moshboy

Lazreal is an evil, evil developer. In Super Boink-o-Doink, he has managed to create one of the most hair-pullingly, gut-wrenchingly frustrating indie platformers ever. The challenge is simply working out how to get from one screen to the next, while avoiding the obstacles and leaping over the large gaps. The game laughs at your failure. Not only do the monsters running back and forth along the top bar stop and take interest when you die but the game also keeps a death counter, just to remind you how many times you kicked the bucket. And trust me when: even the most hardcore among you will kick the bucket – many, many times. Most will not finish this and many will throw their hands up in disgust at the difficulty level. Even those willing to persevere will probably struggle.

Regardless of whether or not the difficulty makes you want to try harder or quit altogether, it is easy to recognize that some heart went into the production values. Graphically, everything in the game is stylistically pixilated. The monsters are cute pixel sprites and the terrain is well-defined pixelized platforms. The soundtrack is fast paced and jovial, contrasting to the extreme difficulty of the game itself. That’s the game mocking you again.

I must say that as hard as this was, it didn’t put me off playing it. In fact, I spent a good couple of hours attempting to work my way through some of the initial screens. And what’s more, I had fun doing it, even though at the end of playing, I hadn’t managed to get very far at all. This game is intentionally difficult. If you dislike intense difficulty, the best advise I can give is to not even bother firing this up because you will probably be yelling at the monitor before the two minute mark hits. If, however, you are up for a rather large challenge or are prepared to be mocked time and time again, then by all means, give the game a shot.

I love bullet hell shmups. They look beautiful, they feel smooth and you get some of the most ridiculously insane power-ups known to mankind. There’s only one problem. I suck at them. For the most part, bullet hell shooters throw you in the deep end head first and if you aren’t well practiced (like myself) then you’ll find that your games don’t tend to last very long.

For those that don’t know, a bullet hell shoot ‘em up (shmup for short) is generally vertically scrolling with enemies that fire a lot of bullets in various patterns. As you can imagine, most of the genre are tough as nails and offer very little reward unless you are prepared to put in an awful lot of practice. Self Destruct changes this. In reality, Self Destruct isn’t all that different for the inexperienced bullet hell player: each game only lasts a short period of time but the difference is that each game feels designed to last a short period of time. In turn this helps it feel a lot more accessible, a lot more fun and a lot less frustrating than your average bullet hell shooter.

The retro visuals and bouncy, fast paced soundtrack fit perfectly with the breakneck pace of the gameplay. The game itself is played in (very quick) waves, where singular or groups of spaceships will fly down the screen. The eventual aim is to survive 250 waves (and score as much as possible on the way) and this is no easy feat. There are time-limited power-ups available and you can also carry one ‘nuke’ at a time, which will allow you to destroy everything on screen if you are in a tight jam.

What makes Self Destruct so rewarding are the little things: the voice that tells you how many waves you have left every 50 waves and the message at the end of each game telling you the score and how many waves you completed (and whether you bettered your own record). Unlike so many others of its type, you aren’t made to feel like a failure if you lose and you don’t have to take it seriously. If you want to take it to the next level and put in a lot of practice – well that’s fine too. You can even have a crack at making it onto the online high score table or you can just choose to try to better your own best score.

Play it however you like. Just make sure you play it, even if you might not be big on bullet hell shmups.

Alex Adventure is a retro platformer, played across oddball terrain. You run, you jump, you shoot, you collect the occasional key, you solve the occasional puzzle and you try to find as many ‘artifacts’ (out of six) as you can before you reach the end of the game, which consists of a sprawling landscape.

The game has an otherworldly feel. Graphically, the game is lovingly retro but the actual landscape and especially the enemies feel completely alien. The soundtrack is just plain weird and a little hard to describe (and I don’t mean that as an insult at all). All of this adds up to a totally surreal atmosphere. It really involves you in the game itself, which is what so many games fail to do. Bear in mind it succeeds in doing this without a background story to speak of.

What further solidifies Alex Adventures’ status as a classic is the well thought out and clever level design. The game always remains challenging but fair. There are no cheap deaths here. Once you learn the gameplay mechanics (and this doesn’t take long), everything that happens is your own fault. Admittedly jumping feels a little strange to begin with but after five minutes, I got my head around it and was able to progress further into the intriguing landscape.

Alex Adventure is odd but odd in every way that a game should be. It makes you want to see what comes next even when things become tough and invites replays to find any artifacts you might have missed along your travels (most are at least slightly hidden). Highly recommended.

Numbers is a puzzle game, played out on a 3D grid. The basic premise of the game is to send random numbers down the grid and group same numbers together in groups of their number, after which they will disappear. For example, grouping two twos together or five fives together. There are a few complications to make things more difficult however. Firstly, every so often, the leftover numbers on the grid will move toward you a notch. Secondly, ones cannot be made disappear and third, when you successfully make a group of numbers disappear, all the numbers surrounding them will add one to themselves (except sixes, which will roll back over to ones).

