Game Tunnel is proud to publish the October Independent Video Game round-up, the latest in our long-running Famitsu-styled panels that review all the latest Indie PC games. The 10 games reviewed for October include Introversion's Multiwinia, Archibald's Adventure from Rake in Grass and Zatikon from Chronic Logic. Read reviews from each of the panelists on all 10 games in the October Indie game round-up.

Michael Scarpelli: 10

Multiwinia for the winia! Who's with me on that awesome pun, huh? Huh? Yeah! Hive fives for everybody!

Seriously. Multiwinia is pretty just totally frikkin' awesome. It's got a stripped down, hyper-cool aesthetic; stripped down, versatile control system; and I wish I could think of a third thing that I could say was stripped down in a good way.

The game is essentially an real-time strategy game. You capture spawn points and create more of your citizen soldiers. You then select them and move them around the board to capture more structures, attack enemy units or capture power-ups. You can also create command units which create functional waypoints or organized battle forces. Toss in special units, battle effects, powerful special attacks and you have a game that is just a raucous good time.

I don't like multiplayer gaming, usually. It makes me too twitchy because I get too nervous about how I'll do when it comes time to get down to business. But one level of the single player of Multiwinia had me thirsting for on-line combat, which I was promptly able to find� and I promptly handed out two sets of third-degree whuppings.

Pany Haritatos: 9

Multiwinia is simply great. With its wide array of single-player and multiplayer experiences, there's enough goodness here to keep you entertained for a very long time. The gameplay is excellent, the UI is intuitive, the graphics are amazing, and the audio keeps pace. Multiwinia delivers on every front and is proof that indie developers can make games that not only meet but exceed the quality of traditional non-indie developers. Bravo to Introversion for a solid, well executed, challenging and fun experience!

Coby Utter: 8

As its name implies, Multiwinia has taken the popular Darwinia RTS game and moved it into the multiplayer space, opening up an entirely new spectrum of gameplay. In the original, the player controlled Darwinians fighting off a virus in a virtual theme park world, but Multiwinia pits player against player, as you command your Darwinians to vie for zone control, allowing you access to more resources on your way to ultimately defeating your opponent's Darwinian army.

Like Darwinia, Multiwinia's greatest strength is its accessibility. The real time strategy genre is often the antithesis of casual gaming, but Multiwinia's streamlined and intuitive controls coupled with the omission of tedious micro-managing have lowered the barrier to entry level players without relinquishing too much depth. The abstract art style from the first game is still present and is as beautiful as ever. The multiplayer component has added replayability and refreshing gameplay variety to the strong core concept of Darwinia and despite a few technical issues and limited maps, Multiwinia is simply addicting.

Russ Carroll: 8

I never really 'got' Darwinia. I think it is cool, but the game play never really hooked me. Unfortunately, I have to say the same thing about Multiwinia.

It's brimming with cool. It's amazingly stylish. I just struggle to really get into it. Perhaps I need to play it more, but I think it is just one of those cases where no game is for everyone, even the great ones.

That said, I did really enjoy Multiwinia. Much more so than with Darwinia and the game is so well-made it'd be a crime not to give it a go. It's easy to pick up and play with lots of intricacies to master.

I struggled with the controls at times, but they didn't fail me nearly as often as my own strategies did ;). There is always someone online and the variety of game play options lends itself to keeping the gameplay fresh. I appreciated the shorter map times, which lead to lots of fun short games with the chance to quickly dust yourself off and try again. I did really like it, but for whatever reason, it's not getting that hook into me that takes me over the hump from being very impressed to drooling like a fanboy, though I know it does that for many.

Michael Scarpelli: 9

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People's second installment takes a little score dip for me from the first. Though, really, it's a bit of a technicality.

Strongbadia the Free features all the same great Homestar Runner characters, the hilarious dialogue, the accessible gameplay, the well-crafted interface and all that good stuff� but it IS all the same stuff.

On the plus side, the game is pretty easy to pick up and play without having played the first installment in the series� but it is the curse of the episodic adventure to suffer the comment from reviewers that its not breaking any new ground. Really, though, that's because it's one game broken up into many pieces.

Pany Haritatos: 8

Strong Badia: The Free doesn't really bring anything new to Telltale's Strong Bad series, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. SBTF is executed with the same high level of polish and attention to detail as Telltale's first Strong Bad game. The graphics are equally as good, the audio top notch again, and the puzzles are generally even better this time through. It is another great adventure game experience, that's easy to recommended for fans of Strong Bad and adventure games.

