it at for a higher price.
The only problem is the universe is massive, so you'd want to take notes
of where stuff is worth a lot of money. If trade isn't your thing, you
can make deliveries or taxi people around. If that isn't either, you
can assassinate people for some big money, or enforce the law. There's
a lot here, including a whole other race, and a reoccurring tease that
if you can come up with a million dollars, you can buy your own space
station. Nice.
Russ Carroll: 9
Another great wide-open space adventure from Cornutopia. Flatspace 2 lets you take on the role of one of many different players in the universe. You can be bounty hunter or policeman, trader or mercenary, and that is just the beginning. This is a fantastically deep game that rewards players who put in massive amounts of time playing it, allowing them to upgrade to buying their own bases and crews, just to mention a few things. Taking objects to specific spots across the galaxy or hunting down criminals is just the action that keeps the story moving forward, and the story is really whatever you create. It's a little overwhelming to get into and plays much better with a
game pad in my mind, but either way you look at it, this is a game that will suck away dozens of hours into a world all its own. |
|
|
|
Curator Defense
(November 15)
by David B Howe
|
Mike Hommel: 8
Really really cool, if a bit limited in scope (okay, a lot). Fun and
simple. There's one major bug that drove me insane - it allows you to
assign shortcuts to your turrets, but will arbitrarily remove these
shortcuts, very very often. The game can get frustrating as you just watch
art slip by your guns while you have no money to stop it, but it still kept
me wanting to come back for another try every time.
Seth Robinson: 7
In this enjoyable freebie you build defenses to stop an ever advancing army
of modern art. It's done well and worth playing. Figuring out the best
strategy is compelling; you can create mazes that enemies will have to walk
through as they slowly die from spiked ropes or turrets. I read the author
is planning a new version that allows online rankings by time instead of
just score which was kind of being abused by cheap techniques.
Mike Kasprzak: 7
Neat little game. You build a defensive for a museum by purchasing and
placing various things such as turrets, slow signs, and a garbage can.
No real complaints here. For what it is, it's not bad.
Russ Carroll: 8
Curator defense does everything I love about indie games. It has a funny off-beat premise that is so original and different it's fun just to talk about. It is cheap (freeware in this case) and interesting to play. The only knocks are it isn't easy to pick-up and play, and there are some balancing issues that you run into as you play on. Still, there are few things more compelling than keeping modern art from ruining a museum by blasting it to pieces. Great fun!
|
|
|
|
Land of Legends
(September 21)
by Tiny Hero Studios
|
Mike Hommel: 9
Primo! The thing with turn-based strategy is that it's always so complex
and involved that it's just not fun. This game is turn-based strategy done
fairly simply, but with lots of interesting possible interactions
nonetheless. It's not easy though - about halfway through the campaign I
found myself just about stuck for a while! I am not into multiplayer
strategy (don't like waiting for other people to think!), but I tried
multiplayer once and it worked just fine. The lobby was dead though - only
I and another roundupper were there!
Seth Robinson: 9
Can it be? An indie strategy game with an actual single player campaign?!
Each of the eight playable races requires distinctively different
strategies; each mission teaches you something new. With only four units
per race I initially thought this may be turn based strategy oversimplified
- but actually this allows you to predict and plan your movement to an
extremely accurate degree. The well laid out GUI puts all relevant
information at your fingertips. Highly recommended.
Mike Kasprzak: 9
Yes, great game. I was intrigued by the screenshots and the back of the
box, and I'm glad to say I wasn't disappoint. It's like a fantasy
Advance Wars, but with many different races each with their own units.
There's a lot to be said in the tutorials, but after those and the elf
missions I felt sufficiently trained. Actually, I'd like to dwell on
that. Really, I can't think of another game that has done this good of
a job training you for it's seemingly complex rules. It's not just the
rules, even strategies. They introduce you rather quickly and
explicitly to it's leapfrog strategy, which seems to be the key to
winning many battles. And for a game played in a consistently fixed
size map, it doesn't feel repetitive. On the contrary, it feels
extremely well balanced, and you have just enough time with each race
(3-4 levels). A race you just used comes up quickly as an enemy, so you
don't have the chance to really forget what you learned with them.
Seriously, it's great.
