Fold Review
February 11, 2008
Fold is an enhanced version of one the wonderfully polished Manifold, offering new challenges and options. It’s another game that features controlling physics, but manages to do it in a never before seen way. The objective of each level is to get from the start point to the goal while avoiding sawblades, spikes, deadly plunges. You control a character who can run and jump, and you get the ability to create anomalies that propel your character in the direction they’re pointing. You can use them to accelerate horizontally, leap high up into the air, or cushion a fall. You can even use them to bounce from point to point, just like a trampoline. Since they can point any direction you want them to, you can direct them towards a wall to change the pull of gravity and walk on walls. The easy levels are a tutorial of how to play, the “uneasy” mode is a test of skills, and “Doubleplus Uneasy” mode is a difficult challenge that takes luck, quick reflexes, and quite a while to beat. Like I said before, the game is well polished, with excellent graphics, sounds and gameplay, as well as providing a challenging game.
Fold gets an A+
Protector Review
February 10, 2008
Protector is a new tower defense game that incorporates RPG elements in order to make a great game that consumes hours of your life at a time. Just like any other tower defense game, you build stationary towers that fire at incoming enemies. Except in this case those towers happen to be mages and warriors who gain experience for every kill they get. Instead of using gold that you get from killing enemies to upgrade your towers, you can only use gold to upgrade towers that have gotten enough experience points. There are four different elemental mages, a warrior, and four unlockable characters that you can place on the map. Certain enemies are stronger and weaker against different elements, so variety is best. Instead of just having one level that you always play on, Protector gives you a map of the world, much like Risk, and lets you choose where to attack. There’s no penalty for losing, and you can return to the main screen at any time. Whenever you complete a different area of the map you get skill points that you can use to strengthen different characters, unlock new ones, or lower prices for different things. The difficulty curve is wavy, with the game starting out easy for a few levels, then it becomes hard, turns easy again, and repeats the cycle until you beat it. It takes a long time to finish a single level, and trying to beat the game will consume hours of your life.
Protector gets an A-
Zunder Fury Review
February 10, 2008
Zunder Fury is another game that falls under the category of flash based shooters. It’s set apart from the typical shooter because it depends more on strategy and planning instead of simply shooting at whatever you see. You still have to shoot at whatever you see, it’s just that each enemy has a different way to shoot at. Some enemies are invulnerable unless you shoot them from behind, so you have to lure them and quickly shoot. Some enemies are slow and powerful, some are fast and weak, and some have tricks up their sleeves. One enemy even turns into a smaller enemy when it’s defeated. There are dozens of enemies, and each one has different ways to defeat it, which makes for an interesting game. You can choose between two ships, with each one having it’s own weaknesses and strength. Zunder is fast, nimble and shoots at a long range, but it’s weapon is weak. Fury has a powerful gun with a wider spred than Zunder, but it can only shoot in a small range, is incredibly slow, and has a hard time maneuvering. Gameplay is simply shooting at enemies with your gun, and using your limited amount of bombs to destroy everything when the screen gets too crowded. You toggle your gun on and off by clicking the mouse once, so you can focus more on aiming. It also gives your fingers a rest from continually clicking. During the game you get to upgrade your ship using points you get from defeated enemies. You can improve your speed or your weapon, get more lives, purchase more bombs, or add to your highscore. The game gets unfairly difficult after the first few levels, and the difficulty curve is like running up a wall, but other than that, Zunder Fury is a great game.
Zunder Fury gets a B
Phosphor Review
February 9, 2008
Phosphor is a great death match first person shooter written using Adobe’s Shockwave, which lets you have all the fun of a shooter combined with the ease of simply typing in a website. It has graphics similar to Quake III, Half-Life and Deus Ex, so you don’t need a top of the line computer to run it, and it’s lack of having to install it lets you start playing on any computer with Shockwave on it. The gameplay is fast paced like Unreal Tournament, with your character sprinting across the map and able to kill or get killed in seconds if you aren’t paying attention. There are four weapons: A Machine Gun, a Pulse Gun, a Sniper Rifle and a Rocket Launcher, so you can choose what type of player you’re going to be. I personally like using the Pulse Gun and Machine Gun, and occasionally I use the rocket launcher. There’s only one map, so there’s no real variety, but considering that this game runs in your browser, you can’t be too picky. Even then, that one map is expertly made, with several secret tunnels, open areas, narrow halls, and even a sniper tower. The controls are slick, which makes it easy to aim, run and jump. You can configure it to have either computer controlled characters, or play on a network. The AI characters are smart, and I’ve never seen them fall off of buildings or get stuck in walls. They’re also balanced, so that you never feel like the game gave you a cheap kill. If you feel like playing a shooter at the office, then Phosphor is your best bet.
