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Shattera |
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Developer: Strong Games Publisher: Strong Games Genre: Arkanoid > General Released: Nov 15, 2005 Players: 1 |
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The need to bust up collections of blocks must be written into the gamer€™s genetic code somewhere. In there, hidden amongst all the As, Ts, Cs and Gs is a little snippet of our ancestral heritage that says €œIf there are collections of three or more of a similarly colored blocks, they must be removed in a group€? and €œBlocks that are stacked can be broken if you hit them with a ball enough times€ do this and receive power-ups.€?
And I, responding to this innate urge, never seem to tire of block games€”be they Tetris, Collapse, Arkanoid or any of the unending variations on those grandfather titles. However, there never seems to be much variation in the way these games are played.
Take Arkanoid games: the power-ups change, the level backgrounds change and the blocks change, but nothing really fundamental changes. The first game to really break things up (pun!) and do it right was BreakQuest with its wacky themes and slick physics. Little Gods also raised the bar a bit by turning Arkanoid into a versus game. There have been a few titles who have attempted to take Arkanoid gaming into the 3-D realm, but I don€™t think many do it with as much success and charm as Shattera.
Shattera is, as I€™ve been illustrating, Arkanoid. Instantly, you know what€™s up. Blocks. Break them. It€™s in your blood. In Shattera, you don€™t do this with any cold, unfeeling metal paddle. You control a Mayan (Incan?) who, when faced with blocks that he must break, plays himself a game of soccer. By having your Mayan kick his ball into the blocks on the level repeatedly he can destroy them and, eventually, clear the level enough to advance.
Right off, I enjoy the whimsy of the game. Your Mayan is sort of pudgy, round about the edges, and has a subtle €œcute€? feel to him. The music in the game is a lilting, light meso-american tune and all the blocks are vibrantly colorful. Everything is very friendly and the game is perfect for all ages.
As for variants on gameplay itself, everything in Shattera is standard fair. Not having a wide paddle makes hitting the ball a matter of some precision, but that€™s quickly adapted to. The power-ups will be familiar, but have some fun twists. As your little guy is basically playing soccer, he can get a power-up that allows him to pick up and hold onto the ball, while still kicking around others in play. He can be kicking the ball and lobbing grenades, throwing a bomb, whipping boomerangs around the level€ Typical ball power-ups are the speed up and slow down options, the fire ball, lightning ball, heavy ball, generative ball and more. Even if they€™re not fantastically innovative, there are a good number of them to go around.
The big fun in Shattera is the perspective. 3D for Shattera isn€™t just how the game looks, it€™s an integral part of the level design and can be a big part of the gameplay. In what is a first for me, Shattera is an Arkanoid style game that allows the gamer to rotate their viewpoint. By clicking and holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse, the gamer can move the camera around to get a better view of the action. In the heat of things, this spells certain doom, but it€™s great for peeking around corners to see just what your ball is up to.
This is especially useful considering that the levels in Shattera build up and are frequently designed to block the gamer€™s view of the ball as it gets behind or under the many structures designed for the levels. Plus, falling and shifting blocks will frequently obscure the action. There€™s a lot of movement in the levels in Shattera. Blocks don€™t just disappear when they€™re destroyed. They take the structures they were supporting with them. There€™s a bit of physics involved in the game and things will tumble and bounce around the levels like crazy. Couple all this block movement with a generative ball and speed-up power-up and you€™ve got a ticket to some crazy gameplay. In an effort to help keep things speedy, too, when all that€™s left are a couple straggling blocks that seem impossible to hit, Shattera will drop a power-up that will let the gamer advance to the next level. A very welcome inclusion.
However, not everything comes up roses for Shattera. There are a good number of levels (60) to the game and each of the levels can take some time to complete. There€™s no way to save a game, though. Each time you quit the game, that€™s it. That was your game. You can pick up at the next level you€™ve unlocked, but there€™s no way to keep your high score and life-count going from session to session. It€™s not a crippling flaw in the game, but it€™s a missing element that no serious gamer will approve of. Each time I started up the application, I found myself wishing I could continue at my last point, rather than starting all over from zero at each level. It leaves the game feeling like a series of disconnected episodes, rather than a cohesive game.
