The Indie Game Magazine » D

Jetsom Sam Mini-Review

Colt — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:53:52 +0000

Level design is comprised of a constant background and a foreground of changing obstacles. The first level, City, has buildings that hinder Sam’s progress, billboards with cute advertisements, and speeding cars. Modes of play include Survival, in which the camera pans right with Sam staying ahead of it, and kill X amount of enemies. There is also an endless mode. I’m sure that’s cool. There is no real narrative tying any of this together, only a terse tutorial: “Fight the Aliens” and “Use [your] rocket boots to save Kay.” It’s difficult to be glib about Jetsom Sam. It’s not so much intentionally lazy, boring and tiresome, but this is moot since the result is the same. Jetsom Sam just has minimal personality, and it feels like Plasmaworks is saturating the market with several hairbrained titles. Not that these need to make a profound statement, but the lack of any depth or complexity makes this a soulless effort. I’m not sure who Jetsom Sam’s target demographic is: adults won’t be caught dead playing it, so I guess kids who own IPhone’s will get a kick out of imagining themselves as Sam kicking alien butt. Maybe I’m out of touch, along with this fossil.

Jetsom Sam is an iPhone game developed by Plasmaworks, a company cranking out titles ranging from strategy to combo-based action. In elementary sidescroller with an elementary look, you play as Sam, who’s goal is to rescue Kay from invading Aliens, and sometimes Robots.The cartoon look is unfortunately vacant of exaggeration that the medium would permit. I think this deign choice is merely due to Plasmaworks pushing the game out more quickly and cheaper rather than any IPhone graphical limitation. Jetsom Sam employs the Rocket Knight Adventures mechanic of zipping across the screen via rocket boots and bopping Aliens on the cranium. Environments include a city, a volcano, and the invading enemy’s ship. You control Sam by tapping the screen on the area you wish to fly, and Sam will boost there to the best of his ability. I say this because Jetsom Sam adheres to gravity and a strict physics engine; Sam flies in straight lines only and, thanks to constant momentum, lands more in the general vicinity than the exact bulls-eye. This leads to pounding on the screen more than necessary, grabbing coins scattered around the level. The coins, to my knowledge, are superfluous. Maybe there are certain level requirements of a set number, but I did reach such a level. Viewing the game is not an entirely lost endeavor; the character animation is fluid, with Sam spinning head over heels as he rockets around the map. This adds some characterization that is sorely needed. Even a small scene of Sam, our unlikely hero, donning these rocket boots and blasting off, nervous but determined. This is all set to a pulse of Bucky O Hare space age discovery tunes, and the whirring of carnival laser zaps and blasts. Fortunately the sound effects slow an already choppy game, so that’s more incentive to play on mute.Level design is comprised of a constant background and a foreground of changing obstacles. The first level, City, has buildings that hinder Sam’s progress, billboards with cute advertisements, and speeding cars. Modes of play include Survival, in which the camera pans right with Sam staying ahead of it, and kill X amount of enemies. There is also an endless mode. I’m sure that’s cool. There is no real narrative tying any of this together, only a terse tutorial: “Fight the Aliens” and “Use [your] rocket boots to save Kay.” It’s difficult to be glib about Jetsom Sam. It’s not so much intentionally lazy, boring and tiresome, but this is moot since the result is the same. Jetsom Sam just has minimal personality, and it feels like Plasmaworks is saturating the market with several hairbrained titles. Not that these need to make a profound statement, but the lack of any depth or complexity makes this a soulless effort. I’m not sure who Jetsom Sam’s target demographic is: adults won’t be caught dead playing it, so I guess kids who own IPhone’s will get a kick out of imagining themselves as Sam kicking alien butt. Maybe I’m out of touch, along with this fossil.

Happier than You Review

Taylor Hall — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:05:50 +0000

click the screenshot to download the demo

Happier than you” is a game wrapped in a message of peace and happiness, hidden under bad graphics and unique gameplay.

At its core, HTY is a game designed to teach empathy. Managing the needs and delights of multiple people and sharing resources for the common good. It is also, however, a game of “graph management” as players try to keep all graphs (and thus their avatar happiness) equal. But doing so is complicated by each graph having their own sub-graphs to manage.

