Review pack issue #01

[Smidge204]

Normally I take a week off from work just for SAGE so I can get the most out of the spurt of liveliness the event offers our community, and I'd have more time to probe and savor the offerings. This year, though, I'm just too busy to do so... I apologize for the really terse reviews since I only have maybe two hours a day at most to dedicate to experiencing SAGE, which includes more than playing the actual games. So little time!

Aria of Destiny

First thought: Controls are gonna suck (after reading README.txt)

Second thought: The two characters are from different dimensions but apparently they both know Dracula. Guy must really get around...

Third thought: My GOD the controls suck... and attacking is dodgy too...

Graphics: First impressions were pretty good. While not exceptional in and of themselves, the graphics have a nice console-retro quality to them. Music: Standard fare. Level Design: Adequate from what I saw. Not exceptionally complex but not broken to the point of not being able to make your way around either. Gameplay: Attacking is slow and difficult to time correctly. This ultimately led to my demise on the very first level - being unable to defeat the enemies without also taking damage. I would recommend using something more comfortable for the controls if possible: A/S/D for Jump/Interact/whatever, for example.

Brazsonic 2

For the record, auto-center plus unmovable app = unplayable on my dual monitor setup. The game window is split between my screens, separated by about 3 inches and vertically offset by about an inch. Unplayable... and so no review at this time. Will update when this is fixed.

Cooperationation

A fairly unique puzzle type game, insomuch as the two-character mechanism isn't used all that often these days. The goal is to get the (presumably human) girl to the exit portal, with the help of a very blue and most likely not human (male?) counterpart. Each character has slightly different traits - most notably, the blue one can double jump and crouch to make a platform the girl can stand on. The player uses the two characters together to reach the goal. Graphics are a little crude but honest, as opposed to something the creator threw together while clearly not giving a shit. This is worth a try if only because it's something unique in a swamp of half-baked platforming games.

Super Mario Brothers: Bloody Battles

The childish pleasures of Super Mario Bros. mixed with the childish propensity for excessive gore and gun violence. What could be better? Classic Mario graphics and (thankfully optional) gunplay make for a rather interesting and occasionally difficult game. If you've ever played a Super Nintendo era Mario game, you know exactly what to expect and won't be disappointed.

Mario Roots

Done in Paper Mario style, the graphics and animation are pretty high quality. Unfortunately mario contorls like an overweight cow... jumps are barely high enough to reach the platforms, and it's far too easy to under/overshoot jumps due to the character's sluggish momentum. Gameplay elements such as powerups seem a little too complex for my tastes... too RPGish. If skill management is absolutely required to progress through the game I can't honestly say I'd bother.

Mine Hunt

Minesweeper with music. Retardedly, I won the first stage instantly due to a bug of some kind. As a Minesweeper aficionado I got up to stage 13 before losing a life and decided to quit while the sun was still up. Suggestions to improve play: "Question mark" squares (Nothing > Flag (chao) > ?) and left_Right click on numbers to open up all uncovered and unflaged squares IF the appropriate number of flags are in place (even if they're wrong). Makes things go a lot faster.

And oh yeah - music/background variety would be nice. I'm assuming it stays that way forever, but maybe at some point make the field larger to acomodate more mines, change the music and background for variety's sake.

NemeGraphe

GIVE ME AN OPTION TO SKIP THE TUTORIAL YOU BASTARD!!!!! Jesus that's annoying. Especially since you have to wait for the text to type itself out, follow whatever inane instructions it gives, and wait again.

Beyond that little gripe, the game is fun and strighforward: Fill in the squares according to a given number of squares in each column and row, along with some minimal pattern information. A good little time-waster puzzle which appears to have a function for importing custom pics - a promising feature that could add long-term playability.

Sonic Gemini

ARG FORCED FULLSCREEN DOES NOT WORK ON DUAL MONITOR SETUP. Not a huge problem, though, since none of the enemies appear to hurt me... as if collision detection with enemies was missed completely. Spikes work, though! The bonus stage is actually pretty neat, especially since the checkpoint post reactivates when I leave so I can go back in as many times as I want.

Again, I find Sonic's lack of power disheartening. Capable of very decent speeds but unable to walk up any slope greater than five degrees is pretty retarded. Similarly unable to complete a loop without a spindash no matter how much momentum I've got beforehand. This is a very common problem that I've ranted about quite a bit last SAGE.