Russ Carroll: 9
Land
of Legends is a game that we've waiting to post reviews on for some
time. Thankfully the time has come to let the cat out of the bag.Â
This is a great strategy game that plays something like Advance Wars
meets your typical RPG game. Players are confronted with a long
series of single player modes as well as a multiplayer mode. The
RPG aspect makes the game play very different from Advance Wars while
keeping everything that game so good. A definite pick-up. |
|
|
|
Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa
(October 31)
by Pocketwatch Games
|
Mike Hommel: 7
Really a unique game. It manages to create the feel of balancing an
ecosystem through abstract rules rather than simulation. Thusly, what
actually is simulated is simple enough to fully understand, no PHD required.
I wish it were possible to access information during play, like the stats of
the animals (family size, diet), rather than having to memorize it. The
major thing that keeps this from being rated really high, though, is that it
gets dull and repetitive. You'll spend hours just hoping to find some way
to squeeze one more flamingo in.
Seth Robinson: 7
This is a semi-educational RTS where you plop animals into the world with
the goal of reaching certain animal populations. It's a lot of fun at first
but later levels seem to have some balance issues that detract from the
experience; it can be tedious building up your ecosystem repeatedly around
the four ponds most maps use. I wasn't able to bring myself to finish the
game. Nice variety of animals.
Mike Kasprzak: 8
A rather intriguing sandbox game. Though it plays nothing like it, the
game does remind me of Black and White. On that note, unless I'm
totally oblivious to some easy strategy, it's not an easy game to win.
I had to drop my difficulty to "easy" within a few levels to actually
progress further. On the other hand, like Black and White, the game
provides a good environment to just "goof around" and not care about
winning. The only downside to playing this way, is you still need to
win if you want to unlock the more animals. Interesting game.
Russ Carroll: 8
As a wildlife sim, WTVA gives gamers something very different. A sim game where you control the animals. The real fun here is in trying to get to the new animals. Making the ecosystem balance though is actually what you are doing in the game, though it at times seems to be frustratingly tedious as you overstock animals to get enough of the game's currency to 'puchase' new plants so that you can add a few animals that won't die from overstocking. Still when it works it is a lot of fun and will keep plalyers coming back. The sandbox mode was probably better than the story mode as it didn't feel quite so pressured. Both modes would do well to give players information about the animals at the touch of the button as going to the encloypedia to get it wasn't the easiest way for me. |
|
|
|
Fish Tycoon
(November 16)
by Last Day at Work
|
Mike Hommel: 8
The real-time nature of this game makes is interesting. I do enjoy the
overall process it offers (and have become semi-addicted. yes, I made a
chart), but it's very very slow going. And I set it aside for a couple days
and come back to a tank of corpses. That's kind of a selling point - it
certainly makes the game compelling. But it also limits your freedom. It's
a little bit like work. you have to come in and feed them or give them
medicine whether you want to or not, assuming you want to succeed. But I
suppose you have to click on matching gems whether you want to or not in
other games. It's just that this one imposes its own schedule on you!
(Note: you can pause it, but that doesn't change the fact that the 'action'
in it takes place over hours of real time).
Seth Robinson: 7
Going a step beyond the traditional fish tank simulator this also lets you
run a store and see little people come in and buy your aquatic pets. I like
the aspect of needing to feed your fish daily in "real-time". Graphically
it's a mixed bag; the images of the fish themselves are a small and grainy.
I'm having a hard time making money, my fish don't want to procreate. Maybe
because I had to flush their friend? Nice take on a fun theme.
Mike Kasprzak: 8
Excellent! Animal Crossing style realtime. Way back, some co-workers
and I were trying to come up with some game uses for mass storage (i.e.
hard drives). Then this little gem called Animal Crossing came out. In
our discussions, we were apparently oblivious to the idea that you could
compare a stored date/time and a current date/time, and generate a bunch
of crap for the time that's passed to create the illusion of a realtime
world, thus not requiring a mass amount of storage to do a game like
it. Well, I'm glad to see someone else has picked up on the idea. This
ones an aquarium store simulator. Simple rules. Feed and Breed fish.
Play for a bit, shut it down, and come back tomorrow to grown up fish.
Quite cool. I'm hardly and expert when it comes to fish, but what I
find really odd is the breeding here. It's a good gameplay liberty mind
you, but the way things work here is any fish can breed with any fish,
even a pregnant fish can impregnate another fish. Yeah, I find that
strange, and I apologize to any life-form that may be offended by that.
Err... what does this mean for the birds and the bees?
Russ Carroll: 8
Long before there was Game Tunnel there was Fish in the .Net a website dedicated to tropical fish. I am a big fan of fish and was excited for this game. It is really a great game focused on cross-breeding fish to create new breeds. The game, like Nintendogs, forces the 'leave it alone for a day and come back' approach. The only complaint is that you have to keep track of your breeding outcomes on your own. A big master chart in the game that fills in as you went would be really a nice addition. Otherwise a hard to beat game fish fan or no! |
|
|
|
The Butler Did It!
