Home > Reviews
|
Multiplayer Game Reviews
September 8, 2010
 Bonus: This game makes its own drilling noises Remember when digging holes was awesome? I know my imagination was always filled with scenes of man-made caves and awesome things like that. Well, now it’s time to live that fantasy. In Motherload, you pilot a drill around while searching for metals and such.
Gameplay
WASD moves you around. But that’s just the beginning. See, you drill down into the dirt and move around while looking for things that will make you money. However, you can’t stay down there forever. You have to conserve enough fuel to make it back up to the surface, where you sell your wares for more money.
Like any good flash game, there is an upgrade system based on the money you make. This allows you to carry more fuel, drill more efficiently and carry more stuff. Trust me, you have no idea what you are in for. This game is HUGE. You have to be careful not to fall down into caverns, get burnt up or run out of fuel. You will dig deeper than you ever thought possible.
 Pro Tip: Leather gloves and a hard hat enhance the drilling experience. Unfortunately, this is what makes it a little tedious. Yes, you do do the same thing over and over, which, by its nature gets old. But, there is an element of puzzle solving that keeps you digging deeper and deeper. Also, the desire for money does. Less cynically, I feel like this strikes deep at our human desires to do more, greater things. I supposed digging deep holes satisfies that urge.
Technical
This is a pretty old game. I remember when I first played ‘Motherload’, I thought it looked awesome. Now? Not so much. It is definitely something from before vector images. However, don’t let that get you down. Gameplay is what makes this game great.
On top of this, the controls take a bit of getting used to. You have to rocket your drill (honestly rocket drill sounds like a pretty sweet game too), which can be frustrating. Also, it is surprisingly easy to get stuck. This is one of those games that forces you to think ahead.
Final Verdict
Drill baby drill. I won’t go on a rant down here about a drilling machine like this is a 100% impossibility. That’s not why we’re here. We’re here to play video games. And this is a fun video game. You get to drill for hours. Remember, keep a close eye on your fuel gauge and always have an exit plan.
Game: Motherload | Developer: Xgen Studios
September 3, 2010
 Land sharks? Oh great. And I thought the underwater sharks were bad enough. Time Decay is, well, interesting… In this space shooter, you take control of a UFO from Saturn. Apparently, zombie animals are being created for war, and your mission is to destroy them. Bunnies, sheep, bats, and land sharks (“air sharks” would probably have been a better term for them, since they fly) are among the zombified creatures you’ll be up against. And if you can rescue the friendly animals inside of these man-made monstrosities, that’s a bonus. To help you, there is a time decay drive on your ship. This handy gadget will slow down time so you can dodge bullets with ease. But be careful. Some animals aren’t able to move very well in real time, but Time Slow makes them go absolutely wild.
There are two bars you’ll have to keep your eyes on. The health bar (which is pretty self-explanatory) and the time decay bar, which drains when you are in Time Slow. When your health drops below a certain point, Time Slow is activated automatically, which will keep you alive a little longer when things get especially crazy. Both of these bars recharge with time, so if you get close to running out, jut find a place to hide and wait for your bars to refill.
The controls are very simple. WASD are your directional buttons; aim and shoot with the mouse. Hit the spacebar to toggle time slow on and off. It can’t get much easier than that. That makes Time Decay a great game to just hop right into without having to spend a bunch of time learning how everything works. And if these controls are still too difficult to figure out, there are sentences scattered through each levels that will explain everything. Oh yeah, and they’ll also brag about how much better Saturn is than pretty much every other planet. (Apparently, this zombie madness would never have happened on Saturn. They have laws against this sort of thing.)
One of the greatest things about this game is the music. It has a phenomenal ambient electronic soundtrack, which is made even cooler when you flip on your time decay drive and the music slows down too.
Time Decay is a very entertaining and fairly challenging space shooter with an A+ soundtrack. So get out there and fry some zombie sheep. You’ll be glad you did.
 Of course, this would never happen on Saturn. Game: Time Decay | Developer: TacticalZeppelin
September 2, 2010
Max Damage is a great little game that might remind you quite a bit of your curious and mischievous childhood. All you have to do is complete various levels with a set amount of ammunition.
Your mission each time is to cause as much damage and chaos as possible based on the obstacles in front of you. You must use the terrain around your character in order to get rebounds and to knock random items into each other.
 Destroy as much as you can You have a counter in the bottom right hand corner of the screen which tells you how much damage you need to cause each level. Once you reach or go over that amount you proceed onto the next level of destruction.
The controls for this game are very simple. All you have to do is use your mouse to move the cursor and draw the arrow in or out for power. It does not take long at all to get the hang of, and once you have played for a couple of levels you will soon be flying through.
There are problems with this game despite its innocent appearance. The music will do your head in because it sounds like some weird European rave as opposed to background music for a game.
 Tackle challenging levels Furthermore there are 49 levels to this game and there isn’t an auto save option. Some of the early levels can even be quite tricky so the later ones are really, really tough.
The graphics are pretty simple and mean the game should appeal to everyone. They also mean that the game isn’t confined to a set audience or age. The game appears child like, but allows adults to have a bit of fun and can also keep the kids occupied for an extended period of time.
All in all Max Damage is a decent little shooting based game. It is playing on a format that has appeared in many other web based games before it and to be honest the game does this format pretty well.