Coby Utter: 8

The second episode in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, Strong Badia resumes where Homestar Ruiner left off with mounds of humor and witty dialogue. Being an episode in a singular game experience, you won't find major gameplay differences from the first in the series, so if you enjoyed Homestar Ruiner, you'll probably enjoy Strong Badia every bit as much.

Strong Badia does improve in a few areas, most notably with a tighter narrative experience. I also found Strong Badia to be funnier than Homestar Ruiner, which is saying a lot since the first episode was pretty hilarious. Reviewing episodic games like SBCGfAP is difficult without retreading the assessments of previous episodes, and Strong Badia is more of the same: funny, polished, and entertaining.

Russ Carroll: 8

Homestar Runner is bottled goodness.

Strong Badia marks the second of these episodic games and if for some reason you're passing on them, you should correct that behavior right now. The humor is fantastic and the games are fun, oh and the price is really low. It's really a no-brainer. Anyway, Strong Badia for its part, I thought was on par with the first game, which is to say it's marvelous.

The first puzzle of being under house arrest starts a little slow, but quickly delivers some of the best lines in the game. The map from the first game is replaced with a Risk like map as you work to take over by treaty, brute force, or mad dancing skills, the rest of the territory on the map. I got all geeked out by the meshing of a strategy board game map in the game and really enjoyed my play through. It's pure fun.

Michael Scarpelli: 9

For my money, it's hard to find a game more playable than a simple, side-scrolling, puzzle platformer and Archibald's Adventures is that to a tee. The game follows the adventures of skateboarding kid Archibald as he tries to escape the maze of dangers in a science lab filled with creatures and traps. The levels are short and sweet, the graphics are cartoon-y and clear and the challenges fit in wonderfully with the paradigm of a young hero attached to a skateboard. The puzzles are all timing and creative thinking and can really be taken on by anyone of any skill level. Also, since levels can tackled in any order (you have large chunks available at a time), you can jump around if you get stuck. I really enjoyed this one.

Pany Haritatos: 8

Thank you, Rake in the Grass. You really saved my bacon this month. Archibald was the 5th game in my list and the rest had really let me down. This wonderful platformer puzzle hybrid is simply excellent. The audio is top notch, the graphics are superb, and the puzzles are challenging, interesting and not the least bit frustrating. It introduces a few basic mechanics, and then combines them to create some really interesting and unique puzzles. This is a great game with excellent all-round execution. It's awesome, go and play it now!

Coby Utter: 8

Archibald's Adventures is a puzzle-heavy platformer where you must help the skateboard-riding Archibald escape from the basement (more like a dungeon) of a mad scientist's lair. Of course, the basement of a mad scientist's lair is filled with perilous traps, pools of acid, and yes, weird, mutant creatures. Archibald isn't the muscle-bound hero type, so instead you must use your cunning to avoid these dangers.

To solve the puzzles in the basement, you'll have to flip switches, use teleporters, bizarre science potions, and a variety of odd items. The levels are bite-sized and numerous. Fortunately, there is a lot of variety in the game, and the presentation is very well done. The pixel art is always consistent, but the sounds and music leave something to be desired. Overall, Archibald's Adventures has a quirky premise, solid mechanics, and enough entertainment packed in for hours of fun.

Russ Carroll: 8

If you enjoyed Professor Fizzwizzle I'd recommend checking out Archibald. This game, like that one, is built around plat-forming puzzles that require you to carefully consider your surroundings and formulate a plan of how to get from point 'a' to point 'b.'

The puzzles offer a lot of variety as they are broken up over several different subsets where Archibald uses things like a sticky ball and a ship to keep things interesting. My only complaint was that as you moved on to the harder puzzles, the save points were often too far apart, requiring you to flawlessly execute large sections of a challenging level just to get to the amazingly difficult part that was trying your patience. It's a good game that makes you think and has a nice graphic style (I loved the skateboard animations), and being able to skip levels by selecting from the different subsets made it all the more fun.

Michael Scarpelli: 9

TWTPB (I'd love to tell you the title� but I don't know what it stands for because I wasn't awesome enough to get far enough into the game to learn) is the most enjoyable shooter I've played in a while. The game has a great, cohesive feel to it � you are the agent of an empire sent to battle against the heretics that dare to challenge the current rule � and is about as hard as any great shooter needs to be.

