Miniview: Fathom (Browser-based)

May 21, 2009 at 5:56 pm (Game Design)
Tags: , , ,

I love:
…the atmosphere; the music, the surroundings, what the game looks like it’s a copy of. It’s lovely in the same way that Cave Story or Shadow of the Colossus are. Or, well, Eversion.
…the final area of the game, though I’m still not sure what on Earth happened.

I like:
…that boss. That fight is interesting on a couple of levels.
…what happens after that. It’s difficult to tell with only the small visible area, but pay close attention to the areas you’re exploring.

I loathe:
…the controls for the ‘main’ part of the game. Controlling your movement is difficult when you can only see clearly in the direction you came from, and can’t clearly see yourself, let alone what’s ahead.
…how the ending is a bit ‘…what on Earth just happened?’ Scratch that. See: the second point I love.

Verdict:
Go on, just play it. It won’t take long.

Leave a Comment

Miniview: Eversion (PC)

January 1, 2009 at 8:00 pm (Gaming)
Tags: , , , ,

I love:
…what it does with platforming, and the different rules you have to learn just to get through each stage. Though superficially this game looks like any given Mario-type platformer, I’d class it as more of a puzzle-platformer, due to the thinking you have to do to get through each stage, but I don’t often see those with a strictly level-based structure.

I like:
…the music. Every single piece. Much like the pieces in Spelunky, the
music here just… fits, extremely well, the atmosphere I presume the
designer was aiming for when producing this game. Unlike Spelunky,
though, the music is a very important element of the game that tells the player when they can or cannot do something. Probably.
…the graphics. Nice pixel graphics. They’re used much like the music is, and I do love how they’re used… but I don’t really love the graphics.

I hate:
…not that much at all, really. For a game that requires precision jumps in places, the controls seem a little sensitive, but it’s not a great problem, and I seem to have infinite lives, so…

Eversion

4 Comments

Miniview: Spelunky (PC)

December 29, 2008 at 11:11 pm (Gaming)
Tags: , , , ,

I love:
…that, despite looks, it’s essentially a roguelike. It combines the randomly-generated levels, violent shopkeepers and ranking on death with 2D platformer action similar to LA-MULANA. Similar enough that the programmer mentions the game in his description, anyway.
…the music. It sounds very nice and of the three or so pieces I’ve heard, none of them fail to fit the game.
…the intro that changes slightly each time I open the game.

I like:
…the graphics. Yeah, it looks like a cross between Treasure Hunter Man and LA-MULANA. That’s not a bad thing. It does take a few enemy sprites from Cave Story, but… again, not a bad thing. I miss this kind of style; what are people thinking that 3D is the future?
…being able to mess around on the title screen, and how the intro leads to that point. Admittedly, you can’t do much, but it is a nice touch all the same.

I hate:
…the giant two-tile-wide spiders; they’re the sole highest cause of death, with everything else mostly split evenly between ‘jumped without thinking’ and ‘attacked too late’.

Get Spelunky here.

Leave a Comment

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.