Reviews

Review by Onewing all reviews by Onewing

Good: It?s like sex. You have to move just right, move faster and faster until you explode and it only last 30 seconds!
Bad: It just doesn?t feel very?TINS-ishy.
Dodger?s Highschool Yearbook quote: Most likely to have a Cult following.
Comments:
What can I say about Dodger? To quote the wise miran, it?s his best game evar. Once again it is my favorite game as a result of a competition. However, and unfortunately, I don?t feel like it should stand a top the TINS06 trophy board. It feels like the idea was conceived prior to the competition and it was just bent to satisfy the requirements. There?s nothing wrong with that, really, but I feel it is unfair to judge it the same way as the others.

Overall: Fun, addictive, professional. 5!

Artistic: Although professional looking, it?s really nothing ?amazing?. The railroad/tracks don?t really serve any purpose in this game. A 3 for you, come back one year!

Technical: Help screen is nothing special and ASCII art is lame and forced. Engine is awesome though, so very little for help screen, nothing for ASCII and the rest for engine. That adds up to 11 in binary!

Genre: Good use of time, but nothing special. I?ll give you a 4 and you better like it!

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 3 Technical 3 Genre 4

Review by guilt all reviews by guilt

This is a nice game that can keep you playing for hours ... The objective is to dodge all those things which hit ya ... It's very tough to play after some time.. too many objects near you! :) My current record is 14 seconds.. If you make it past 20 seconds, consider yourself lucky! :)

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 3 Genre 5

Review by Darksoll all reviews by Darksoll

mmmmm, this game is great and really addictive.
you control some strange thing that for no apparent reason has to dodge some other strange things ;-). The in-game help says that you're a master if you can last 20 seconds or more, i think if you can last more than 20 seconds you're some kinda super freak!.
my record is 16.42.
the menu is great and it has some options. there's one of them that sais "reduce cpu usage yes/no" i think it's kinda absurd...
The music is ok, and the SFX great.
the hi-score could be better, each time you make a new record you have to write your name again, and that's an agonic pain!.
Oh, and the ASCII art is kinda cheap.... i would say really cheap......
anyway it's one of my favourites.

I think this game would be better if: the hi-score would remember last name entered.
mmmm, the ASCII could be better, much better.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 4 Technical 3 Genre 4

Review by Gassa all reviews by Gassa

With a 2D board with simple circular objects moving around, this game offers you some real action! You should boldly hold the left mouse button while moving the mouse in such a fashion that your nice blue glowing circular object (called ship) does not contact walls, other circles (drones), and missiles fired by evil tanks which move around the board. Sounds quite minimalistic, eh? Well, I'll just say that I spent over 1.5 hours playing and, despite only moderate care for the competition rules here, I consider this game the best and definitely most playable TINS'06 entry.

Yeah, it's all about time! Although you have to hold the mouse button (for no visible reason) if you want to stay alive, it won't hurt much - first time you try, you are going to stay alive for a mere second or two. After hitting the F1 key to get some info on what's happening, you try again, and yet again a couple of seconds will be enough for the drones to get you.

After a while (remember the `time' genre requirement here) you'll get to understand the mechanics of the game and could predict where the missile goes and how to get away from that strange circular trajectory of a drone. But it will require a firm hand, a sharp eye, and a good look ahead to survive for long. The longer you survive, the faster the drones move around; one false move and you are history. At higher speeds, looking ahead becomes more important and more difficult 'cause you have less time for it; every hundredth of a second will cost some physical and mental effort!

The help note offers you a challenge to survive for a mere 20 seconds, so you hit F1 again to bring the high score list back and begin the ascension. As time passes, the high score becomes fully populated, then the first line gets to 10, 11, 12, 15, 18!... seconds while the last line also gets up to 5, 6, ..., 10 seconds, being a reminder of how hard you tried. Even hundredths of a second become hard to achieve; you take a break and then continue your efforts. And here it is, you're victorious! Pitifully, the game does not reward you in any way for surviving as long as 20 seconds, but perhaps your inner feeling of being a topguy should suffice here.

Apart from the gameplay, we have TINS rules to consider. Here's where the game does not have much to offer - the idea of the game fits quite well into the genre requirement, but railways for tanks clearly are there just to formally satisfy the rule. When it came to reviewing, I had to restart the game to see whether the rail tracks are there, as the readme file states - there is absolutely no reason to notice them while playing. In fact, the gameplay is so intense that you'll very soon regret noticing anything outside the board! The so-called ASCII-art appearing in the intro is merely a bunch of words written using ASCII symbols instead of pixels.

On the technical side, the product is polished enough for a 72-hour project. Code is somewhat hasty but understandable and not `too ugly' as the readme file claims. Sounds and music are in place, though the music fragment is too short, and the shooting could sound much better. Graphics are simple yet nice. The design is the strong part of this entry - everything you need, from the help / high score board to the menu buttons, is in the right place, the music and sound themes fit the game. There definitely is an eye for detail here. It would be even better if the drones themselves could collide and bump, but well, that's a request for enhancement rather than a complaint.

As a summary, I would recommend you to play this entry, for it challenges both your fingers and your brain, providing a fun, intense gameplay in return. At least you can use it as a mouse trainer, but IMHO it deserves more attention.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 4 Technical 5 Genre 5

Review by yozshura all reviews by yozshura

Awesome game. It's easy to control, you just dodge all the objects, easy you say?

Wrong, after about 10 seconds all the objects start to move faster and faster until you die. You'll get hooked on this. I have spent hours playing this with a few friends trying to beat each other's high score. GFX are great easy to see everything at any moment. The use of ASCII art is not the too good, a bunch of dashes making words. Trains(i'm assuming thats what they are), one of your enemies, have been implemented nicely into the game, they'll be the death of you a lot. Pure awesomness.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 5 Technical 3 Genre 4