(October 18)
by Draconus
|
Mike Hommel: 5
I like the IDEA. A dynamically generated mystery, time-limited and thus
short. But the execution needs help. It could be I'm just dumb (quite
plausible, really), but I just never got enough information to progress
beyond luck. I'd get a clue, and ask every single character about it, and
none of them would say whose it was! And while having the people talk makes
it seem more like a real life mystery, the canned nature of it becomes
apparent all too quickly, and by your third game, you're just scanning for
keywords. Am I simply too stupid for this game? Some mysteries may never
be solved.
Seth Robinson: 5
Love the idea of a randomly generated virtual murder mystery but am left
disappointed by the simplistic and flakey mechanics. Each character has
about three matching 'items', be it hair color, dress color and so on. By
matching items and figuring out who he/she 'likes' you can (sometimes) solve
the whodunit. Characters don't react dynamically to any revelations so the
game quickly becomes purely data collection. Like the dialog and ambience.
Being able to rename characters is a nice touch.
Mike Kasprzak: 6
Yes, and the irony of the title is the butler is never the one that did
it. Seriously, there is a lot of good stuff here, but the game feels
rushed. At first I thought it was almost nostalgic that you'd want to
write things down while you play, but the fact that the game records
some information for you makes me want more. Say, any tips regarding
acquired item's, and where they were found. Sure, it might make the
game a little easy, but with up to 16 guests, partners in crime that are
already in there, and only so much time to learn all you can, I don't
think it would hurt.
Russ Carroll: 6
In this adventure game you are required to solve a crime. The problem is, the butler didn't do it (weird guy though) and the game feels a bit random. I found myself wandering from room to room unsure of if I was doing better or worse until I lost. Then I tried again and still was scored a 0. Points for being a bit wacky, but I think a
simpler interface (8 interrogation styles for each person you talk to?) would make this game a bit more accessible and not feel so complex. Still, if you want complex...Here is your game! |
|
|
|
Kind against the Wicked
(November 1)
by Thirsty Monkey Games
|
Mike Hommel: 4
The FAQ for this game compares it to popping bubble wrap, and I'm not sure
the game comes out ahead. Both involve endless repetitive actions without a
bit of thought, and offer a satisfying visual and aural result. But the
result from popping bubble wrap is much more varied, while you get the same
effect with every click in the game. And there's a tactile pleasure to
bubble wrap. In this game, all you feel is the mouse button. Also, bubble
wrap bubbles never hide just off the edges of the screen, making them
infuriatingly unpoppable. I won't say this game can't entertain you as long
as bubble wrap would, but I sorta doubt it can entertain you for any
*longer*.
Seth Robinson: 4
Imagine a game where you dumped out a jar of quarters and had to turn each
one to "heads" while racing someone else who was going for "tails". This
game is like that but without the exciting multiplayer aspect. This review
is based on the very limited demo [ED: I failed to get Seth the full
version...everyone else got it...apologies!]Â so perhaps things change after unlocking
more weapons? I like the spacey ambience but I'm just confused as to where
the motivation to keep clicking comes from.
Mike Kasprzak: 3
I hate to say it, but the game is really not very fun. You can play
from either the side of good or evil. You travel the universe
protecting or killing things. The game itself is more or less all
clicking. Chasing creatures on a planet with your cursor, and clicking
on them to protect or kill them. The one thing that had the potential
to make it more of a game, creature capturing, isn't useful at all to
the game. You can capture creatures for good or evil purposes, then
visit either a baron or thriving planet and drop them off.
Unfortunately, the creatures have no interest in mating without your
encouragement, killing the weaker ones, or generally dying from an
incompatible atmosphere. Short of clicking practice, this game doesn't
offer much.
Russ Carroll: 4
A very interesting concept where you choose to be either the good-guys protecting life across the galaxy by going to each planet, or the bad-guys trying to destroy it. Unfortunatly the game boils down to mostly mindless clicking and graphics that aren't as good as the idea for the game was, which is a real pitty because I think they were definitely onto something here. |
|
|
|
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: Thursday December 22, 2005
|
Action
Adventure
Arkanoid
Fighting
Platform
Puzzle & Casual
Hidden Object
RPG
Shooter
Simulation
Sports
Strategy
Download Games