This knock wasn€™t enough to crumble the game€™s foundations, though. Shattera is a great, friendly twist on the Arkanoid experience.
Graphics:
The graphics in Shattera are large and friendly. The game is bright and colorful and has a nice degree of polish to it. Many 3D games, especially (but now thankfully only historically) on the indie market, can have a real blocky look to their 3D models. Well, the exact point of Shattera is to have blocky models, but everything is well done. The textures are nice, things move smoothly, the whole nine yards.
Sound:
The sound effects in Shattera are solid. Different sounds for each power-up ball striking a block are distinct and fun. The music sounds a bit to me like the LucasArts music from the old adventure games (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, The Dig, etc.). It has a fun throw-back feel to it, but it€™s sort of mellow and almost seems to have a lulling effect on things. It€™s nice€ but I found myself tuning it out.
Gameplay:
The gameplay in Shattera is solid Arkanoid-style play. Where it improves upon the original is the inclusion of a true 3D viewpoint and some nifty physics for the ball and blocks in-game. The 3D nature of things also allows for the inclusion of a couple of very fun power-ups. All in all, a good advancement on a classic formula.
Concept:
Conceptually, this is a slight step up from standard Arkanoid. However, it€™s only a slight step. I€™m not going to fault Shattera here, but this is old hat.
Value:
Shattera sports 60 levels for $20. The levels are nice and varied and there are a few, but there are no other features to speak of. There isn€™t even a way to create a saved game or to continue a previous game. A few more features would really have put Shattera over the top as a superb title.
Fun:
Playing Shattera is a lot of fun. Each of the individual levels are fun, but I have to come back to the inability to continue a game past one launch of the application. Each time I needed to stop to get back to work or do some chore, I was acutely aware that all the work I had done up to that point would be zeroed out once I quit. In the end, all I was doing was advancing one stage at time, with no continuity. I felt like I had to keep cutting my fun short.
Overall:
Shattera is a lot of fun and it takes the Arkanoid title one quality step in a new direction. However, the game itself is stripped pretty bare. There are levels and some limited options, but no difficulty levels and no ability to save one€™s progress. All it would have taken me to push this to a €œBUY€? was a save-game feature, so consider that when you consider your purchase. It wasn€™t far off.
And I, responding to this innate urge, never seem to tire of block games€”be they Tetris, Collapse, Arkanoid or any of the unending variations on those grandfather titles. However, there never seems to be much variation in the way these games are played.
Take Arkanoid games: the power-ups change, the level backgrounds change and the blocks change, but nothing really fundamental changes. The first game to really break things up (pun!) and do it right was BreakQuest with its wacky themes and slick physics. Little Gods also raised the bar a bit by turning Arkanoid into a versus game. There have been a few titles who have attempted to take Arkanoid gaming into the 3-D realm, but I don€™t think many do it with as much success and charm as Shattera.
Shattera is, as I€™ve been illustrating, Arkanoid. Instantly, you know what€™s up. Blocks. Break them. It€™s in your blood. In Shattera, you don€™t do this with any cold, unfeeling metal paddle. You control a Mayan (Incan?) who, when faced with blocks that he must break, plays himself a game of soccer. By having your Mayan kick his ball into the blocks on the level repeatedly he can destroy them and, eventually, clear the level enough to advance.
Right off, I enjoy the whimsy of the game. Your Mayan is sort of pudgy, round about the edges, and has a subtle €œcute€? feel to him. The music in the game is a lilting, light meso-american tune and all the blocks are vibrantly colorful. Everything is very friendly and the game is perfect for all ages.
As for variants on gameplay itself, everything in Shattera is standard fair. Not having a wide paddle makes hitting the ball a matter of some precision, but that€™s quickly adapted to. The power-ups will be familiar, but have some fun twists. As your little guy is basically playing soccer, he can get a power-up that allows him to pick up and hold onto the ball, while still kicking around others in play. He can be kicking the ball and lobbing grenades, throwing a bomb, whipping boomerangs around the level€ Typical ball power-ups are the speed up and slow down options, the fire ball, lightning ball, heavy ball, generative ball and more. Even if they€™re not fantastically innovative, there are a good number of them to go around.