Phosphor gets an A
Off-Road Velociraptor Safari Review
February 4, 2008
Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is a new game from Flashbang studios that combines racing around in a jeep and smashing Velociraptors to create an refreshing new game. The game makes you drive a jeep that has a speed booster and a “Spiked Capturing Ball” which is really just a glorified mace. You drive your jeep around the world, and you try to gain as many points as you can. You can get points by killing Raptors, collecting orbs, doing stunts/jumps, and damaging your jeep. The fact that you can smash Raptors would make this game awesome, but it also has nice game play. It’s incredibly entertaining to impale Raptors with your Capturing Ball, and jumping off one of th various ramps scattered around is a blast. It feels like a combination of Tony Hawk and Jurassic Park, and it’s so addictive that every time your finish a round you feel like trying to beat your high score. The game features full 3d graphics, nice scenery, and lets you expand it into a full screen window. The game also makes it fun to play with the physics, since you can launch your weapon if you time it right. I spent around half an hour fooling around with launching it, and only managed to hit a Velociraptor once. Take a look at the trailer if you want to see it in action.
Off-Road Velociraptor Safari gets an A+
If you look close enough, you can see that a Velociraptor is driving the jeep.
The Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2 Review
January 27, 2008
The Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2 is the sequel to the incredibly popular Fancy Pants Adventure (go figure). It features the fast paced action of classical games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros., complete with all the running, jumping, climbing and sliding you could ask for. The game starts out with a simple story that involves a golf trophy stolen by an evil rabbit, which the creator himself states is simply there so there’s a point to the game. Don’t let the paltry story fool you though, FPA2 features the best 2D Platforming experience since the glory days of the SNES and Genesis. The controls are simple: arrows to move, S to jump, space to pause. The levels consist of having to use different types of jumps with the environment in order to reach the next area, and progress towards the end. The environment has various elements that change game play and let you reach new areas, such as spring jumps, bumblebees and ropes. The game has a smooth pace, and it always seems as if there’s some new challenge every time you play a level: like when you realize that what you thought was a dead end can be used as a wall jump to reach different secrets. The game has a polished finish, but sometimes it can be tricky to navigate the levels, resulting in a bit of frustrating, albeit rewarding, backtracking. If you enjoy platforming games, then The Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2 is highly recommended.
The Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2 gets an A
Excit Review
January 13, 2008
Excit is a puzzle game designed to look like Microsoft Excel, so that anyone in the office who looks at you sees a spreadsheet. The game play is simple: Make it from the start position to the exit using the arrow keys, except you can’t stop without hitting a wall. If there’s no wall to stop you, you fly off the screen and have to try again. The puzzles consist of trying to figure out the way to reach the exit using whatever blocks are around, and features unique blocks such as teleporters and curves. The game features a score based on how fast you beat it, but you can get an even bigger score, and an incredibly frustrating challenge, by trying to collect “MIS” icons that are scattered around the level, and then get to the exit. Getting to the exit is often simple, but getting the MIS’s and reaching the end is often a difficult, aggravating, and well worth it challenge.
Excit gets a B+
5 Differences Review
January 13, 2008
5 Differences is a game that shows you two similar, but somehow different pictures. The goal is to find the five differences between them. Some are simple, such as words and colors that don’t match, but some are incredibly hard, such as a minor detail on a object in the corner. The game becomes frustrating when there is only one last, impossible to find difference. I only managed to get past the first five or six pictures, try it out and see if you can get any further.
5 Difference gets a B-
Invasion Tactical Defense
January 13, 2008
Invasion Tactical Defense is yet another new defense game, with more emphasis on planning ahead, using less towers, and conserving ammunition instead of using dozens of towers. The game starts by displaying a menu for purchasing guns, upgrades, and workers. You have to pick a gun, get an upgrade or two, and start the mission. The mission consists of defending from invading UFOs’ while workers create a nuclear missile to defend from the alien onslaught. You can set workers to either create ammo, or to create the missile. You have to defend until the missile is complete and a new level starts. The more workers creating the missile, the faster the level will be completed, but if not enough workers are making ammo, then you can’t defend your base and the mission will be over. I found the first two levels incredibly easy, and the game progressively harder until suddenly, the weapons became much more powerful than the enemies, making the enemies perish within a few seconds. When the game starts to provide another challenge, it abruptly comes to an end. The game has a variety of weapons, the change from normal tower games is refreshing, and the idea is great, but it has a rather poor presentation and a strange difficulty curve, making it have almost no replay value.
Invasion Tactical Defense gets a D+
Dolphin Olympics 2 Review
January 13, 2008
Dolphin Olympics 2 is a new flash game based on last years Dolphin Olympics. The game features playing as a dolphin, and trying to land tricks, much like a Tony Hawk game. You start out in the ocean and you accelerate towards the surface, after launching into the air, you try to land as many tricks as you can before falling back into the ocean. You can dive down on the dolphins nose, and do a U-turn in the ocean to fly out once again, with a bit more speed than the previous jump. The hard part is getting the timing and accuracy right. You repeat the jumping, doing tricks, and turning until the two minute timer runs out. After the two minute session, you see your own score, as well as a button that lets you play another two minute round. It’s easy to play a half dozen rounds and try to beat your previous score. The game is so addictive, that the hardest thing to do is stop playing. It’s a perfect way to spend ten or twenty minutes, and an even better excuse to put off work.
Dolphin Olympics 2 gets an A-