Sonic Nexus

Fast, smooth, excellent (and huge) level design. Smacks od Sonic CD goodness. A few gimmicks, a few well placed "gotchas!" in the way of spikes and pits (but no DEATH PITS). Did I mention the levels were huge? Sadly there's only two acts of one zone. Get back to work, guys!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3D

For a 3D Sonic fangame, this could have been a LOT worse. Like, trainwreck worse. instead this reminds me of a very early SRB2; Kinda clunky, rough around the edges, but not unplayable. Some better enemy models and textures would go a long way to making it look better, and the controls need a little (okay, a lot) of work, but this actually seems like a good start. For starters, the camera isn't a total pile of ass like it is in... well, EVERY 3rd person game Sonic Team has ever produced. Worth a try if you can stand the massive download for only a few minutes worth of game. (P.S. I drowned. Need more air bubbles, dude...)

Pure Chaotix

Problem #1: Death pits.

Problem #2: Can't walk up gentle slopes.

Redeeming value #1: Excellent use of parallax and adding a multi-layered feel to the level.

Problem #3: Needs to be a better way to tell what features are on YOUR layer. It gets crowded.

Gameplay is a little rough. Enemies and landscape bend together almost seamlessly, in that they're basically camouflaged. The layering is an excellent effect and very well executed EXCEPT for the great difficulty of telling what parts of the landscape are yours and which are in the fore/background. This is especially vital when trying to avoid the legion of bottomless pits that litter the level design. Lack of checkpoints hurts, too... at least let me start from where I found the last team mate or something!

More to come as I find the time.

=Smidge=

[Candescence]

I guess your points on Aria are fair, though I gathered in the chat that you didn't realise what the save points were, I really should've made that clear (and I have in the booth), and you were just using Julius, he has a bit of a trick to him when attacking in the air, mostly about timing (there's a good reason why it's not that easy to hit Dracula in the CV games). However, once you get the sub-weapons, things get easier. Ashe is MUCH easier to use when fighting enemies, I admit, though Julius can hit enemies easier in the next two areas.

Note to self - make interactive objects more obvious than they already are. Actually, I swear I showed using it in the teaser...

The two characters are from different dimensions but apparently they both know Dracula. Guy must really get around...

Both come from different versions of Earth. Not that hard to figure out, lol.

[ZykovEddy]

(P.S. I drowned. Need more air bubbles, dude...)

OMG, i don't have problems with air, because sonic can swim. But okay, i will add more bubbles =)

[kirbyhi5]

Sweet, thanks for the review.

Unfortunately mario contorls like an overweight cow... jumps are barely high enough to reach the platforms, and it's far too easy to under/overshoot jumps due to the character's sluggish momentum.

Can't say much about this. I adjusted his gravity to be heavier so that battling enemies is easier and he isn't too floaty.(takes longer) However, it seems I can reach the platforms fine. If it doesn't play at the 40 FPS or higher, then yes I'd imagine it'd take a toll on his gravity. also yes I wanted it to lean more towards rpg elements rather than platforming.

.If skill management is absolutely required to progress through the game I can't honestly say I'd bother.

nope. you can beat the entire thing with only the shift button and arrow keys.

I appreciate the review though.

[Smidge204]

OMG, i don't have problems with air, because sonic can swim. But okay, i will add more bubbles =)

Yeah, but I was in a tunnel with no openings to air above. What LOOKED like openings were actually solid.

And having "door" transitions between water and air is really... strange.

=Smidge=

[Xtreme]

NemeGraphe

GIVE ME AN OPTION TO SKIP THE TUTORIAL YOU BASTARD!!!!!

GOTIT!!!! I will try to do it soon

Anyway, thanks for the review.

[Piggybank]

Thanks for the positive review! I really do have much more planned for Cooporationation, just I didn't know if the concept or gameplay was any fun to anyone.

And yeah, I think I'll try to improve the graphics a bit more.

[Godmaster]

Brazsonic 2

For the record, auto-center plus unmovable app = unplayable on my dual monitor setup. The game window is split between my screens, separated by about 3 inches and vertically offset by about an inch. Unplayable... and so no review at this time. Will update when this is fixed.

Split? Unmovable? what's going on? I didn't notice this problem on standard monitors so far... Have you tried to change resolution to fullscreen at the options menu?

[OverbounD]

Under Scaling select keep in aspect ratio in the global game settings. That may fix it.