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Multiplayer Game Reviews
October 28, 2010
Fungus
 Yep, that's a fungus alright! John Conway’s ‘Game of Life’ was a critical point in the interpretation of video games. Fungus is a re-interpretation of the game, adding in sounds, graphics, and the ability to move your life form around.
Gameplay
You start with a fungus inoculation. Each dot is a fungus ‘cell’ and each cell has links to other cells. Here’s what happens to each cell based on the number of links to cells.
1 or fewer – Dies of loneliness
2-3 – Stays alive
4 – Grows and gives birth
5 or more – Dies of overcrowding
You can control click a fungus to kill it. And you can move each fungus around. The idea is to get as much biomass as possible in two minutes.
Technical
A very fluid game. I like the idea of a time limit. I used to get very bored with ‘The game of life’, but when you add a benchmark to the game, and a limit, well then it gets interesting. I suppose that you could hack this so that it goes on forever, which would be kind of cool, but adding numbers to it makes it an actual game, which is fun.
I was also pretty impressed by the color choices. White on purple is a very elegant choice, and makes it very impossible to lose your fungi in the background.
Honestly, not much more I can add to this review, except that it has kept me entertained.
 Not the best game. Final Verdict
Good background game. You won’t have much of a vested interest in it, but it is a blast.
Game: Fungus | Developer: Prototype rally
October 6, 2010
 I try to be as unbiased as possible when it comes to my reviews. I mean, I know that I am kind of a Playfish fan girl but when I look at their games I try not to remember how absolutely awesome Pet Society is. Sometimes I fail…and sometimes I am surprised. So Many Girls, So Little Time is a game made by Silver Dollar Games. They have been pretty hit and miss with me. Dont B Nervous Talking 2 Girls was a disappointment, and as that was one of their dating simulation games, I was not expecting So Many Girls, So Little Time to be that much better.
Well, you know what they say about assuming. This game was actually very enjoyable! The point of the game itself is that you are dating a ton of different women at once. They all have mood bars and call you up, wanting to go on dates. These dates can be anything from going for a walk, hitting the shopping district, or seeing a movie. You basically have to juggle all of these women, keeping them happy, taking them out, all the while making sure that none of them meet and that your dates do not overlap. If they do, you will end up standing one woman up or cutting out early on another, effectively lowering their mood bar.
The game is super fast paced, which is at once thrilling and scary. Not only do you have to plan and attend these dates but you also have to consider how much money to spend each time, which conversation topics work best for which girls, and what each of these women are interested in. I would say that this game is for anyone who can multitask well and who doesn’t mind having to make sacrifices in relationships!
In the end, this game is a good example of why cheating is so horrible. I ended up spending all of my money on one unhappy woman; this made all of my other women angry. I kept getting their topics mixed up and could not, for the life of me; remember which girls liked sports and which liked television instead. There are a plethora of different places and activities to do with these women and each one has her own personality, likes, and dislikes. It is a real challenge to keep up with all of them at once, which makes for thrilling entertainment!
Game: So Many Girls, So Little Time | Developer: Silver Dollar Games (2)
October 2, 2010
Mount & Blade: Warbands, is the multiplayer revamp of the original Mount & Blade game. I can’t stress enough how much this game has become one of my all time favorites. The game brings a much needed sense of realism to an otherwise wholly fantasy filled genre, the medieval rpg niche. You’ll find no magic, trolls, or enchanted ring bearing elves here, and thank Taleworlds for it! The game doesn’t need it, and it’s sense of fast paced, kill or be-killed combat can bring you to the edge of your seat without it.
 Taking out the besiegers on the ladder. Mount and Blade: Warbands, puts the player in the shoes of an adventurer in the land of Calradia, a land fractured by petty, warring kingdoms that all claim the right to rule all in the name of the old Calradic Empire. The game is very open ended, but does have an ultimate goal. The people long for a restoration, somehow, someway, of the old Calradic Empire. How that happens is up to you. You can travel the land pillaging or aiding the local villages, offer your services to a local or faraway king as a mercenary, raise a band of warriors to aid you in your quest, pledge your services to a king as his sworn follower and become a noble in his court, or even let your ambition rise higher by conquering a castle from which you could forge your own kingdom.