It starts off simple enough, pick three colors to build an invention for one of your three people. Each person has a few favorite colors, and if you choose their colors as one of your three choices, an invention is built. Building inventions increases the happiness of the chosen avatars – something you want. This is soon made complicated by sub-attributes like “jealousy” that have their own colors to keep down. And as you progress, there are more colors to choose, more people to keep happy and more attributes to juggle. During all this, you must keep up with the prices of each of the colors, buy more when they’re in low demand, and sell when they’re in high demand, in order to increase your points as a merchant (awarded at the end of the level, along with inventor and diplomat points). I enjoyed this sub-game, but in the long run it became one of the most monotonous parts of the game because of the ease of trading.

The game rewards a job well done with trophies. These trophies give you keys and those keys open up the higher difficulty, but somewhere along the line, it became conflicting. While the game was interesting, the gameplay wasn’t compelling enough to play for more than an hour at a time. Though if you like the resource-management of RTS without the RT, then HTY is the scratch you’ve been itching for.

The game also suffers from “XNA Syndrome”, an indie game with bland graphics and textures that make it look like a Mac game from the emac-era. The people (avatars) to keep happy are represented by voodoo looking heads on a line graph; it works, but is very utilitarian in its delivery. The only problem with the graphics is that text boxes don’t have a background color to separate them from the game graphics. You have to constantly move the text box around to read properly or it blends in with the words in the game. It would have been nice if the developers had put more effort into making their game visually-unique, but HTY isn’t a graphically dependent game anyway.

The music is delightful. Using free-license classical music, the game sets a mood that is very in-hand with the gameplay. Mostly calm and soothing pianos, there are a few orchestrations involving creepy tunes that add tension, but I personally felt they were out of place. Some may see free-license as a cop-out, but I found the music to be one of the better parts of the game, particularly the song that accompanies the level victory – a very melodic and transcendent piano score.

The opening of HTY showers you with text, and not just any text – religious text. You start off with a quiz about the Ten Commandments to which you choose either “innocent” or “guilty”. I choose guilt for eight of the ten, to which the game told me that it was OK and frankly who hasn’t? Personally, I prefer a theology-less game, but even as it dissuades me, this might be one of the areas HTY shines.

You can tell that the developers didn’t start the process with a set genre that they were trying to fit their message into. They took the issues that were important to them and tried to represent that in a fun yet educating way. Finding an interactive way to represent the quest for human happiness is a lofty goal and one in which HTY mostly succeeds, and ultimately will be absorbed subconsciously by many that will play it. However, HTY is a polarizing game. Its gameplay, graphics, music, and potential theology, mix in a way that is unique to the game. Getting past the socialist and religious undertones, players will find a fun game and a unique experience, but ultimately not a very compelling one.

Pros:

decent resource management, music is delightful

Cons:

Bad Graphics, theology, No real Genre

Rating:

63%

Foosball Maniac Review

Nate — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:16:35 +0000

Foosball Maniac is probably the best video game adaptation of foosball you’ll ever play. But is it worth the asking price of $10? No.

That’s not really the fault of the small two-man team, Cybertron BT, but this game simply doesn’t give enough to be worth $10. There is nothing to the game besides a simple single-player mode, with computer opponents of increasing difficulty unlocking one after the other as you beat them in 5-point games. Were it not for the game’s technically impossible difficulty level, (more on that later), the game might only take you an hour to beat. Without any modes or added value beyond the single-player campaign, the game isn’t worth playing as much more than freeware.

Foosball is not a computer-friendly game. The game was meant to be a physical way to play soccer (football) inside your home, and it just doesn’t work very well with video game controls. In real life, you have to use both hands, spinning and switching between the control rods, which is already awkward to coordinate for many people. The rod-spinning dynamics don’t map well to a keyboard, joystick, or even console game controller, so in any video game version of foosball, you’re left either barely able to hit the ball, unable to switch between rods well enough, or in the case of this game, still handicapped by the fact you can only move one rod at a time. This game does the best job of any foosball video game I’ve ever played at letting you control things, and yet it’s still frustrating. My typical foosball strategy is to keep one hand on the goalie rod to bat away any sudden strikes on my goal, and that’s just impossible in this or any other foosball game.

