TINS Logo

Welcome, new user. Please log in or register.

Reviews

Showing 3 reviews by elias [2012]. all reviews

Drakenkaput
by SiegeLord
all reviews of Drakenkaput

Review by elias all reviews by elias

I was thrown out of the game many times with this:

core.exception.AssertError@game\CollisionManager.d(160): Objects embedded in level geometry or each other
Disposable classes instance counts:
No leaked instances!

But thanks to the passwords at least once a level was finished I could continue with the next.

The gameplay is quite simple, move with cursor keys and then while human swing your sword with the left control key and while dragon press control key to spew fire.

I didn't quite understand the additional game mechanisms and the README has no information either. There is some kind of combo system - supposedly something with prime numbers.

While a dragon you're invincible (and have full health again afterwards). And enemies you hit start burning (but it seems to not always hurt them)? Also sometimes the dragon bar would fill up again while I still was a dragon - very useful but very random.

So my technique to beat the three levels was to basically charge right in, then either become a dragon or die. In the former case charge into the next group as quickly as possible and repeat.

Now for my scores. This is the first game I'm scoring so I may adjust them later (and if I can't edit the review below won't be my final scores).

Genre I give 5/5. The setting is as anachronistic as it gets. (Unless maybe one of the other entries has some great idea how to use "anachronism" as a genre - myself I don't see any better ideas.)

Technical I give 3/5. One point for the password reloading. One point for the parallax scrolling. One point for using prime numbers (I did some research for my own entry how to use prime numbers in a clever way - but I think all you can do with them is basically just include them, for whatever). But other than that, while I find it very cool to use D, there's the crash and I found the controls and collision detection to not be implemented very well.

Artistical I give 3/5. There's dragons. The pixel art is above programmer's art level and the grates to view the parallax sky below are a nice touch.

Overall 4/5. It's a complete playable game. There's even music. Hard to believe you only used one third of the available time... had you used the full time and made a game 3 times as good it surely would be 5/5 :)

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 3 Technical 3 Genre 5

Primal Scream
by darkbits
all reviews of Primal Scream

Review by elias all reviews by elias

Just. Wow.

I loved playing through this. It's very polished.

There's sound effects and music. And the music changes with the area you are in which makes it very atmospheric - like that moment when you first leave the caves.

Anyway. Now for the review. I like the story. With a nice intro and very fittingly implementing the TINS genre rule. (And while at TINS rules, it happens to also have the best use of prime numbers :) I discovered myself while trying to implement the prime number rule that the property to not be divisible by other prime numbers cannot be used in any clever way.)

The controls are very smooth (and many thanks for allowing control/alt keys since x/y would have been impossible on my german keyboard layout).

The game is drawn in really sweet pixel art, I was reminded of Cave Story a lot.

There's awesome level design, I really like how you keep revisiting places where you couldn't advance before due to missing abilities. And the abilities are implemented really well, I especially liked the gravity idea. Also the save spots are distributed in a perfectly balanced way - not so sparse as to anger the player, but also far enough apart to have you repeat a few jumps a few times.

So yes. All the rules implemented and a fun and polished game, only possible score is all 5/5.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 5 Technical 5 Genre 5

Laundry Day at Bananas Manor
by amarillion
all reviews of Laundry Day at Bananas Manor

Review by elias all reviews by elias

Just a game I have to vote on but not review, but here's the notes I made while playing it anyway:

Critic points:
- intro should be skippable
- falling should be straight down not sideways - the sideways falling makes jumps unnecessarily hard (i'd say this is the biggest flaw of the game... e.g. in the darkbits entry practicing the jumps is fun, in this one it's just annoying)
- enemy bullets are too slow, a few times i just had to stand there waiting for them to pass
- level order is misleading, took me about 25 tries beating the first level before I finally gave up and did levels 2 and 3 first instead
- collision detection is faulty, e.g. in the very first level both the rifle as well as the pistol will not hit the first lightning bolt at all (and i saw projectiles pass right through monsters throughout the game)
- autofire would be nice for all weapons
- the final boss seemed a bit easy, i hardly saw him at all before he fell dead from those blue bullets... so in case he has any strategy or clever scripting, I didn't get to see any of it

Praise:
- really liked the monster design, the furry lightning bolts, the jumping springs, the bubble spider, all quite unique
- i like the graphics a lot, from the player character (with his sun glasses) to the washing machine themed monsters and level geometry
- animated level geometry is a nice touch
- quite polished, plus points for allowing changing the keys

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 4 Technical 2 Genre 5