 The siege team readies to storm the castle. The graphics are brilliant if you can turn your machine to high on all the options, and they function very well for the games overall style. The musical score and sound effects are also well done.
 Combat inside the castle. Most importantly for this site though, is that the game has an excellent multiplayer system, a very strong player following, and the developers maintain consistent, quick, and high quality maintenance of their product with frequent patches. Many of these patches even include new content, like a complete reworking of the armor for one of the kingdoms, new maps, or additional multiplayer scenarios.
So, that said, I must urge you to go check this game out. Taleworlds offers it on a try-before-you-buy method, where you can download the game and play until your character reaches level 7, then either buy the game, or not.
I’m looking forward to everything they’re going to the do with the game in the future. So good luck with your medieval
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Game: Mount & Blade: Warbands | Developer: Taleworlds
September 28, 2010
Ruse is a real time strategy game available for the PC, Xbox360 or PS3. It’s an interesting combination of traditional real time strategy aspects and some new additions that make the game unique, but not necessarily a stand out success. Ruse implements the typical resource management, troop and building construction concepts from standard rts titles, but throws in the idea of tactic cards. These tactic cards are a series of selectable “ruses” that you can use to throw your enemy off strategically. Every map is divided into sub sections that can be the target of your ruses, which range from radio silence to fake troop movements and camouflage.
The game has an easy to use multiplayer hosting and joining system, but no real method of separating players of different skill levels. This could make it much harder for new players to get into the multiplayer aspect of the game if they’re continuously stuck against players of a much higher skill level than themselves.
Graphically, it’s a gorgeous game, with satellite imagery constituting the majority of the maps, which can be zoomed in or out between a range of 100 and 8000 meters above the surface. The animations and unit models are very well done, and they blend excellently with the background. The audio is also a strong fit, making appropriate use of sound and music to create a solid ambience to the combat.
Where the game really fails to hit its mark though is in the way the controls were designed around the console titles. On the pc, this isn’t much of a concern. But the controls for the consoles were clunky and difficult to handle in any meaningful way. Selecting troops and even buildings was a chore at best, and a painful headache when you needed to accomplish something quickly and easily.
There also doesn’t seem to be a very regulated pace to the game. You could end up in an artillery war that could drag on for hours, or a 2 minute rush from enemy paratroopers in the opening stage of the game could capture your hq and the game would be over before it even really started.
All in all, it’s worth a try, but I’d wait for it to go down in price before making any solid investment in it.
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Game: Ruse | Developer:Ubisoft
September 19, 2010
 OK, I can do this... Wait... The sequel to light-Bot is finally here! (I reviewed the original a while back. You can read about it by clicking this link.) Lightbot 2.0 uses the exact same concept as its predecessor. You control a small robot by entering commands into a grid. You can use these commands to tell him to walk, jump, spin, or light up. The goal of the game is to illuminate every light-up space (they are darker blue when unlit, and glow yellow when lit) on the board. The problem is, you only have a certain amount of space on your command grid. Trying to turn on every light without maxing out your allotted number of moves will take some serious problem-solving skills. For repetitive commands you’ll want to use functions, separate chunks of code that can be activated from the main sequence.
 The commands. You'll notice there are a few that weren't in the original game. Lightbot 2.0 has added some new commands to the game for this round. There is now an option to change the color of each command, and your Lightbot won’t execute that command unless he is that specific color. In order to change his color, you must find a colored tile on the board and activate the light. Another new command is the lightning bolt-shaped icon, which can be used to stop a function. This comes in handy in Lightbot 2.0, since a lot of puzzles require the use of infinite function loops (you can do this by adding an F1 to the end of an F1 function… Trust me, this will make more sense once you play the game.)