Each computer opponent is introduced through a glmour shot and a three-sentence bio, all of which boil down to “This opponent is slightly harder to beat than the last one”. The two-level demo gives you possibly all you’ll ever need of the game, given just how difficult the computer opponents get after that. The first two or so opponents will hardly touch the ball, and yet they can still beat you through your own goals alone. This breaks the typical game design maxim “Look hard, but play easy.” The computer plays like a toddler, and yet it’s still difficult to beat, even in the first levels. The game’s website even says that no one has apparently ever beaten the final level, so I guess they can advertise that you could spend an eternity on this game and never beat it, which is actually good.

There’s not much more to the game. It looks fine, and plays better than any other foosball video game I’ve seen (more than one song would have been nice, though) but there’s not enough content and the base game isn’t very satisfying. This is probably why EA is making all of its money off of FIFA and not ITSF (look it up).

Pros:

Looks fine and plays better than any other foosball game

Cons:

low on content and incredibly difficult

Rating:

60%

Romopolis Review

Rose — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:54:02 +0000

click on the picture to download the free pc game demo

Review by Rose

Romopolis is a strategy game set in “Roman” times with the overall objective of making money by constructing towns for Caesar. In every level you have 3 objectives that must be fulfilled to complete the level. These objectives are usually pretty straight forward and don’t require an extensive amount of thought or strategy. Perhaps the most challenging portion is keeping all of your residence happy. Yes, happiness of your tenants is actually a concern and objective. If only all of us had such luck with our existing landlords!

Gameplay:
Romopolis’s game play is straight forward and intuitive. The tutorial was very clear and helped you easily master the game. Simple mouse clicks easily guide you through the game. Features like pause, and detailed pop up instructions help keep you focused. The only real issue with the gameplay is it borders on boring. If you like these “build-a-town” strategy games, you’ll be able to find Romopolis entertaining for a good 20 minutes.To be fair, I did give the game a good solid hour of play before turning it off.

Graphics:
They were simple and clean and are one of the games strongest points. Because of the layout and design it was very easy to understand the game and follow along with your objectives.

Sound/Music:
The background music while you were playing was not distracting and fit in with the theme of the game. The basic sounds assisted the graphics to help the player understand what was going on and what needed to be accomplished. The only annoying part was the sound of the horn’s “Badom-Badom” as you were given your next mission or words of congratulations from Caesar.

Lasting Appeal:
Like I said before, if you’re really into this kind of game, you might play it all the way through, but it’s not something you’ll be dying to come back to or replay over and over again.

Pros:excellent tutorial, good design/layout

Cons:boring gameplay, low replayability

Rating: 65%

Wonderland Adventures Review

Meg Stivison — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:00:56 +0000

click on the picture above to download free game demo

Review by Meg

Wonderland Adventures: Mysteries of Fire Island from Midnight Synergy is the sequel to 2007’s Wonderland Adventures. The game opens in Wonderland, a town of happy-skippy smiley faces with feet. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood when flaming meteors fall from the sky!

Gameplay: Fire Island’s flimsy storyline, a collection of vanilla find-the-artifact missions, is disappointingly linear. The dialogue is little more than clicking ok after each piece of information. Sometimes personality-challenged NPCs block your path to enforce this dialogue. This clumsy plot is used to drive your character along between intriguing puzzles. In each level, your Stinker must solve puzzles to make his way to the goal item. You’ll help your Stinker cross water, avoid falling, use magical mechanisms or otherwise safely make his journey. You might need to create a path of mechanical transporters, herd adorable dragonturtles into water to make a bridge, or time your travels around firetraps.

Each level requires a different kind of creative problem solving, but all involve sweet graphics and clever solutions. With these fantastically engaging logic puzzles, I didn’t much care that my goal was trying to reach a star key, a gold star, a rainbow key, or whatever random object had been introduced for the sole purpose of being that level’s goal.