Each level you advance through gets you a new ability. You start with rapid shot, then you get healing, then you can slow down time, then you get missiles (which look just like Robotech missile clouds and are totally sweet)� and then I wasn't good enough to get farther. Each ability is totally useful in each situation you come across and balancing their use is the fun of the game.

Because it's a classic shooter, it takes some cheap shots with the bosses (having them suddenly appear and dart down to the bottom of the screen to crush you instantly), but it wouldn't really be a classic shooter without the cheap shots, would it?

Pany Haritatos: 7

TWTPB is a top down vertical shooter with an abstract theme. The graphics are great, though at first I thought my ship's sprite failed to load. As it turns out, your ship is just a flying graphical fiery thing. The controls are tight and responsive, and are instantly accessible. As you progress through the levels you gain special abilities that are powered with energy you collect from destroyed foes. Knowing when and how to use these special abilities really adds a fun tactical dimension to the gameplay, and can make the difference between total annihilation and resounding victory. The game's audio matches the gameplay and is perfectly executed. Probably the worst thing about the game is that it gets really hard really quickly, but I would say it is in line with the difficulty progression of other games in this genre. The story also detracts rather than enhances the experience here, but it's not visible enough to do any real damage. TWTPB is a solid shooter with some interesting gameplay choices and is certain to entertain fans of the vertical shooter genre.

Coby Utter: 7

TWTPB is an eye-candy treat, with explosions, glowing enemies, and vibrant colors galore. The game plays as a vertical space shooter, which mixes abstract and realistic imagery to form a very pleasing visual assault. There are multiple background layers with plenty of haze and stardust that contrast against the games bright objects and really help sell the look. The visuals are by far the strongest point of the game as the screen is constantly filled with enemies, projectiles and particles.

Concerning the gameplay, well, there's not a lot to say. TWTPB is a very standard vertical shooter outside of the terrific visuals. The mouse- only controls are solid, and the game runs smoothly, but TWTPB doesn't bring anything innovative to the well known shooter gameplay. The execution is virtually flawless, but the game leaves me wanting so much more. TWTPB is a â"what you see is what you get' kind of game, and in this case, that's actually saying something good.

Russ Carroll: 7

At first I thought T.W.T.P.B. was just awesome.

It has amazing style for it's minimalist aesthetic and backs it up with game play that for the first four levels made me feel like I was a rock star.

Then I got to level 5. About that time it dawned on me that I didn't feel awesome anymore. I felt frustrated. Very frustrated.

I've played a few shooters in my day and though I'm not an all-star, I'm decent. I was totally destroyed by level 5 (of 10). I played it over and over until I totally lost my will to play, simply because it was so difficult. With some tweaking (simply adding multiple difficulty levels) I think this game would be great. Like in all CAPS great. Even as it is, when you're not being annihilated it's dang fun. Totally worth the price of admission for the great moments of fun, and with a little tweaking it could be even more.

Michael Scarpelli: 8

I think that Zatikon is a game that's likely to split the panel, but maybe I'll be wrong. I was going to score it lower, based on the idea that its universal appeal is iffy, but I went with my gut, and my gut says this is a rich piece of gaming.

Zatikon is basically fantasy chess. It's a game of chess with a ton of custom pieces that do a wide array of attack types. This means that it's both tricky to learn, supremely hard to master, and perhaps a little obscure to the general populace. It doesn't help that there could really afford to be a better tutorial system� but once you get past that, I think Zatikon is the kind of game you could play forever and always have it be interesting.

It doesn't matter that in the time I had to play I got nothing but schooled by other players� I can certainly see the appeal and the longevity of this one.

