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Reviews

Showing 4 reviews by amarillion [2006]. all reviews

Train Master
by FalseMasterJ
all reviews of Train Master

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

The basic idea of this game is that you are a "Train Master" controlling a whole network of railways and all the trains on it. You have to switch tracks at junctions at the right moment so that all trains follow the right route and arrive at their destination stations in time. You have a view over the entire railroad in a single screen, so you get a good overview, although that also means some of the graphics are tiny and sometimes hard to make out.

There are four different levels, varying in difficulty. The easy level is indeed easy enough, because there is only one train to control. The train schedule is not very tight so you can make the train go very slow and you have plenty of time to make the necessary adjustions to the junctions before the train arrives there.

In the normal level it gets quite a bit more complicated. You have to control three trains at the same time, and there are many more junctions and stations. You have keep an eye on so many things at the same time that this becomes quite a challenge.

I must say I haven't really played the "quite difficult" and "no fair" modes. One look at the levels shows they are quite interesting, but due to some interface problems detailed below I didn't play them thoroughly.

The main issue I have with this game is the poor user interface. It has several glitches in it that make the game hard to play. For example, I often run into a problem where the speed dial gets stuck at 100 or -100. This is especially a problem when I want to stop a train, but it won't go slower than 100. At other times the speed dial seems to loose all bounds and you can go way past 1000, so the train zooms accross the rails in no time.

Another big usability problem is that the game doesn't tell you when you're doing something wrong. Sometimes you're playing and suddenly, quite unexpectedly the "You're Fired!" screen shows up. Perhaps one of your trains crashed somewhere, or perhaps you missed a target station or perhaps there is a bug in the game. Who knows? It would have been much nicer if the game would have pointed out problems e.g. by showing a big explosion when your train crashes somewhere, or a big red mark when you are late at a station. But as it is right now, you can't learn from your mistakes as you don't know what you're doing wrong.

The graphics are nice and colourful, the (voice) sound effects are nice too. The music is ok, but moreover it seems to have been made during the time of the competition which is a big plus. The ascii art is a mixture of automatically converted images and hand-generated, and is quite fitting. The help function is there, although it is rather basic.

All in all this is a decent entry with a fun concept, and it would have been really great were it not for a few annoying user-interface glitches.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 4 Genre 3

G-loop
by NyanKoneko
all reviews of G-loop

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

G-loop is the only 3D entry of TINS 2006. Unfortunately, similar to Marcello's entry this game is fraught with problems that make it unplayable on some computers.

This goal of the game is to steer a spaceship through a series of ring-shaped checkpoints, which reminds me of a couple of very hard levels of Super Mario 64. Each time the next ring is clearly marked with a sort of white shine in the middle. The spaceship controls are simple enough, although I found it a bit hard to control. It could be because the controls are done with the keyboard and not with the mouse, which would probably have been the more common solution, although it could also be just because I've never been really good at this sort of game. I end up circling the same checkpoint several times before I could actually go through it.

A strong point of the game is the rendered graphics. The 3D engine works very smoothly on my laptop. The three different levels have the same goal and the same texture but they look different enough to get you interested to play them all.

I find this is a very good implementation of the time theme, alhtough it would have been nicer if your target time was displayed during the game itself, right now you only see the time you have spend and the game leaves you wondering if you can still make it or not.

Weak points: the simplistic help, the lack of a real Train, the high hardware requirements and the problems it has on some computers.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 2 Technical 3 Genre 5

Railroad Merchant
by jovoc
all reviews of Railroad Merchant

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

This game reminds me of a part of the SNES classic "Secret of Evermore", where you could make huge amounts of money by buying bags of rice from one side of the marketplace for 2 gold pieces and selling them at the other side of the martketplace for 3 gold pieces. And in both games you quickly get a feeling that being a transporter of virtual goods is a boring job.

It would have been more fun if the buying and selling were less repetetive. For example, I can imagine that it would be great fun to fight yourself a way through a maze of caves filled with space monsters to reach that final outpost where it is rumoured they pay big bucks for saxophones. You'd have to interact with other travelling salesmen to get small hints about the best location to sell your excess lightbulbs. But as it is right now, moving from station to station poses no obstacle other than the time you have to spend on it.

There is one more thing to note about this game: the implementation of the time theme is very poor. This is certainly a weak point in an otherwise very well-polished game.

This game should be commended for it's beautiful, in-game generated ASCII art (in color), it's smooth GUI and help function, it's beautiful graphics (the main character is clearly unpolished programmer's art, but that doesn't really reduce the overall impresson of the graphics too much). Overall a solid entry that is well-polished but slightly hampered by the repetetive gameplay.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 5 Technical 5 Genre 2

Megaman 3vil prototype
by Marcello
all reviews of Megaman 3vil prototype

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

Megaman 3vil prototype is a very solid entry that is hampered by a few serious bugs. Wether this is due to OpenLayer or the game itself I don't know, but the game only worked on 1 out of 3 computers I tried it on. This is very unfortunate because otherwise the game is fun to play.

The game is a fast-paced 2D platform shooter that is set on top of a speeding train carrying worn out brown TimeCom conainers, clearly inspired by Capcom's megaman series. Megaman has to use his blaster to fight flying clocks that appear all around him. Which makes me wonder. Who is TimeCom? Are they good guys or bad guys? The name of the game suggests that Megaman has actually turned evil, so in that case TimeCom must be the good guys. But what are they transporting in those containers, and why is it so important that it needs to be defended with flying clocks?

The artwork is beatiful. The animation of the enemies and especially the main character is very smooth. You have 360 degree freedom with your blaster, and you have to use the mouse to aim. There is an ascii-wave effect in the background that contributes to the speedy feel of the game. Superiour object programming combined with OpenLayer graphics goodness, plus graphics from a good gfx artist make this game a pleasure to watch. The object programming is done with lots of eye for detail, for example, I like how the blaster ray slows down the flying clocks, as though the flying clocks have to push their way against the barrage of blaster bolts. And bullet time is a really good addition as well.

A few minor points. How do I switch to full screen? I keep accidentally clicking outside the game window, bringing up a different window so the game is suddenly hidden from view. The help is present but doesn't really look great, it's simply a few lines of text floating in the background. Also the many bugs that make this game unplayable on quite a few computers makes this game not as good as it could have been.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 5 Technical 3 Genre 4