TINS Logo

Welcome, new user. Please log in or register.

Reviews

Showing 2 reviews by entheh [2020]. all reviews

Fole & Raul go Flower Power
by Max, Amarillion & Superdaze
all reviews of Fole & Raul go Flower Power

Review by entheh all reviews by entheh

Congratulations on this top-down banana-hunting Plants vs Rob Zombie game, or am I trying too hard with that one?

The flower theme is satisfyingly all-pervasive, with the game set in a flower garden and bringing in elements of the old-fashioned Flower Power movement. I haven't awarded 5 because I can't honestly say it defines the gameplay mechanics, but the 4 is well deserved.

Artistically speaking, my first feeling on opening it was that it was somehow unfinished. I think a few elements that may contribute to this feeling - though I'm listing them with a great deal of uncertainty - are the somewhat arbitrary screen area set aside for the game map, the faux perspective effect that doesn't have a consistent vanishing point, the presence of large, untextured areas (including black outside the map), and the use of Allegro's built-in font. That said, the artistic rule (to make fun of old-fashioned things) is covered, and there is some nice pixel art once you get into the details, so I've awarded 4 here too. I was certainly surprised when I discovered that my weapon was musical. (On that note - yes, note - a missed opportunity would be to use the current harmony in the music to inform the choice of chord.)

Successful procedural level generation as exhibited here is no walk in the park, and this easily earns you yet another 4. The text scroller is special, with coloured letters and wavy offsets, so that's covered too. I did reserve a point because the collision detection didn't convince me when I was trying to collect keys.

It's a generally solid entry and I seem to have awarded fours all round. Well done. This game will have me on all fours picking flowers. Oh dear, I'm trying too hard again.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 4 Technical 4 Genre 4

Rewrite It In
by SiegeLord
all reviews of Rewrite It In

Review by entheh all reviews by entheh

Rewrite It In pits you as the creator of a new language, keen to see your projects succeed despite the efforts of people so old that they are incapable of learning any language that isn't a literal antique, and so insecure about their continued relevance that they have to sabotage your projects to enable themselves to continue living under the lie that they are even remotely employable any more.

In addition to how true to life the choice of stuff to make fun of is, the game makes a statement with its minimalist but consistent artistic style. Now, in fairness, as a fellow appreciator of Rust, I have to admit that I'm biased, and the fun-poking would probably only deserve full marks if it could be made inherent to the design of the game. All things considered, I decided to award 4 here.

As for the genre rule, flowers are present in the game, but the analogy of using flowers to represent projects felt a little forced, so I felt I could only justify awarding 3 there.

Rewrite It In is a technical tour de force. I particularly like what appears to be the use of orbital dynamics for jumping from circle to circle. A text scroller of sorts is present. I can nevertheless only offer 4 points here because the proceduralilty appears to be limited to the placement of the circles and a few other things for which random numbers would have been the natural choice anyway.

So, is it fun to play? Well, I found myself mostly just waiting, if I jumped wrong or my flowers were still growing, so I didn't play it for very long. Certainly worth a 4 though, for all the good things otherwise present in this game. Well done.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 4 Technical 4 Genre 3