Maybe it was just me but the general presentation of Numbers seemed somewhat drab, even uninspired. Graphically, the 3D is competent but there is little to attract anyone that may not have been immediately persuaded by the original concept. First impressions are always important. Even with all the colours used for the numbered blocks, the game just doesn’t seem colourful enough. Playing across a board of circuitry makes little sense and the slow moving milky way-esque background, while matching the slow paced game mechanics is unlikely to be noticed while you’re concentrating on the game itself. Even the soundtrack seemed to add little tension to the game.

The game itself is made of a solid concept and quite playable, although it seems to lack the punch that it really needs to push it into the region of being well above average. When you make a group of numbers disappear, it would have been nice to feel an impact or see the screen shake. Because you don’t, the feeling of accomplishment is somewhat diminished, although it is still fun to watch large chains of groups disappear one after another.

Don’t get me wrong: Numbers IS worth a look. I just feel that the concept could have been better executed.

Strange Attractors is an oddly addictive mixture of arcade and puzzle game elements. The game is played out on a rectangular playing field and you control the game with only one key (the spacebar). The aim of the game is to get your ‘ball’ from the bottom end of the playing field to the top (through the ‘exit’ warp). You do not control your ball in the traditional sense. Whenever you press the spacebar, your ball is attracted towards to the nearest passing metallic sphere (for example if you hold down the spacebar, your ball will stick to the nearest metallic sphere and won’t let go, whereas if you hold down the spacebar just long enough, your ball will bounce off the nearest sphere with a good deal of force, propelling you either up or down the playing field).

Neither the graphics nor animation can be faulted. The graphics are dark, crisp and quite stylish, with a rather unique look to them and the animation is superb. Both of these elements compliment the gameplay superbly and make the game all the more playable.

The soundtrack in this game is rather unique: at times it is fast and other times slow, at times eerie and at other times oddly relaxing. The sound effects in the game are superb and once you are fully absorbed in the game, you will notice the sound effects much more then the music. The game itself is neither fast nor slow-paced. There are generous time limits given to complete each level, which gives the game a certain light sense of urgency. The speed at which levels are completed will vary wildly due to the random nature of the way that the game is played. A level may be completed quickly on one occasion and might seem frustratingly difficult the next time. The odd pacing of the soundtrack matches the style of gameplay perfectly.

The gameplay, as described above, is quite random. A couple of levels into the game and you will see metal spheres floating all over the level, which makes the ‘attracting’ feature all the more random. At times you might plan to attract to one sphere and end up attracted to another, which has a negative effect, rather than a positive one (sending you down the playing field instead of up). Other times, due to a lucky bounce, you will zip through, what looked like a hard level, a lot faster then you had planned. The next time you play, the same levels will play out completely differently – a fair amount of luck and chance come into play here. In an odd respect, this is an attractive element to the game and gives it almost endless replayability. That isn’t to say that the levels don’t become increasingly more difficult in layout on a general scale. It all just adds to the depth and challenge of the game. The physics, which the gameplay relies on rather heavily, are spot on. When your ball bounces it feels real, as if you are playing a decent pinball simulation. Bear in mind that I have not mentioned every last detail concerning the gameplay. The surprises in the game are many and varied – enjoy them.

It is hard to say which type of game player this game will appeal to. Some maybe turned off when they first start the game (admittedly the gameplay does take some getting used to), others might be turned off by the general style or the fact that it almost feels like a random pinball machine, rather then a fully fledged puzzle or arcade game. Personally, I recommend that people give this game a chance – the learning curve is not as severe as it might first seem and even if it was, I would still say it was worth it. Highly recommended.

Smashset is a Breakout clone. Fortunately it is a rather decent Breakout clone, with lots of nice little twists added to the well known formula. For starters you play the game from an isometric 3D angle. Add this to the fact that the bricks are ‘stacked’ and you have yourself a deeper game then you might think.

The graphics are stylish, bright, colorful, well drawn and well animated, with some neat effect thrown in for good measure. You really couldn’t ask for anything more from the graphical side of the game. It is, essentially, as good as it can be for the type of game you have in front of you.

The sound effects are loud and the soundtrack is fast and bouncy, which suits the game perfectly. However, the soundtrack does become a tincy bit repetitive after a little while, as good as it is. As with most soundtracks, it is of relatively short length (you can’t ask much more game which can be downloaded for a few megabytes).

The gameplay stands head and shoulders above every other aspect of the game, even the graphics, as flawless as they are. At first the isometric angle seems odd (as do the keyboard controls since most games of this type are controlled with the mouse) but after a little bit of getting used to, it is no more difficult then your average Breakout clone. There are warps scattered around each level, various power-ups (and downs) to collect and ‘stacks of bricks’ which all add extra depth, playability, enjoyment and challenge to the game.

Those who play a lot of freeware games would realize that there are an awful lot of Breakout clones floating among the freeware directories. There aren’t too many that stand out from the crowd. This one stands above most and also has its own brand of originality to boot. Highly recommended.

Samhein is an enjoyably simple but effectively made run and jump platform game. Basically it is about a guy, who has been accused of being possessed by an evil spirit and some druids want to burn him at the stake. He escapes and the gameplay goes from there. Whether or not, you decide to follow the storyline is completely up to you: it doesn’t affect the gameplay whatsoever.