Because the game auto-saves at the beginning of each adventure, screw-ups aren’t as punishing as they could be. One-solution problems can become frustrating, but if you are fond of the wolf, chicken and grain sack type of logic puzzles, you’ll enjoy these. There is enough variation to make the addictive puzzle-solving worth clicking through the plot.

As you solve puzzles and explore new areas, there are optional gems and coins to pick up for extra points. I’m not really a high score-driven player, personally, so I didn’t spend much time collecting the gems when it wasn’t necessary to solve a level. For in-game shopping, collect gold coins and spend them on equipment. When playing, I had one odd issue. Every time I went from one area to the next, my Stinker always seemed to be facing the wrong way. Maybe it’s just me, and I just always wanted to head the wrong way?

Graphics: The bright Crayola-colored world was cheery, with stylized cartoon-ish terrain and magical effects. Exploring new areas was always fun, sweet and colorful without crossing the line into cutesy.mThe game includes scritters, dragonturtles, fire-breathing flowers, and other wild Wonderland life, but the Stinkers themselves are a bit flavorless. You play as a smiley face with feet and a tam-o’-shanter. It would have been nice to be able to zoom out and see a bit more of the area.

Sound/Music: The background music is just as cheery as the rest of the game, a perfect accompaniment to a sweet game. I had to turn it off after a while, because it became repetitive as I tried and re-tried the puzzles.

Lasting Appeal: There are so many puzzles, and each one stands alone, so Fire Island will stay playable for a long time. This is a long-lasting game for short, coffee-break puzzle solving, or an addictive puzzler for long bursts. I can’t imagine wanting to replay any completed levels later, though. The frustration of getting stuck on a level I’d already beaten would be too much for me.

Pros:good graphics, great logic puzzles

Cons:repetitive music, flimsy story

Rating: 63%

On Trial: New Star GP

Mike Gnade — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:13:45 +0000

click the screen to download the demo

Caspian: 3

Cool electro pop music mixes with decidedly 16-bit era graphics and gameplay in this racing team management / top down formula one racing game. It has a strangely clunky user interface that in the end made me end-task to close the thing down. I couldn’t really figure out what was going on with the team management thing. Casinos? Eh? What’s that got to do with racing? I suppose you’d probably understand it better if you were a Max Power reading Formula 1 addict type. As for myself, I didn’t really get it. The car was abominably hard to control at first too. That is, until I bashed it good and proper a few times, and then it slowed
down to a manageable sort of speed. I think you’d have to be a proper fan of top-down 2D racing games and Formula 1 nerdery to like this one.

Steve: 4

New Star GP is a top down racing game that reminds me of the old Micro-Machines game for NES combined with some of the depth of Gran Turismo. Practice racing the track during the week and then dominate on race-day in order to build up cash. You’re responsible for managing the attributes of your ride, finances, fuel levels, and weather to maximize your winnings. There’s a fun casino minigame, track editor, and many cars to buy; the biggest thing missing is multiplayer

Mike: 4

New Star Grand Prix is not for everybody. The game is a top-down Formula 1 racing game with some substantial RPG & strategy elements. The game reminded me a little of the Kudos series in that you can pick from an assortment of activities for each day. You can choose to practice the racetrack, go out with friends, gamble at the casino, etc. That aspect of the game adds a lot of depth, but the problem is that the core racing gameplay is not that thrilling. The game may be worth a lap around the track for fans of the genre or Formula 1 gearheads.

Zak: 4

New Star GP from New Star Games downloaded easy enough, but the game seemed to crash every time I went to play it. I can’t find faults with the graphics, but wish I was able to get past the title screen and into the game.

Mayhem Intergalactic Review

Mike Gnade — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:47:38 +0000

Wage war on your friends and enemies in this simple yet engaging strategy game.

Review by Tex

Game by

Inventive Dingo

Gameplay: 7.5

Graphics: 6.5

Sound: 7

Appeal: 5.5

Final: 67%

Grade: D

Mayhem Intergalactic is a turn-based strategy game of space combat. Your goal is to expand your galactic dominance by conquering planets and fighting other expansionist AI or human empires (like yourself, muawaha!). Mayhem Intergalactic is a well-made game that can provide hours of fun for fans of strategy, specially on multi-player. I liked playing it but lacks both complexity for long-term value and a good single-player mode.