Pany Haritatos: 7

Zatikon is not for everyone. Imagine chess with 50 units and most of those units have 3-4 special abilities. That is the essence of Zatikon. If you're not horrified already, then the reality is that Zatikon is actually a lot of fun if you can get over the initial pain and suffering. At the start when I was hopelessly lost and overwhelmed, I didn't really think much of the game. But after a few hours playing cooperative with some skillful players, I began to grow a sense of the various strategies that can improve your effectiveness in the game, which naturally corresponded with me enjoying the game more. Obviously the game suffers from a brutal learning curve, and you have to have a good reason to stick through those first few hours of orientation. If you make it, though, there is a game here with a lot of variety. Just about every match plays out differently on account of the hundreds of possible unit combinations and the various tactics that come out as a result. Aside from the steep learning curve, the game suffers from some other issues. It inexplicably crashed a few times. The graphics are spartan to the point that they hurt the game, particularly for a beginner trying to pick up on all the unit variations. I desperately wished I could click on enemy units to see their attack ranges. That would have made learning significantly easier. It's difficult to recommend Zatikon, because of the steep learning curve, aesthetics and general usability issues, but if you survive the brutal hours of orientation, you're sure to find a game to satiate your tactical needs.

Coby Utter: 6

Zatikon is a multiplayer-enabled fantasy strategy game in which you control a small army and attempt to capture your opponent's base. The game is turn-based, giving each player a certain number of actions they can perform (which can be altered via gameplay) as well as a time limit. There are innumerous units that are available, which adds depth and strategy to what is otherwise a very straight forward affair.

There is a single-player mode against AI available, but finding a multiplayer game was typically pretty easy, and the multiplayer matchmaking is completely painless. The presentation is extremely minimalistic, but not necessarily in a good way. The gameplay is solid, but simplistic and unoriginal. Zatikon was fun for a few battles, but then I was ready to move on to something a bit more invigorating.

Russ Carroll: 8

Zatikon reminded me of this year's Battle of Tiles in two ways. First off, the game's graphics are just bad. Out-dated and not pretty.

Secondly, the game is a wonderfully addictive strategy game that I found nearly impossible to put down.

Zatikon reminds me of the old Avalon Hill strategy games. It has a fairly original and specific set of rules and you feel like you have a world of possible strategic approaches. Playing out on a chess board, players pick out their army from far an overwhelming number of available units, and then deploy and move units using command points (some of which can be gained from units). The game is online and there were always plenty of other people online when I played, a rarity for Indie games. I think the gathering crowd is the best evidence in showing just how good Zatikon is. If you are a strategy game fan you MUST check it out, you'll thank me later.

Michael Scarpelli: 7

Now Boarding is a task management game based around the notion that you control an airport. I'm sure Fearless Leader Russ will not mention this, so I'll go right out and say it, Now Boarding isn't as good as Airport Mania, a task-management game about running an airport created by, you guessed it, Fearless Leader himself.

Now Boarding has a groovy retro look that I dig very much, but the method of loading passengers, plotting out routes and building up your airport just feels clumsy. The retro aesthetic appears to have trumped the use of an efficient layout on some of the game's interfaces. It is fun to have the ability to build routes and expand the terminal, and the route management is interesting� but it's just tricky enough to juggle all the inputs on screen smoothly (not being able to queue up actions, for example) left it just shy of being something I really enjoyed.

Pany Haritatos: 6

Now Boarding is an airport themed click-management game and it's alright. The core gameplay centers around shuffling passengers between various destinations. The danger with click-management games, though, is that they walk a fine line between being engaging and feeling like you are doing chores. Unfortunately, Now Boarding does more of the latter than the former. The graphics don't really save the experience as they are bland for the most part, except the character graphics which are pretty charming. I liked the music too, but the gameplay just never quite transcends the level of basic repetition. There is a better airport themed click-management game out there, go play that one instead.

Coby Utter: 7

Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of click management games, and had rather low expectations for Now Boarding. Luckily for me, Now Boarding does many things right and was enjoyable for a while. The first impression Now Boarding makes is with its presentation, which is vivid and crisp. The user interface is very intuitive and the game has a distinct and pleasant visual style. The audio design is also very good. In short, the aesthetic execution is top notch.

Your goal in Now Boarding is successfully managing airports by controlling plane traffic, managing passenger flow, and overseeing employee operations. There's actually a surprising amount of depth here, and there are a variety of ways to improve an airport's efficiency. Even with this variety, Now Boarding still grated on me after several missions. Essentially, Now Boarding cannot overcome the constant repetition that I've always associated with click management games. Fans of the genre will love this game; everyone else may enjoy it for a few missions.

Russ Carroll: 8

Now Boarding's key gameplay mechanic is built on players strategically routing planes from one airport to another to ensure that plane space is well-used and that passengers don't wait too long for their flights.

