Reviews

Review by awergh all reviews by awergh

Genre (Fable)
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Did not see anything about what fable it might be. However, all the characters in the game were clearly animals and the animals themselves are critical to the gameplay.

Technical (Overall and use of chart)
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The game features a nice chart that shows your continual progress through the game and how difficult it is (or is going to be). Technically really fits into the constraints of the particular platform you have built the game for.

Artistical (Generally and Iridescence)
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I didn't really see the iridescence in the game. There were some different colours but I'm not sure I could count that as iridescence.

Everything is communicated in speech bubbles which cells right for the game.

While it didn't really cover the iridescence, but I really liked the art of the game so I will overlook the iridescence a little bit here.

Conclusion
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I really enjoyed this game. It does get quite difficult but that seems intentional, and it isn't impossible (at least not initially).

I thought the use of dialog really fit into the game. It also had nice graphics for the target platform (yes I do like pixel art).

While it didn't really have a fable as far as I can tell it had lots of nicely drawn animals.

I had lots of fun playing this one even if it might be a little bit too hard (but maybe with practice I will just be better at it).

Given your success at fitting it into the target platform I'm sure it would fit various other vintage platforms if you wanted to port it. Anything with a nice colour palette should work.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 4 Technical 4 Genre 3

Review by Nabio all reviews by Nabio

Overall: 5/5
This game was one of the best games. Considering its simple mechanic, still it was probably the most polished gamein the enteries. The game is fun and addictive enough to become a f2p game.

Artistic 4/5
It both has animals as "characters" and baloon for speech. On the downside it doesn't seem to have a story as in fable style, as in some other entries do have. The graphics are 8 bit, but could be improved a bit.

Technical 5/5
It has the chart, that although difficult to understand at the first glance, however is pretty informative of the progress on the game, so is useful.

Genre 4/5

I felt the game progresses too fast and becomes very difficult too fast. which can be good and bad, but for me added to difficulty. It could retain score, or have a way to get extra lives.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 4 Technical 5 Genre 4

Review by Tharro all reviews by Tharro

Odd One Out is a very captive game, reminding me a bit on the party game genre (unfortunately without a multiplayer component). The game starts fairly easy but with every victory comes an extra bit of complexity. And before you even realize it the game becomes a serious (and fun) challenge!

Not the classic definition of a fable but the game only features animals as characters. Each animal has its own properties that are relevant (make sure you read the tutorial first).

The iridescence is a bit hidden but I think the progress screen (with the graph tries to mimic iridescence by scrolling through colors in the title/graph points). Guess that one wasn't easy to implement given the limitation of PICO-8.

The chart is simply great, one of the more complex charts I've seen implemented in the games I've played. Very nice.

The bonus rule wasn't implemented although the platform allows for a two player game it seems. A challenge mode would be really nice for this type of game.

Never heard of the PICO-8 platform before but it is amazing what you (Bananalazer) can do within their limitations. Great game!

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 4 Technical 4 Genre 5

Review by victorwss all reviews by victorwss

1. Rules implementation

1.1. Animals:
If instead of animals, it was a game about robot or tanks or fruits it would be a strange game to say at least. The animals fits very well the game.

1.2. Fable:
There is no fable after all, just animals telling truths or lies.

1.3. Iridiscence:
The closest to that was having stuff with flashing colors and having dust around the freshly-lost heart. But flashing colors isn't exactly the same as iridiscence.

1.4. Speech Balloons:
This is a core concept of the game and it wouldn't work well without it.

1.5. Charts:
The chart is there, but the game would essentially be the same thing if it was not. Further, it is not clear for me how to interpret it.

1.6. 2-players:
Not implemented. There is a set of keys assigned to a second player, but it seems to be something from PICO-8 instead of the game itself. Further, I couldn't found how to play it with 2 players and I didn't found any 2-players stuff in the game's code.

2. Game concept and idea

The game concept is not entirely new, but is very well-developed and well-conceived, making it a unique and creative game.

3. Technical and code

Fitting so much in so few screen area is a big achievement.

The code isn't really in the submission. It is in the PICO-8 site together with the game itself. The upload is just a small PNG file with a poster-like draw about the game. However, PICO-8 uses PNG as links somehow.

Also, the code is hidden in a small link in the PICO-8 site. It is not distributed in the upload.

The code is simple and short, having less than 1000 lines. Most of it is pretty straight-forward. Sometimes it is misidented, but I don't think that this matters.

