Reviews

Review by entheh all reviews by entheh

Lands of Magic is a stacked tile matching game featuring Chinese ideographs representing earth, sky, snow, water and fire. You are subject to a time limit, as well as a health bar which is depleted if you select tiles that don't match. Snowflakes drift downwards in the background and poetry appears in popup dialogues at various times.

This game was unfortunately affected by a couple of showstopper bugs. The author found one and posted a fix, and I found the other. Since mine affected timing, it seems likely that the 'fixed' game doesn't represent the author's intended difficulty level: the time limit is probably much longer than it should be. Therefore it probably isn't fair for me to judge the game as too easy, so I won't do that. It seems likely that with the right balancing, this game could be a very enjoyable frantic clickfest, so I am awarding a fair score in the 'overall' category.

The poetry is so embarrassingly bad, it's good. Rhymes are forced and in many cases don't even come close to actually rhyming. There is no consistent metre. Clearly this is just because our author's first language is French, which has a very different sense of rhythm and emphasis, and it does lend a certain charm to the game. It takes guts to publish such a thing, so I won't judge. Along with the inclusion of snow, this covers the artistic category.

Unfortunately since I saw no evidence of crafting nor pathfinding, I can't award points there. Apart from that, nothing stood out as excellent, but for what it is, it's certainly not bad. Bien fait mon ami !

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 2 Genre 1

Review by entheh all reviews by entheh

Spring pits you as a master poet, crafting poems by dragging words into their rightful places. Each correctly placed word is indicated by a colour change. Slots snap to the size of the word placed in them, and when two of the same word exist, the game correctly accepts them either way round. For these touches I have awarded a fair technical score, despite the lack of pathfinding.

I have also awarded a fair artistic score, despite the lack of snow, since the game is built around poetry.

The onus is entirely on the player to decide whether to play 'properly' by trying to plan what word combinations seem best, or just to try everything everywhere until it fits. I would personally like to see the game recognise when players have worked harder, perhaps by scoring players better if they can craft the poems with fewer false placements.

The author admits that he had very little time for this entry, so what has come out is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. Well done!

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 3 Genre 4