I really liked trying to think through the best strategy to send a plane to multiple airports so that it would pick up additional passengers on the way to the final destination, and that led to me really enjoying the game. I dug the simply-drawn blocky stylized aesthetic of the game as well as the game-play modifying power-ups. It's a nice mix of sim, strategy, and action in a simple package that it's really a lot of fun to play.

Michael Scarpelli: 6

I found myself enjoying Cell Zenith� but at the same time, I could feel the itching sensation that the game could be great with just a little more tweaking. In Cell Zenith you control a CEL, a sort of assault vehicle. You also have the backup of two remote units and a flying transport, each of which you can issue support orders to, which is cool. There are also a ton of varying power-ups and secondary weapons you can fire, which is also cool. But when it comes time for combat, there's so much happening on screen and the enemies re-spawn so rapidly that I almost never know what's going on and am typically just firing randomly into a cloud of units and hoping I hit things. I can't really focus on dodging or aiming or even my own health bar� I just fire and fire and fire until there's nothing more to hit, which takes quite some time. I think with a more flexible viewing angle (I want my horizon line to be farther in front of me) and a better paced re-spawn of enemy units, Cell Zenith would feel more like the think-y shooter that all it's weapons and support units want it to be� as is, it's just mad shooting.

Pany Haritatos: 5

Cell Zenith suffers from too many decent ideas but not enough good ones. Despite a plethora of units to choose from, and an obvious attempt to emphasize squad based gameplay, most of the time in Cell Zenith is spent frantically trying to land a hit on your opponent. The core gameplay is simply too fast and too twitchy to allow for any sort of tactical play. The vast majority of encounters boil down to simply spamming the screen with projectiles and beams hoping to hit your opponent with as many of them as possible. Coupled with a really weak story line, rather annoying cut-scenes, and a bizarre 2D/3D hybrid engine, CellZenith just fails to execute anything well enough to make it worth experiencing.

Coby Utter: 8

Cell Zenith is a fast-paced 3D shooter with excellent production values that keeps the action frantic, while letting you stay in control � often a tough balance to achieve. There are a lot of good things to say about the game, and it's obvious the developer spent a lot of time adding in tons of polish. The UI is slick and the in-game visuals are terrific. There are numerous effects, explosions and other visual treats to keep your eyes glued to the screen.

Having a great presentation is always nice, but the gameplay makes or breaks a title. Cell Zenith is a lot of fun. It's fast, has tight controls, and excellent response. There is a lot of variety available, with tons of upgrades and options and a lengthy campaign mode. The AI is hit or miss, unfortunately. Occasionally I was pretty surprised at a clever maneuver, but there were plenty of free kills as enemies couldn't navigate the environment better. Though not perfect, Cell Zenith is an excellent game and lots of fun.

Russ Carroll: 6

In Cell Zenith, you both control an attack ship and command a small fleet of craft in an attempt to destroy enemies.

I enjoyed destroying things, but would have enjoyed it a bit more if the missions had a bit more umph. The missions all seem to come back to "survive for a long period of time," a very long period of time as far as I was concerned. That's not to say that the dog-fighting isn't fun, I really did enjoy it, and working with a squadron makes for some great moments. However, the long levels take away from the fun by deflating the goal value and making the game often feel more like survival mode or endless enemy encounters in tight quarters. I also struggled a little with the slightly odd camera movement that made the maps rotate more than I'd like. Still it's got some charm worth taking a look at if you enjoy isometric battling.

Michael Scarpelli: 6

Laxius Force is the distilled essence of that kid that sat behind you in middle school and drew dragons in their notebook all day long instead of taking notes. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. Those people tend to grow up into the heroes of gaming that we have to thank for our daily enjoyments� but that's when they grow up�

Laxius is a very classic RPG game after the style of Aveyond or the original Final Fantasy game. Everything from the art style to the dialog in Laxius Force has the stilted feel that comes from a fanboy that has more enthusiasm than skill in game creation. That having been said, there's a clear feel that the game is going to just be bursting with content, and whether or not that's awesome depends on how you like your introduction to the game.

The combat is basic, the feel is clunky� but the enthusiasm that went into the game is palpable and, dagnabbit, that is kind of infectious and I found myself playing happily even though I wasn't terribly impressed by anything.