A variety of hand-crafted maps offer their own special tactics for you to master.

Gameplay
The gameplay is a turn-based strategy featuring simultaneous gameplay among players with simple and easy to understand concepts. You start with one planet that produce X ships per turn. Move them to other planets to attack and conquer new planets that will produce even more ships and so on. You can attack neutral planets that only defend themselves, or planets of enemy factions (AI or other player) to weaken and destroy them. Ships can be sent to any planet on the map, but they will need a number of turns to arrive. This is a key element of the game’s strategy. Since you can attack anyone at any time, you might send surprise attacks that will arrive much later while you distract the opponent by attacking peripheral planets, for example. You can also upgrade planets and set rally points so all production of a given planet is automatically sent to another one, which is pretty handful once you expand your empire (specially on Large maps). The gameplay resembles Galcon but with turn-based logic instead of real-time. The mechanics are similar nevertheless and for Mayhem this isn’t that good. In Galcon the lack of complexity works fine due to a fast-paced action. Mayhem could make them work with additional layers of strategical mechanics and complexity besides basic production upgrades and rally points, but it doesn’t. Multi-selecting planets for a joint attack is also a problem. Generally, gameplay works, but could have more depth.

Graphics
Graphics of Mayhem aren’t fancy but do the job. This is not a big problem though since having fancy graphics clearly ain’t the game main proposition. The HUD is very well done though.

Sound
Same as for graphics but I found that the soundtrack is a good one. Sound isn’t great, but it doesn’t get in your way either.

Lasting Appeal
The gameplay is simple, but too simple to have a strong lasting appeal for a turn-based strategy. The game don’t go much far beyond planet upgrades and huge maps, and doesn’t feature a campaign mode. Of course you have a number of gameplay options to choose before starting a new map, which adds some gameplay variety (like being or not capable to see ships in transit to planets), but the game itself won’t add much more besides the Achievements system. The main problem, however, is the somewhat weak artificial intelligence. If you are like me and like to be capable to quick-play without investing time on gathering a multiplayer session (or waiting in the multiplayer room), a challenging AI is an important missing feature. Even so, the game does have lasting value due to the great number of adjustable game options and the multiplayer mode.

Fizzball Review

Mike Gnade — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:38:00 +0000

To Try Fizzball for yourself:

Click Here

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Buying it Now

This game is much harder to review than Prof. Fizzwizzle. It maintains all of the stellar presentation aspects and has exceptional production qualities, but is even more focused towards younger and more casual gamers. Fizzball is a Break-out / Arkanoid clone with an element of Katarmi Damacy thrown in. Like Prof. Fizzwizzle there is an exceptional Kids mode and a multitude of levels, the problem lies in the stale rehashed gameplay. On the one hand, it’s the most advanced breakout game I’ve ever played, but on the other hand, it’s a breakout game. This game almost needs two different reviews: One for very casual gamers and kids under 10 and another for more avid and mature gamers. For the casual gamers, the young, or anybody who is not tired of another bat & ball game, Fizzball offers a fantastic game with excellent graphics, presentation, and a plethora of features and other bells and whistles. For the more avid gamer, this game warrants a demo download to check out the unique interface, power-ups, and graphics, but after a couple levels of the demo, most gamers won’t think twice about playing this game again….simply because they’ve played dozens like it already. In my book, the best Arkanoid game of all time is still tired, dull, and just not enough to hold my interest.

Gameplay: 4/10
Pros: Tons of power-ups, levels, and features. The Katarmi Damacy aspect of growing the fizzball by swallowing up small objects and moving up towards larger ones is neat and novel.
Cons: The Grubby Games’ artistic design and sleek interface cannot overcome a stale and overused bat and ball gameplay mechanic. This is a case of exceptional programmers just brainstorming a game from the outset that would not have compelling gameplay. Game is in the WAY TOO casual department.