I couldn't find in the code, where is the sprite data nor the music data.

4. Graphics

The graphics are atari-like very-low-resolution and pixelated making it hard even to read some of the text due to having too few pixels for composing each of the letters. However, this seems to be a (self-imposed) limitation of the (unusually) choosen platform, the PICO-8 Fantasy Engine.

I understand that some people like this style, but I don't think that using this style fits this game well. It would be better with at least the double of its current resolution. However, as this is for PICO-8, it would be hard to make it much better within the chosen platform.

5. Audio

If the idea was to emulate the feel of some 35-year old game console, then the audio fits it very well.

6. Fun

The game is fun and enjoyable, and I can play it a lot of times without getting bored nor eventually exhausting it. It is winnable, but I myself, could never win it.

7. Suggestions for improvements

I would suggest myself to:

* Improve the resolution if the platform permits. You don't need to make it a 8K-screen photorealistic game, but at least it should not be difficult to read the text due to being so severe low resolution, specially for a game where reading and interpreting text quickly is a core concept.

* Add more properties about the animals. Like if it flies, walks or swims. If it is active during day, during night or both, etc. Or even a simple one: "I am looking right" and "I am looking left"

* Add more animals, like ant, cat, dog, spider, fly, fish, turtle and centipede.

* English, as well as other languages, can be frustrating to get right when concatenating string. The game produces "i am a elephant" instead of "i am an elephant". You are lucky that this isn't French, German or Spanish.

* Sometimes, having 4 or 5 animals instead of 3 makes it easier instead of harder. The reason is because when we have more data, we can classify better who is the odd. However with more than 5, it just gets harder as intended.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 2 Technical 4 Genre 2

Review by KillerWasp all reviews by KillerWasp

It is quite attractive and can even be addictive. The music and the accelerated game mode together with the statistics give the feeling of playing with an Arcade or a old console, where you only care about getting the best possible score.

The lack of iridescence detracts from the score.

PD: I would like to know well the limitations of pico8 to give a better score.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 3 Technical 4 Genre 5

Review by Yubi all reviews by Yubi

"What is reality even?"

Odd One Out is a simple idea done well, and my overall favourite out of TINS 2023. It had genuinely good gameplay that did not feel like a gimmick born of the contest's rule requirements. The energetic music, the stylish use of colours and its sense of humour all contributed to a presentation that was fast paced without ever feeling overwhelming. On that last note, I felt that whenever I proceeded to the game's next level, it was because I *wanted* more and not because I was being pushed off a precipice in the name of artificially keeping up the pressure.

Fantastic.

The option to choose how you wanted to increase the difficulty was consistently rewarding. I did not feel cheated, curveballed, or otherwise screwed by bad RNG as is common in the "pick your poison" mechanics of other games. It feels rare that rule changes behave exactly as advertised on their tins, with no calculation needed as to their nuances. I had previously wondered if there was an ending to the game, or if the player was guaranteed to be laid low eventually by the time limit decrease option. Bananalazer has informed me that there is indeed an ending past the 2 seconds stage, but I'll be needing more practice to even reach that level.

I feel that I've been praising the game for the traps it avoids than its innovations, so to focus on the latter:

This game definitely made the best use of the contest's "fable" rule. The physical differences between animal characters, their traits and abilities are what make fables work, and these differences are front and center in Odd One Out. Discerning true from false between these traits and the animals they belong to feels semi-heroic, riffing an age-old trope out of the fairy-tale playbook.

If there are rules that this game played less smoothly with, it would be the inclusion of a chart and the bonus co-op rule. Regarding the scatterplot that appears every couple stages, I wasn't sure how useful or interesting its information was at a glance. My data points were always all over the place and I did not feel too inclined to tear myself away from the action to interpret them. It didn't necessarily feel meaningless or distracting; merely present, and honestly I didn't give it too much thought.

As for the co-op, I simply couldn't get it to work. The instructions detailing co-op controls for the right side of the keyboard seemed to be inaccurate, and the default layout would have been a terrible mess of crossed appendages anyway. Still, my wife and I ended up cooperating on this game on the single-player mode, and we had a blast as a team. She loves this game, by the way (she absolutely dominates at it).

Parting thoughts:
I feel resolved to beat this game some day, and likely continue playing after. This a feeling I've gotten from only one other entry, and if I had to give a single reason why this game was my favourite, there it is.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical None Technical None Genre None