Pany Haritatos: 4

Laxius Force suffers from an amateurish feel. It is not that it is so obviously an RPG Maker game, but rather that nothing in the game feels polished. The writing is some of the worst I've seen in a game. The graphics range from acceptable to bad. The story fails to spark any sort of interest at all. The one respite is that the audio fairly decent. There's little reason to dive into a game like Laxius Force when there are better games, like last month's The Spirit Engine 2, to entertain your RPG needs.

Coby Utter: 7

Any indie RPG coming after The Spirit Engine 2 has a lot of work cut out for it. Fortunately, Laxius Force is able to stand strong, and although it's not a masterpiece, it is a very solid RPG. Similar to Aveyond 2, Laxius Force is a ¾ view RPG with turn-based combat. The narrative that drives the game is quite enthralling, and Laxius Force succeeds by creating memorable and interesting characters inside a unique fantasy universe.

Visually, Laxius Force suffers from a lot of inconsistencies. There is a distinct clash in styles between the character art and the in-game world art, which at time is very distracting. The music is surprisingly good, and the meager sounds are acceptable. Unfortunately, there is little innovation at work here; Laxius Force is a very traditional, by the books kind of RPG. This might be exactly what some people are looking for, however I'm always hoping to see something new in a well-tread genre. In the end, the strong narrative and interesting characters help solidify Laxius Force as a competent and capable indie RPG.

Russ Carroll: 6

It's really hard for Laxius Force to follow last month's The Spirit Engine 2. The game is competent enough, but it lacks polish, evident in the often rough English text and inconsistent graphics. Made with RPG Maker, the draw for me was the storyline, which certainly has all the right pieces for an epic adventure.

Long corridors and inconsistency in the difficulty of enemy encounters take a little away from the adventure, but for those who don't have trouble with a game being a bit under produced (or even prefer their games that way) a good and LONG (80 hours!) RPG awaits.

Michael Scarpelli: 6

Firstly, I love the art style of Optimus Apparatus. Everything has a hand-drawn, rough-hewn, pencil-shaded look that I find really appealing. However, the rest of the game doesn't quite engage me as thoroughly.

The instructions for the game seem complex, but the core of the game is really very simple. You take your ship (that you can customize with weapons and components� something I never really got the hang of) and you fly around each randomly generated level looking for two boss ships, ID'd by the trail of blue sparks that they give off. That's it.

So, it's fun to fly around and fight with gravity for a bit� but soon things got a little stale. But� randomly generated levels and ship customization can mean continued freshness for people that enjoy the core concept.

Pany Haritatos: 5

My love with procedurally generated games began with Rogue back in the day, but as Optimus Apparatus proves, random doesn't necessarily mean fun. I could forgive the lack of intelligent level generation, but combined with awful controls and needlessly complex UI, OA just ends up being a lesson in frustration. My best guess is that this game is too close to the heart of the developer and his play testers. The core gameplay is dead simple: move around and shoot everything. I spent the first 10 figuring it out, though, because the presentation is so complex. I've played civilization simulators that were easier to pick up. A redesign of the UI with a simple as-you-go context sensitive help system would make this particular problem disappear completely. The biggest single issue, however, is the controls. I'm guessing the developer is left-handed, which is fine, but at least give us the option to remap your controls. Sure, I could remap the fire buttons, but I wanted to remap the movement buttons. Forcing precision maneuvering out of my relatively clumsy left-hand, while at the same time penalizing me for collisions is unforgivable. Why do you hate me so much, Stolpskott? There are a plethora of other little nags, like the fact that there's gravity, or that you can't pause the game without being penalized, which, combined with the more severe design flaws really drown out the cool things in the game. The procedurally generated weapons are pretty slick with a nice range of possibilities, and the ship customization gives you considerably more options than most games of this type. It's simply not enough to salvage the frustrating core gameplay.

Coby Utter: 5

October has definitely been the month of the shooters, and Optimus Apparatus is jumping onto that list as well. Unfortunately, it's jumping onto the bottom of the list. OA is touted as a gravity shooter with action RPG elements. Half of this is correct, but I think the gravity shooter bit should have been replaced with a frustrating-to-control shooter. The action RPG part is correct however; you can collect parts from ships you've destroyed to upgrade your own. While novel, I didn't find this affected gameplay too much in the beginning, although there were some very nice upgrades farther into the game.

The presentation of OA lacks an overall feeling of polish. The art style is very distinct, and not necessarily bad, but definitely not pleasing. The game has some rough edges that proper polish time could have smoothed out and really help move the game out of the realm of mediocrity. As it is, it's a game with unappealing visuals, frustrating controls, and no sense of direction, which just isn't enough in a world saturated with shooters.

