Reviews

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

This is a fairly faithful pacman clone, where pacman is replaced by his evil twin pacula. Pacula has big pointy teeth dripping with blood, which makes me wonder if eating ghosts can really still his thirst.

As pacman goes, the game is quite playable. It has quite a finished feel, for example, when you eat a ghost a pair of eyeballs remains that goes back to its origin. When you wrap around (i.e. from the left side to the right side of the map) you see a shrinking / growing animation. These are nice little touches that show the maker has eye for detail.

Still, a couple of essentials are missing. First of all, there is only one level, and as pacula wins or dies, you drop straight back to the dos prompt. Secondly, there is no score keeping. Fix these two ponts and the game would immediately become something that is worth playing for at least more than five minutes. Another point is that pacula and the ghosts moves fairly slow making the game pretty easy.

As for the rules: only the parody requirement is somewhat satisfied (although this means nothing more than adding teeth and blood to the sprite of pacman). Thus far I haven\'t been able to unlock anything or discover and sine wave or troll.

All in all this is a good start but it is just not there yet. Probably the author didn\'t have enough time to implement some of the rules and some other crucial things.

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 1 Technical 1 Genre 3

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

This game is a complete reversal of snake, where you are one of the pills and the snake comes after you. In some levels there is also a troll who comes after you. He doesn\'t kill you but slows you down, giving the snake more chance to eat you.

I find the reversal of the snake concept pretty original. 4/5 for genre.

The game uses sine waves to generate sfx. The sfx is a bit bland though, and there is no music, so probably a bit more should have been done with this. The game also makes use of pathfinding for the snake, so I\'ll still give it 4/5 for technical.

I found the graphics very funny. The troll is animated quite nicely. The troll also makes up an important part of the game, as it more or less cooperates with the snake to kill you. The unlockable requirement is not great but it is there. 3/5

Overall the game is quite complete and fun for a while, although it is missing lasting appeal. 3/5

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 4 Genre 4

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

Unfinised. The parody, sine and troll are there but only marginally so. Nothing unlockable either. From what I read in the readme.txt the author had some quite good ideas for the parody, but ideas alone are not enough :)

Scores: Overall 1 Artistical 1 Technical 1 Genre 1

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

Legoland adventures is a sidescrolling platformer set in legoland. You have to collect yellow pills (or whatever they are, I have no idea) to \"unlock\" the exit and get to the next level.

You are a photorealistic lego man. On your way you have to avoid the many mischievous trolls with pink hair who hang from the ceiling but drop down on you when you try to pass.

The photorealistic graphics are certainly nice. The lego man is animated nicely, for example when you get killed the lego man falls apart and when you finish a level he makes a v-sign to you, like mario does in super mario world 1. Other graphics (e.g. lego blocks) are a bit plain with too many bright colors, which leaves you with a weird mixture of photorealistic graphics and programmer\'s art. The flag animation is very nicely done, this is one of the best uses of sine I\'ve seen during this competition. 5/5 for technical and 4/5 for artistical

Also the music is in mario style, and clearly here is where the parody requirement comes in. There is more, for example the level exit is a flag you have to raise like in super mario bros 1, and in one level you have a staircase just before the exit as well. Still, I find the parody element rather weak. The game is not really trying to make fun of mario, it just copies certain elements. Therefore, only 3/5 in the genre category.

The game can be quite hard at times, as trolls can come at you very unexpectedly, and you die at the first touch. There is a boss at the end, but I haven\'t managed to beat it. The boss is a big troll who, as bowser in smb3, tries to jump on you from above but leaves a hole in the floor when he misses. Unlike smb3, it takes quite a long time before the floor is completely gone though, and when you make a single mistake you have to start over again. I haven\'t managed to beat the boss yet.

In conclusion, Legoland adventures is one of the most complete and playable entries in this competition. 4/5 overall.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 4 Technical 5 Genre 3