Graphically and animation-wise the game is simple and a little on the cutesy side but classy nonetheless, with just enough detail drawn into the foreground, background and sprites to make the game enjoyable. It has about the standard of graphics that you would expect from a Super Nintendo, which is a good thing.

The sound, as with the graphics, is also simple. The game contains no soundtrack – just a variety of short sound effects, depending on the situation. They are the sort of sound effects you would expect from a Mario game and can be quite comical in places but in general, they suit the game just fine.

The gameplay, as with all other elements in the game, is simple but has just enough to make it enjoyable for the player. It does not try to be overly complex – you run around, jumping from platform to platform, killing enemies, either with a knife or a power-up that you collect, opening up crates and collecting coins. The level design is solid, if not overly creative and the difficulty level seems to gradually get more difficult as the levels move along. Everything you need to know about the gameplay you will most likely learn within the first level, hence the learning curve is relatively easy. All of this adds up to a relaxing experience that is a nice diversion from some of the more intense games you might come across in the freeware community.

This game won’t get points for originality but what it will get points for is that fact that it is simple and its simplicity works perfectly. It does not try to hide what it is: it is a simple run and jump platform game – if you like these types of games, then there is no reason why you won’t like this one. If you don’t, then you may not like this. I would personally recommend it (possibly not as highly as some but you could do an awful lot worse).

Wrecking ball is an odd game. Fortunately it is odd in a good way. It is a strange mixture of Arkanoid and Pendulumania and it actually works rather well. Here is a description of the game: each level is one screen and contains a formation of bricks. You control a ball on a string. You must swing the ball around and destroy the bricks within certain time limit. Sound easy? Dead wrong.

The graphics are adequate – nothing more, nothing less. They are rather plain but serve their purpose just fine. Don’t expect any extra detail or style to be drawn into the game. With its unique style of gameplay, you most likely won’t even care all that much.

The sound and music, just like the graphics, are rather plain but again – is there a need for extraordinary mind-blowing sound effects or a pulsing soundtrack? This game relies on its gameplay to hold it afloat and in the end it pays off.

An idea like this could have easily been wasted by poor execution but in this case the gameplay itself is pulled off rather well. The physics are decent, the brick formations are challenging and the time limits are extremely unforgiving. Each level will take a good deal of practice – even the first. I couldn’t imagine anyone traversing through the levels of this game at a quick speed – each level provides a very unique formation of bricks, always unlike the last and a tougher time limit to complete it within. And the best thing? It’s a ‘just one more turn’ game, regardless of its hair-pulling difficulty.

To summarize: plain graphics, plain sound and unique gameplay can add up to a fairly solid game that will hold your attention for longer than a few minutes. Recommended for those who like their games a little bit different.

This is one of the best freeware adventures you will ever play bar none. Anyone that loved LucasArts' classic adventure games such as Maniac Mansion, Sam'n'Max Hit the Road and Day of the Tentacle will fall in love with this game. Why? Because this game recreates the spirit, style and humor that made all of the above mentioned games so enjoyable. This has been hailed by many to be a commercial quality game and has few, if any bad points.

The graphics really do have that classic 2d adventure game look to them, with bright colors and cartoonishly drawn visuals. The main character is hilarious (a geeky little kid who wants nothing more then to play Dungeons and Dragons) and gets you hooked straight away. The sound is decent in an old school kind of way. Probably the only thing the game COULD have had to improve it would have been actual voice acting, rather than type text when the characters talk - but admittedly this is a high expectation of a freeware game and is not a valid criticism.

The game play is challenging and the control system is like any other LucasArts' game - use the mouse to walk around and click on the various word actions to interact with your environment.

This is an absolutely must have for adventure fans and LucasArts' fans alike. Download this now!

Reflection is a nice looking shoot ‘em up which ultimately lacks the features that would have made it much better. This is a pity because it is on the verge of being quite good. Both the graphics and the sound are quite reminiscent of games such as Raiden, with lush, colorful, well drawn visuals, satisfying sound effects and an exciting soundtrack that changes, depending on the level and who you are battling. The difficulty level is also a reminder of the arcade shoot ‘em ups of old – it seems to require superhuman reflexes at times. Hardcore fans should get a kick out of this.

Unfortunately with all its good points, it is let down one major downside – no power-ups. Any hardcore shoot ‘em up fan will tell you that there is no better feeling then working hard and finally managing to get a really nice power-up to demolish the enemies with. In this game, you start off with powerful weapons and you keep those same weapons the whole game. Firstly, this is unrewarding, not to mention boring, and secondly, it makes the game lose much the impact it could have had.

Even though the game play is actually quite decent, with the usual array of enemies and end of level guardians you would expect in a game like this, all the game eventually amounts to is eye candy and there are other freeware shoot ‘em ups that look at least this good, if not better.

Don’t get me wrong – this game is definitely worth a good look. Just don’t expect it to hold your attention for an awfully long period of time, especially without power-ups to reward your hard efforts.