Russ Carroll: 5

I've never been a fan of Thrust-styled game play. It makes me cringe and throw. It requires patience and precision that I frankly don't want to put in as I don't find my successes to be worth the effort. Simply said, I find fighting gravity to carefully maneuver a craft un-enjoyable.

That's a big preface, but an important one. Optimus Apparatus might be the world's best Thrust-based game. You fly a spaceship around a variety of interesting planets equipping your ship in the way you want to as you complete missions, destroy enemies and build-up your ship. Adding space combat to the already challenging thrust flying made something I found very difficult and frustrating become nearly impossible. It's not for me, but there is an amazing amount of depth that is to be commended, if you can handle the physics-based controls that were too realistic for me.

Michael Scarpelli: 2

Hollow Ground is a game I wanted to like. It's very similar to Larva Mortis, that we reviewed a couple panels ago, but just absolutely crammed chock full of suck. The graphics are awkward and flat. The camera pushes in too close. The instructions are too unclear. The game is just a mess. However, out of all of this, there was one element that made this game absolutely unplayable for me: walk speed.

I'll explain. You move very slowly as a walker in the game. VERY slowly. There is no control button to make your character run. What the game will do, though, is alternate, without rhyme or reason, between having your character move like they're running a race and walk like they're mired in molasses. The change happens frequently and randomly and it made me want to put a fist through my monitor.

Pany Haritatos: 4

Hollow Ground is best summed up as a bad version of Gauntlet. It loses points on everything except the graphics, which are pretty good for a top down game. The problems started with the registration of the full version. I still don't quite know if I successfully registered my version of the game. I didn't hit any barriers with my progression, so I'm sure that I succeeded. Maybe? I don't know. The game itself begins without ever establishing any sort of successful atmosphere. The story intro has the most heavy handed use of the thesaurus I can remember seeing in a game. Just getting through the few sentences there was a real challenge. The controls in the game have some pretty serious issues. It's not possible to be precise in your aiming. You can fire in the cardinal directions and then jiggle the controls to spread your bullets on the diagonal and the angles in between. You can't move independently from aiming, which maybe not every game needs, but it means that you end up taking a lot of projectiles in the face. The fire key is the shift key, which is quite possibly the worst possible choice for an action key, ever. Within the first three minutes of play I got tossed into StickyKey hell. Moving around the game is really frustrating. I'm sure it is not caused randomly, but I could never figure out why I would suddenly change speed while moving around the game. Sometimes I would speed up - running, I think. Sometimes I would slow down - your guess is as good as mine. The game also boasts "3D levels in 2D." What this equated to in-game was sometimes enemies could shoot me and I couldn't shoot them. All these bad choices resulted in a really inconsistent and frustrating experience which ultimately made it impossible to enjoy the game.

Coby Utter: 6

While not a bad game, Hollow Ground has more problems than there are moments of greatness. You are tasked with getting a group of mercenaries to infiltrate a bunker to find and destroy a weapon of mass destruction. This bunker is filled � to the brim � with mutants and other nasty creatures. The game plays as a top down shooter sans mouse controlled aiming. At first I thought the control scheme would be disastrous, but the keyboard-only controls actually played pretty well. The game supports some nice effects, and the visuals are not amazing, but more than capable of conveying the intended atmosphere.

Tragically, the design has some serious flaws: seemingly endless waves of mindless enemies, mediocre path-finding, and confusing and unnecessarily labyrinthine levels. The sound effects are particularly bad, but the biggest fault is that the gameplay simply doesn't evolve. After completing the first level, you've really seen most of what the game has to offer, and only the most hardcore shooter fans will likely stay interested to get trekking into that devilish bunker.

Russ Carroll: 5

Hollow Ground is a 2-player Gauntlet-like game that has players going down into the depths to kill zombie-like creatures. The game's graphics are well-drawn, but at the same time somewhat crude (which is doubly true in regards to the female character). Co-op is really the reason to play, but the slow speed of movement and somewhat clumsy collision mixed with levels that MUST be done in the right order, or you'll be forced to commit suicide, left the end result wanting.

If you and your friends can't get enough Gauntlet, then this might be right up your alley and joystick control is always a plus. At worst it's another co-op game to play if you don't have any others.