TINS Logo

Welcome, new user. Please log in or register.

Reviews

Showing 3 reviews by Kaitlyn [2005]. all reviews

The lord of the stars
by ArchMageZeratuL
all reviews of The lord of the stars

Review by Kaitlyn all reviews by Kaitlyn

ArchMageZeratul\'s Lord of the Stars, a space shooter roughly based after the events and characters from the Lord of the Ring movie / book series, is easily the most polished game of Tins \'05. In fact, one can hardly believe such a game was made in a single weekend. However, despite a pretty finish, deep down this game suffers from its own design flaws.

As soon as the player starts Lord of the Stars, they will be absolutely blown away by the presentation of this game. Starting from the main menu straight out of star trek, to the game play with professional looking sprites, this game seems extremely well put together for a single weekend.

The music and sound are also crafted well. However, the music, the Lord of the Rings theme, seems to fit the menu well, but not the actual game play. The rhythm of this piece seems too slow for space combat. However, despite the questionable choice for a musical score, the graphics and sounds are simply amazing.

Unfortunately, good graphics and sound don\'t necessarily make a game great. The two biggest problems with Lord of the Stars are its controls and difficulty.

When the player starts the game, they are greeted with a keyboard-driven menu. This will confuse most players since the main game is designed to use the mouse. Without reading the readme, I never would have known that the mouse was enabled in the game.

Over complexity is another problem with the controls. Although the game implements moving the ship up and down perfectly, the shooting system is complicated and frustrating. The game assigns each enemy a color, and the player must match that color via scrolling around a bar-shaped color wheel. The main problem arises from the game being too fast pace and the color selection system too slow. ArchMageZeratul could have fixed this problem in one of two ways: either by simplifying the enemies to two or three colors that are easily switchable, or by implementing a bullet-time feature in which the player can easily pause or slow down the game while selecting a new color.

The difficulty also requires more tweaking. Although levels one through three are challenging enough, most players will not be able to pass levels four through nine. Of course, this could be due simply lacking the time to properly play-test the game.

The game itself is a parody of Lord of the Rings. More specifically, the game focuses on the characters from the movie and exaggerates their portrayals and motivations. Even the stats of the very ships they pilot are somewhat related to their personalities. ArchMageZeratul should be applauded for his transposition of fictional characters into the inanimate specifications of star ships.

The entire game\'s overall feel is a mix between Gradius, Star Trek, and Tron. Based in space, the game alludes to a future of cyber pop-culture and fantasy. ArchMageZeratul uses the absurdity of the dialog between the characters to explore and critique not only Lord of the Rings, but also human communications in general. All the characters relate to each other in a completely different manor in an effort to explore the way language effects perception and vice versa.

The game sort of meets all the requirements for Tins \'05. ArchMageZeratul included four unlockable ships, implemented a sine wave blaster, and made the game a parody of Lord of the Rings among other things. However, his ?troll ships? look more like beetles than trolls. Besides, a ship that looks like a troll is not actually a troll anyways. However, at the very least, an effort was made to include trolls within the game, and bad art aside, it\'s close enough.

In the end, players will enjoy Lord of the Stars for its polished graphics and sound, and the game experience as a whole. However, a few design flaws keep Lord of the Stars from showing its true potential. If nothing else, this is a stunning example of what can be done in a single weekend.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 5 Technical 4 Genre 4

Xelda
by amarillion
all reviews of Xelda

Review by Kaitlyn all reviews by Kaitlyn

Xelda is my pick for this year\'s best game overall. It is fun, creative, and stylish. The controls work well, and the game\'s presentation comes across as very polished.

Artistical: The graphics in Xelda may not seem impressive to many game players, but given that this is a parody of an NES title, I felt that the graphics fit perfectly. Everything on the screen comes across as pleasing, if not somewhat professional. The music and sound also work well to set the style of the game. A little more could have been done with the troll, however.

Technical: Overall, the engine functions as it should. There are some problems with attacking while jumping, but overall, amarillion implements this game well. However, the use of the sine wave requirement seems a little lacking if maybe just not obvious, although I can not blame amarillion for not wanting to implementing impressive 3D effects due to its genre.

Genre: As a Zelda parody, this game comes across as extremely hilarious. Everything from the story to the game play made me laugh.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 4 Technical 3 Genre 5

Mediocre Oiram World
by DekuTree64
all reviews of Mediocre Oiram World

Review by Kaitlyn all reviews by Kaitlyn

DekuTree64\'s entry, Mediocre Oiram World, comes across as a simple yet surprisingly enjoyable spoof of Super Mario Brothers despite being coded in a single weekend. The game\'s biggest failure is its lack of music and sound. However, the game still has an addictive quality many professional platform titles lack.

After executing, the game greets the player with a simple splash screen illustrating the lightheartedness of the game as well its overall graphical style. The hand-drawn artwork works well to add humor while still managing to be pleasing to the eye.

Once the player presses a button, they are transported to the first level as the protagonist, Mediocre Oiram. Oiram, being the backwards spelling of Mario, looks very similar to his namesake. Likewise, the controls and objectives in this game mimic those of the original Super Mario Brothers title.

The game consists of two levels, the first outside and the second underground. The first level is fairly straight-forward. However, after going down the pipe to the second level, the game begins to challenge the player. One jump to a platform comes across as a little too difficult as the player must time their jump perfectly or fall into a pit of lava.

Once reaching the end of the level, a large troll awaits Oiram. The player can either use Oiram\'s special power, a sine wave he can shoot, or jump on top of the troll to vanquish this boss. At the end of the second level, Oiram saves the princess, and the game restarts, unlocking Oiram\'s twin brother Igiul!

The game\'s biggest shortcoming is its lack of music and sound. Music is one of the most memorable aspects of the Super Mario Brothers series. Add this to a total lack of sound effects, and the game feels a little empty. Adding music and sound effects would not have taken long to code and would have made the game play experience much more immersing.

Artistically, the game succeeds in being an obvious parody of the original Super Mario Brothers video game, however, some of the humor is lacking or confusing. For example, when the player hits a box and a sine-flower emerges, the box changes to an icon of poop. Understandably, the icon is designed to be humorous, but the humor was a little too childish to laugh at. The game could have tried to critique the Super Mario Brothers series in other ways as well. For example, questioning why the princess was always kidnapped, and doesn\'t going down pipes mean Oiram has to sludge through sewage? In many ways, the game comes across more as a Mario Brothers clone as opposed to something to laugh at.

DekuTree64 did something nice for the player by explaining some of the controls within the game. For the most part, the controls behave just as any player of Super Mario Brothers would expect them to, but they still feel a little off. They feel lagged or a little too sharp at moments, but the control scheme remains simple and easy to work with.

The game meets all the requirements as a parody that includes sine waves as projectiles, a troll boss, and an unlockable character. However, all the latter mentioned of these seem thrown in as opposed to being part of the focus of the game. Regardless, all the requirements are integrated well into the framework of the finished piece.

Overall, Mediocre Oiram World is an enjoyable piece and a great accomplishment for one weekend\'s worth of programming. The game experience comes across as light hearted and somewhat addictive. Despite that this game can be beaten within the timespan of 2 minutes, many players will enjoy playing through a few times.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 3 Genre 3