The first installment in the Lightbot series was pretty easy. It got difficult toward the end, but there were only 12 stages, and at least the first 8 weren’t very hard. (I do admit that the last two were pretty frustrating though…) But Lightbot 2.0 is a different story. Like its predecessor, it starts out with some tutorial-based levels so you can get the hang of it. But once you get through the first part of the game, hand-holding time is over. You are on your own. And these puzzles get downright brutal. Even if you play through a lot of puzzle games like I do, your brain will be stretched to its limit. You may swear and break things when you get stuck, but completing one of the puzzles brings a huge sense of accomplishment. Especially once you get to the “Expert” levels.
And Lightbot 2.0 even includes a level editor and a link to player-built levels, which means you can play this thing for hours and hours and never get through all the content. Yeah, this game is incredible.
 Uh... What?
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Game: Lightbot 2.0 | Developer: Coolio-Niato
September 5, 2010
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten off my editor’s throne and actually done a review. But it’s also been a while since I’ve found a game that I really felt I needed to make a personal commentary on. Our reviewers here do a great job with everything they do, but I’ve been feeling the itch to get back into writing myself. So, when I found myself playing through Mafia II the other day and commenting on various things to my roommate, I realized that if I was going to get back into writing myself I had to do it now. And there’s no better game out at the moment to have helped me with my creative urges than Mafia II.
Before I really get into things though, it needs to be said that this game is rated M for mature, and for good reason. Prolific violence, foul language, and nudity mean that this game is NOT for children. So please, be sensible, read the label, and don’t let your kids play games they shouldn’t be playing at a young age.
The game is set in 1940’s America, following the character Vito Scolleta (you), from his early days as a young boy in Italy, through his childhood life in America, up to his days as a soldier during World War II (where the cinematics end and the gameplay begins) and through his Mafioso days after he comes home.
Visually, the game is absolutely stunning. Sure, there are some that have been a tad better, but you’d be hard pressed to find any physical errors with the way the world looks. It captures a look and feel of the 40’s better than anything else I’ve seen from the time. The “Beaver Cleaver” suburbs, the downtown business districts, the dirty slums and even the heavily industrial dock section all received equal love and care to their visual appearance. And the characters themselves are magnificent. There are parts of the game that are gritty and dark, while others sparkle with a chrome-like sheen.
 Things can get pretty brutal in the industrial sector.
The gameplay is equally spectacular. The whole game is driven by a story that has various climaxes and down times, and works well to depict the underworld lifestyle of Vito and his mafioso friends. If you’re not putting the squeeze on someone for not paying their dues, you might be driving like a madman to evade police, boxing some fool who thinks he could take you, or lounging around the strip club and watching the story move seamlessly into the next chapter. The game also has it’s fair amount of open-endedness. You’re free to do as you please, the same as in most games like this. Your criminal activities might range from shaking down businesses for cash, stealing cars and sending them to the crusher for money, or running around trying to find the numerous collectable items (wanted posters and playboy bunny photos) hidden out in the world. Or, of course, any other creative ideas you might have for yourself.
 But sometimes you just need to make an example out of someone.
But no matter what you decide to do with your time, if you’re into a very solid story backed up by excellent gameplay and quality graphics (and are old enough to buy the game with it’s M rating), then you really can’t go wrong with Mafia II. So far, this game looks like it could be a very strong contender for the Game of the Year award I’ve been mulling over for the site.
Game: Mafia II | Developer: 2k Czech
August 13, 2010
 My first impression of Biz School — Twisted Ed was that someone really loved 3D modeling. The graphics in the game are much better than you would expect to see from an Indie game. The individual people are well done and expressive, even though the game doesn’t really focus on the person aspects of the game.
On the other hand, that could be a problem as well. The game is about running a business, or in some cases a multitude of businesses with the goal of making so much money before the time limit is up. If you don’t know much about business the instructions can be a little confusing and it’s pretty easy to get lost in all the different phrases and terms.