The big fun in Shattera is the perspective. 3D for Shattera isn€™t just how the game looks, it€™s an integral part of the level design and can be a big part of the gameplay. In what is a first for me, Shattera is an Arkanoid style game that allows the gamer to rotate their viewpoint. By clicking and holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse, the gamer can move the camera around to get a better view of the action. In the heat of things, this spells certain doom, but it€™s great for peeking around corners to see just what your ball is up to.
This is especially useful considering that the levels in Shattera build up and are frequently designed to block the gamer€™s view of the ball as it gets behind or under the many structures designed for the levels. Plus, falling and shifting blocks will frequently obscure the action. There€™s a lot of movement in the levels in Shattera. Blocks don€™t just disappear when they€™re destroyed. They take the structures they were supporting with them. There€™s a bit of physics involved in the game and things will tumble and bounce around the levels like crazy. Couple all this block movement with a generative ball and speed-up power-up and you€™ve got a ticket to some crazy gameplay. In an effort to help keep things speedy, too, when all that€™s left are a couple straggling blocks that seem impossible to hit, Shattera will drop a power-up that will let the gamer advance to the next level. A very welcome inclusion.
However, not everything comes up roses for Shattera. There are a good number of levels (60) to the game and each of the levels can take some time to complete. There€™s no way to save a game, though. Each time you quit the game, that€™s it. That was your game. You can pick up at the next level you€™ve unlocked, but there€™s no way to keep your high score and life-count going from session to session. It€™s not a crippling flaw in the game, but it€™s a missing element that no serious gamer will approve of. Each time I started up the application, I found myself wishing I could continue at my last point, rather than starting all over from zero at each level. It leaves the game feeling like a series of disconnected episodes, rather than a cohesive game.
This knock wasn€™t enough to crumble the game€™s foundations, though. Shattera is a great, friendly twist on the Arkanoid experience.
Graphics:
The graphics in Shattera are large and friendly. The game is bright and colorful and has a nice degree of polish to it. Many 3D games, especially (but now thankfully only historically) on the indie market, can have a real blocky look to their 3D models. Well, the exact point of Shattera is to have blocky models, but everything is well done. The textures are nice, things move smoothly, the whole nine yards.
Sound:
The sound effects in Shattera are solid. Different sounds for each power-up ball striking a block are distinct and fun. The music sounds a bit to me like the LucasArts music from the old adventure games (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, The Dig, etc.). It has a fun throw-back feel to it, but it€™s sort of mellow and almost seems to have a lulling effect on things. It€™s nice€ but I found myself tuning it out.
Gameplay:
The gameplay in Shattera is solid Arkanoid-style play. Where it improves upon the original is the inclusion of a true 3D viewpoint and some nifty physics for the ball and blocks in-game. The 3D nature of things also allows for the inclusion of a couple of very fun power-ups. All in all, a good advancement on a classic formula.
Concept:
Conceptually, this is a slight step up from standard Arkanoid. However, it€™s only a slight step. I€™m not going to fault Shattera here, but this is old hat.
Value:
Shattera sports 60 levels for $20. The levels are nice and varied and there are a few, but there are no other features to speak of. There isn€™t even a way to create a saved game or to continue a previous game. A few more features would really have put Shattera over the top as a superb title.
Fun:
Playing Shattera is a lot of fun. Each of the individual levels are fun, but I have to come back to the inability to continue a game past one launch of the application. Each time I needed to stop to get back to work or do some chore, I was acutely aware that all the work I had done up to that point would be zeroed out once I quit. In the end, all I was doing was advancing one stage at time, with no continuity. I felt like I had to keep cutting my fun short.
Overall:
Shattera is a lot of fun and it takes the Arkanoid title one quality step in a new direction. However, the game itself is stripped pretty bare. There are levels and some limited options, but no difficulty levels and no ability to save one€™s progress. All it would have taken me to push this to a €œBUY€? was a save-game feature, so consider that when you consider your purchase. It wasn€™t far off.
By: Michael Scarpelli
Posted: Friday August 25, 2006
Posted: Friday August 25, 2006
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