Graphics: 9/10
Pros: Exceptional presentation, animations, and consistent feel and look from Prof. Fizzwizzle. All the graphics have real depth and give the game a cartoony 3D feel. Just looking at the title screen impresses.
Cons: Stages and Level graphics get repetitive.

Sound/Music: 8/10
Pros: Catchy and fun music returns from Professor Fizzwizzle
Cons: Animal sounds are blasé

Lasting Appeal: 2/10
Pros: There are a ton of levels to play and the game is fully featured
Cons: After playing the first 5-10 levels, the unique features of this breakout clone wear off.

Average: 57.50%
Tilt: -7.50%
I really wanted Fizzball to be better. It oozes quality, has a sleek presentation, and is very endearing. But underneath all the features, beautiful, colorful animations, and catchy music is a game I have played for years. I remember Atari Pong, owned the big lumbering 1989 gameboy, grew up on the NES, SNES, and Genesis and have played breakout games for over a decade. Grubby Games is an exceptional duo, but for me, this type of gameplay is the bottom of the barrel. So for Avid and Long-Time Gamers:

Verdict: 50%

On the upside, if you have a child under the age of 10 or if you are a casual gamer and have no idea what Arkanoid or an Atari is then you will probably love this game. It is very endearing and is one of the best Breakout games I have ever played. It is an excellent game for the more casual / younger market. Maybe that was Grubby Games intention all along, to focus on the casual gamer.

Verdict for kids/casual gamers: 75%

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Toribash Review

Mike Gnade — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:50:00 +0000

Toribash by Nabistudio Download Website

Toribash is sort of a game sort of a simulation…I’m not really sure what it is..but it is definitely unique, an acquired test, and quite entertaining…though not really a game. It is described to me in an email as a unique turn-based fighter. That is actually a very concise and fitting description. You take turns affecting the physics of your fighter (or fighters). This is done by simply clicking a body part. You press space and the simulation iterates until the battle is over. YOu are then left with a battle simulation and replay that you can save. Very Unique Graphics, great physics, quirky idea…and ultimately hard to review…

Gameplay: 5/10
Pros: Very unique. I don’t think I’ve ever played a “turn-based fighter.” And the physics engine is excellent. The replays online are amazing and I loved watching them.
Cons: The gameplay is click this click that…and I get really impatient before the round is over. The commitment involved to alter each muscle is too much. I really wanted to be able to click a body part and drag and rotate it where I wanted to. It’s an acquired taste, but managing each muscle every move isn’t really for everyone.

Graphics: 8/10
Pros: Again Unique (you’ll see that come up a lot) and minimalistic. I think the style actually works really well for the game. The blood and movements can be quirky and hokey and the graphics complement that. Again, physics shine through and the ragdoll “dummy” characters animate incredibly well.
Cons: Graphics feel like placeholder graphics. Something a studio puts in to be functional and then after the gameplay is in there…they make it look sleeker. Looks like a tech demo. No background at all.

Sound/Music: 6/10
Pros: all the smack, whoosh, crunch, bash, etc. sounds found in the typical fighters make it into the game…very satisfying
Cons: Music is a very repetitive (if faint) drumming.

Lasting Appeal: 7/10
Pros: If you download the demo and like the game you can have a blast making your own fighting videos and playing people online multiplayer.
Cons: As stated earlier, I get bored clicking body parts mid-round and would prefer to watch the replays rather than make them. Not a plethora of options/features: single player, multiplayer…that’s it.

Average: 65.00%
Tilt: =/- 0.00%

This game is like nothing you’ve ever played! and that’s both good and bad. Download the demo…if you like that….buy it. If you try the demo and get bored of it…don’t buy it. The purchase of this game depends entirely on your patience level and enjoyment of “turn-based fighting.” I think this idea is great, but felt the controls were clunky- it’s hard to get your guy to punch and kick and do what you want….though other people have obviously figured it out (see replays). I just don’t have the patience to do it. Yes, I managed to kick someone’s head off, do a jump kick, punch, etc., but did about one move and then just tapped space repeatedly to end the match. I do see the potential in this game for some though and that’s why I urge everyone to try the demo. It’s not for me and may not be for you, but some will love it!

Verdict: 65%