The overview of the game is comical, something I really wasn’t expecting. Usually with games where the end goal is to make insane amounts of money you don’t expect much by way of humor. Still, it’s got a bit of an offbeat kind of dark feel to it which I can appreciate. After all, it’s only in the overview. The rest of the game play itself is “serious business”…get it?
 I don’t usually pay too much attention to the ratings that things get. Some of my favorite movies are ones that have gotten horrible reviews in the past. (i.e. Catwoman and Constantine). Still, I think it is worth mentioning that with over a hundred reviews this game only has two stars. Now, this could be because of the fact that the demo is so short you don’t really get to do anything besides watch the overview and maybe, maybe pick your first venture or so.
The game is really one of those that you have to take a leap of faith if you want to get really into it. You get to see the basic outlay and then you have the option of whether or not to buy it. Now, if you like games that simulate business or economics I would say that it’s worth the dive. It’s one of those games that you can fail and replay, work out where you went wrong and then go back and learn from your mistakes. It’s going to probably take you more than one play through to get it down and it couldn’t hurt to have a heavy dose of luck on your side.
Game: Biz School — Twisted Education | Developer: Ggaler
August 10, 2010
Now, I realize how unprofessional this would be on any other website but since this is one for gaming and gamers I think I’ll express my thoughts on this game without any words for just a moment. Here we go…. =\
Yeah, that’s it. The almighty =\ face. Now, before I get started, I just want everyone to know that I bought this game and honestly, I think it was a dollar well spent. My husband, on the other hand, said, and I quote: “That was the worst game I’ve ever seen.” He’s so mean, but at the same time I suppose it gives another perspective based on our different personalities and our gaming types.
The game is basically a dating simulation. Your goal is to seduce and win the heart of one of four eight bit ladies. These girls have different personalities and are looking for different things in a man, but ultimately what you want is to impress them by figuring out what they want to hear.
I think the best part about this game actually occurs during the losses. When you fail to chose the right option for your particular girl you are given a fail screen. These range from hilarious to downright ridiculous but are almost always worth a look-see. My husband and I played the game all the way through, which means we not only read the text for the correct answers but also went through and got the wrong ones so we could see those too.
The game will probably only take you about an hour to finish. It was only a dollar so I felt that the time and money were well spent. Still, there are a few concerns to address. First of, all the game is exactly as it says it is. It’s an eight-bit game, which can seem a little confusing at first. For people like me you might not always understand what you’re looking at.
Besides that, the text is small and not always on a clear background. I would highly suggest this game but you should probably play in a well lit room and on the biggest screen you can find. The graphics are simple but not unpleasing if you’re looking for something familiar and easy. Besides that, the game itself is pretty funny. I’ve never seen a knight work so hard to win the girl and, though my husband would probably disagree, I’ve never seen a woman be more difficult.
Game: 8-Bit Girlfriend | Developer: Jaded Horizon
July 27, 2010
 There's a monkey in the kitchen. Isn't that a Health Code violation? Café World allows you to become a world-class chef and run a restaurant. You decide what your café should look like, what to cook, and even what to wear. You are given a cookbook with recipes that you can make, and every item you cook grants you Café Points (Café World’s version of XP.) As you level up, you earn more stoves and buffet-style serving tables, and more of the items in your cookbook are available to you.
Your café also has a buzz rating, which is affected by how well your customers enjoy their meals. A good experience will boost your buzz rating by 0.1, but a bad experience will drop it a full point. (The maximum rating is 105.) In order to keep your guests coming back, make sure they have a clean table to sit at when they arrive and a hot meal within a fair amount of time. If guests wait too long for their food, they will storm out and lower your buzz rating. The higher your rating is, the faster customers will spill in.
It takes a little bit of foresight to keep your café running smoothly, since most of the items in your cookbook have a fairly long cook time. (Times range anywhere from 3 minutes to 4 days.) And if you let something sit too long, it will spoil. An item’s cook time will determine how long it can sit before it spoils, so items with longer cook times last longer than those with short ones.
Since it is a Facebook application, Café World rewards the highly sociable. You can add your friends as neighbors, earning medals as your neighborhood grows. There are many actions that you will need help from your friends to complete, like building a spice rack, baking a wedding cake, obtaining a super stove that allows one-click cooking, or opening a crate that contains a coffee maker. And your friends can send you free gifts every day, usually bonus servings of your favorite dishes. You can even hire your friends for extra help around the kitchen.
There are also weekly themes, such as the Stone Age and Sci-Fi, which are celebrated by adding brand new decorations for your café as well as new menu items. This provides great incentive to keep coming back.
Café World is highly addictive. You’ll have a blast decorating your restaurant and unlocking new menu items. And with that, I must be off. I think my quiche is done!
 A page from the menu. Yes, there are dinosaur eggs on it.
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Game: Café World | Developer: Zynga
May 21, 2010
Shark Bait is a very good little retro hunting game, which allows you to take on the role of one of the world’s deadliest predators.
You control a huge shark as you swim through a variety of waters. Your aim each time is to bag the various wildlife indicated as your goal. Do this and you complete a stage and move onto the next one, which will give you a new challenge.
This game has a lot going for it as the title screens and graphics have been kept very simple. This allows for a fast game engine and even if your computer is slow, there is an option for you to choose which will compensate for this.
 Snnnnnnnap! Keyboard control is all that you need. You move your shark around using the arrows on the keyboard. However, the option to charge can be used by pressing the z key, which seems a little confusing as enter or shift may have been more appropriate.
There are two things that currently hold this game back. One is the lack of activity taking place on the screen. You expect much more sea life and human activity on the waters above than you actually get.
This keep the game simple but it does limit the game when it comes to entertainment. It would be quite good to go off on a jaws style rampage at some point and ignore the level objective.
 Swim upside down to bamboozle your prey The other thing which might annoy you is the music. It has quite obviously been put on loop and you can recognize this at various points. It is very repetitive and will make you click the close button sooner rather than later.
Also there is nothing hunting you. Believe it or not but sharks are hunted creatures as well. If you had to keep one eye out for predators, it would make this game much more skillful.
It’s refreshing to see a game with this sort of role as it’s unique and hasn’t really been done before in flash game format. Give this game a go and it will keep you well entertained for a little while. However, do not expect big things and do not expect a sequel because it will struggle to get more than a few clicks based on this effort.
Game: Shark Bait http://www.addictinggames.com/sharkbait.html | Developer: Gonzo Games http://gonzogames.com/
May 3, 2010
Disc Pool is a game which offers a unique and contemporary twist on a sport that has been around for decades.
The theory is exactly the same as playing Pool or snooker, the format is just slightly different. Pot your own green or red discs using the golden discs. Pot more than your opponent to win the game and score a digit against your name.
What’s more, is this is a very entertaining multiplayer game. You can create an account for free and play against opponents all over the world. You can even just sign in as a guest and play against the computer or other guests that happen to be online at the same time.
 Pot all of your pieces before your opponent The makers of the game clearly went for some basic graphics. This let them spend more time on improving the speed and efficiency of the multiplayer action and the goods are there for all to see.
The controls are very simple. All you have to do is use your mouse to drag the golden disc to your own base line. You then click and hold down, move the mouse to line up your shot and set power, then release to send the disc flying off.
Do your best not to pot any of your opponent’s pieces because this automatically gives them control of the board in the same way that they would get if you were playing a normal game of pool or snooker.
The game takes no time at all to load. This means if you are having a long day at work or trying to put something off, you can quickly log on and have your own marathon game with someone sitting on a computer on the other side of the world.
 Judge direction and power with your mouse The only disappointing aspect of this game is that the title and build up screens promise a lot more than the game actually is. You may expect some three-dimensional graphics and maybe interactive playrooms, but these simply don’t appear.
All in all, disc pool is a solid internet game. You may not have to wait too long until disc tables start being built by established manufacturers and air hockey goes off on a dramatic tangent, which either ends up as a hit or doesn’t. The game is worth it for the multiplayer functions alone.
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Game: Disc Pool http://www.miniclip.com/games/disc-pool/en/| Developer: Mini Clip http://www.miniclip.com
April 29, 2010
 If you are illiterate, you may want to find another game. Cybernations
Have you ever wanted to have your own country? Do you like having armies at your beck and call? Well have I found the game for you. Cybernations is an browser based multiplayer game where you manage your country, form alliances and, should you see fit, obliterate other countries.
Gameplay
One thing that’s great about this game is there are many things to do. Unlike other browser games, where you have a few rescources that you have to build up in order to get more things to kill people with, Cybernations has many options for gameplay. For example, if, in your alliance, you want to be the guy that makes a lot of money (you’ll be a bank basically), you can buy a lot of land and tax the you-know-what out of it. Or, you can be super kill guy. You have control over your government type, currency (this doesn’t matter, but it is funny to use the dong) or the tax rate. It is important to be involved in your alliance. There is even a Senate where leaders of alliances can be voted into positions which will give certain groups preferential treatment.
Technical
 Blah blah blah nukes blah blah blah tanks. This game has a steep learning curve. There are so many variables that it is very hard to get lost. However, there is a very extensive user-base that will guide you through it all. You interact with the world, like in many browser-based games, through drop down folders and inputting numbers. There is no real time movement, so reflexes are not the name of the game.
Unlike many other browser based games, I would say that the technical aspects of this game are the easier part. It is the gameplay that is more subtle. This is not necessarily a game where more time = winning. Playing smart is the name of the game.
Although it’s arbitrary, you can choose the location of your nation, and it grows bigger with the more land that you buy, which I think is cool. In fact, many people will attack you based off of where you choose to start your civilization.
Multiplayer
You can play this game on any level. There are people that are fanatical about it, and then there are the weekend warriors. The best part? You can play this anywhere you get an internet connection. I would say that this community is very strong, if only because alliances and diplomacy are the lifeblood of this game. If you are looking for something where your on-line social skills will come into play, I would choose this game. Be careful, you will start it intending to play for half an hour a day, and then you will find yourself spending all your breaks on it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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Game: Cybernations | Developer: Planet Realm Online Gaming
April 24, 2010
 Let the Games begin! 1100 AD
Do you like knights and medieval stuff like that? Do you like building up resources and then using those resources to buy units to kill things? Do you like immersive online games? Boy do I have a game for you, 1100 AD. In the vein of Travian and AstroEmpires, you play this game through your browser. You start off with nothing more than a wooden castle, and some places where you can dig up some resources. If you develop things right, you will have yourself a nice little dukedom.
Technical
In terms of online games, this one has a steeper learning curve. I found it very hard to find my way around this game. For example, after I registered for the game, not only did I not receive an e-mail, but I was not given a link to choose my server. I had to go back to 1100ad.com and re-login. Very counter intuitive.
I frequently found myself comparing this game to Travian. Everything just feels a bit clunkier. Often times you click on something, and it does not register. In addition, the menu system is a bit hard to understand. I often found myself having to go to outside resources to get more information.
 A well defended city. You build up resources by upgrading a series of buildings, centered around your main castle. For every level you upgrade the buildings, they look better. Very cool.
On top of that, this is browser based, so you can play it any where in the world where you can get a decent internet connection. Yes, even on the ISS.
Gameplay
Although this game has a rather steep learning curve, it hands down has the best tutorial of any browser based multiplayer game that I have played thus far. It walks you step by step through your opening developments, giving you specifics on where to click for each action. Plus, you get free stuff for doing it.
Once you get going, it’s a lot of fun. While you don’t get to watch your guys move around, it is still done graphically and through the GUI. In many of these games, you have to manually enter numbers, which is a huge drag, and really takes you out of the whole thing.
I would also venture to say that this is a very balanced game. You have to make a lot of choices about how to distribute your resources. In addition, building troops is not so much about how many attack points you get per resource, but rather what type of unit would be best against a certain enemy.
Final Verdict
If you’ve been experimenting with browser based, immersive games, but got bored because they were not very pretty, or you had to manually enter a lot of numbers, then this is the game for you. Plus, if you have a thing for the Middle Ages, like I do, well, then it isn’t really a question.
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Game: 1100AD | Developer: Amber Games
April 16, 2010
Youda Sushi Chef is a fantastic little time filler, which will test out your patience skills and timing to the maximum!
The point of the game is to run a well-oiled and maintained sushi restaurant and keep every single one of your customers happy.
Don’t worry if you have no experience of creating sushi or even if you have never eaten it before because there is an in play recipe book to help you as the orders start to pile up in front of you.
 Keep those customers happy! In terms of controls the game is very simple and easy. You just need a mouse and a few keyboard skills to negotiate your way to a higher level. Once you reach these higher levels, you need to be very quick so touch typing and mouse skills help.
Game play can become a little irritating after a while but there is a simple option to turn off all sound and character noises. This will mean you do not have to put up with impatient customer grunts as they wait for their sushi!
The game will also handily save each time you close your web browser. This means if your boss is walking around the office while you have a cheeky little play then you can just click the x and come back at a later point.
The graphics of the game are very good. Bright colours and crisp 2D images are all the game offers up but it does this very well.
 Look up recipes you are not sure about There are many internet games like this on modern web gaming sites but the developers of this game have to be praised for bringing something a little extra to the table.
The Café Worlds of this time and age have already rocketed to popularity and this game does well because it doesn’t try to be any thing like that. It sticks to the concept of fast paced and popular action, which keeps a gamer hooked on the game long enough for the developers to be able to score some vital statistics.
All in all this is a cracking little role play game, which will keep you entertained for hours. If you ever wanted some vague idea of how the pressure of running a restaurant would feel then this is a nice place to start. Enjoy.
Game: Youda Sushi Chef http://www.unlimitedwebgames.com/game/youda-sushi-chef | Developer: Mini Clip http://www.miniclip.com/games/en/
April 2, 2010
 You are red. Any other color is a bad guy. Yeah. SteamBirds
The year is 1907. 50 years earlier a scientist, no doubt with a sweet mustache, discovered cold fusion. Lo and behold, at the turn of the century, there are fully functional airplanes. Over the course of 15 levels, and 5 bonus levels, you have to re-fight the WWII air war. The action is turn based. You select the path of your plane over the course of 2 seconds or so. In addition to this, every plane has certain power ups, be that speed, protection, acid gas or a 180 degree turn. You are often outnumbered, out gunned and outflanked.
Technical
Technically, this game is one of the best out there. You have to think tactically on the small scale and then strategically, considering where your plane will be in 5 turns. All the controls are done through the mouse. Although, you can use the arrow keys to select individual airplanes, a feature which I found to be very, very useful later on in the game.
 Just throwing it out there, you're probably not going to make it out of this one. The pacing of the game is incredibly well done. You have 1 or 2 tutorial levels and then it gets progressively harder from then on. The game keeps finding newer and harder ways to test your skills as a 2D pilot. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed in the last level. It took me the longest, but it was by no means the hardest battle.
I really hope that Andy Moore, the creator, expands this concept to have giant air battles. OH MAN that would be awesome. I only found a few bugs. If you flew off of the edge of the screen, you died; and sometimes, like once or twice, I couldn’t select the special options. All told, all the action was smooth, and the physics are surprisingly in depth.
Aethetics
What really put this game over the top, however, was the artwork. This game has a real steampunk vibe, without distracting you from your mission. You fly over an olive green topographical map and your planes bank and puff out smoke when you’ve been hit. If you’re hit, sometimes your rudders are jammed and you can only fly forwards. Easily as much effort was put into the design as into the gameplay, which is something I value in games.
Game: SteamBirds | Developer: Andy Moore
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