Game: Max Damage http://www.addictinggames.com/maxdamage.html | Developer: Addicting Games http://www.addictinggames.com/index.html
September 1, 2010
 Glowing trails behind Tekeshi's eyes, somewhat realistic rope physics, and vintage pixel-art backgrounds add to the intrigue of Final Ninja. Final Ninja is an action Flash game in which you take control of Takeshi, the Final Ninja.
When the story begins, Takeshi has been in hiding for ten years after he has forsaken his life as a Ninja. His old master, Akuma, has been hunting him down this entire time, and has finally found him. Takeshi realizes it’s time to put the suit back on and get himself some sweet ninja action while ending Akuma’s reign of Ninja Master terror.
 The classic wall hop has been a staple of action games since the early days. Final Ninja looks and feels like a vintage game from the Sega Genesis era. While this may be a complaint for some people, I personally love it. I see it as a throwback to the era in which I first started gaming. Games were simply fun back then. Paper-thin plots and awkward graphics didn’t matter so much as the carefully crafted gameplay.
Controlling Takeshi is pretty simple. It follows the WASD button scheme (you can also use the arrow keys) and mouse click will cause the protagonist to toss throwing stars. Holding down the left mouse button will fire a grappling hook and rope. Like in the Prince of Persia games, you can cling to walls and launch yourself in the other direction, making scaling steep surfaces a breeze. The only real complaint I have with this setup is that using the mouse to fire the grappling hook feels a bit more awkward at times than it should.
This was a game in which I found myself impressed by some of the smaller details. One of the first things I tested for was to see how the rope works. When you hit the edge of a cliff, the rope acts exactly as it should, partially wrapping around the obstruction and causing the circumference of Takeshi’s trajectory to decrease. While this is a minor detail, it made me happy to see that the developers didn’t take an easier route by not fine-tuning these rope physics.
Another thing that impressed me was the glowing trail that always lingers behind Takeshi’s eyes. This is completely unnecessary, but it looks really cool.
While Final Ninja may not be a breakthrough in gaming, or even incredibly unique, it fills a niche that has unfortunately been left empty for over a decade. If you loved the Sega Genesis, you will thoroughly enjoy this fun little ninja game.
 Electricity is dangerous. Even the Final Ninja has respect for its power. Game: Final Ninja | Developer: Nitrome
August 30, 2010
 'Cause I'm freeeeeee... Free Fallin' If I had to pick only one word to describe Continuity, I’m pretty sure I would say “innovative.” This game is flat out amazing. It’s hands down one of the most creative puzzle games I have ever played. In fact, it is one of the only games I’ve given a full 5 stars to.
So what is this incredible game? It’s a puzzle-platformer crossover where you navigate through mazes. You must first gather every key in the maze, then make your way to the exit. But there’s a catch: each maze is broken up into sets of tiles, which must be moved around in order for your character to be able to move from one to the other. If the edges of the tiles don’t line up, you aren’t allowed to pass to the next one.
Essentially, there are two modes to Continuity. In one mode, you can slide the tiles around with the arrow keys but you can’t control the stick figure. In the other mode, you move the character with the arrow keys, but you can’t slide the tiles. To swap between modes, just hit the spacebar.
When the game begins, the puzzles are pretty simple, allowing players to get the feel for the game. But by the end, it gets insanely difficult. If you are the kind of person who gets headaches from thinking too hard, you probably will want to skip most of the second half of the game. And don’t even attempt the final maze. Yeah, it’s a real doozie. But personally, I like my puzzlers extra difficult, and Continuity kept me on my feet.
The music is great. No, better than great. The music is perfect. There are two songs during the actual gameplay: when you are sliding tiles, the music is eerie and “puzzle-ish” with its reverb and its bells, to put you in a contemplative mood; when you are running and jumping, there is a frantic melody that gives you a real sense of urgency. Every time you hit the spacebar to switch modes the music fades from one track to the other. Yeah, like I said, perfect.
Final words: Go play Continuity.
 Slide the tiles around to open new pathways. Game: Continuity | Developers: Elias Holmlid, Dmitri Kurteanu, Guy Lima, Jr., and Stefan Mikaelsson
August 29, 2010
Motorush FMX is one of the better stunt based bike games you will find to play on the internet.
The format and point of the game is very simple and although the controls are a little tricky, it’s an extremely addictive game to play once you’ve mastered a few levels. This game plays to your inner child and allows you to live a virtual life on the edge.
The controls of the game can be quite challenging at first but you’ll be pulling off a variety of tricks once you’ve mastered them. The keyboard arrows control the movement of the bike while the numbers allow you to perform different tricks.
 Perform tricks in mid-air You have to build up your speed before flying forwards and up and over various obstacles. However, be careful because if you go too quickly too early your bike will fly over and you will end up sitting on your backside.
The graphics for the game are very simple and the two dimensional aspect means the game engine can work very quickly. The terrain is very simple as are the backgrounds but the developers have been clever in the respect that you focus on the foreground and virtually ignore these aspects.
There are many control friendly user options, which allow you to enjoy the game more. These come in standard form such as turning the sound off as well as more personal options such as allowing you to choose the color of your own bike.
 Staying on the bike usually helps The early levels are pretty simple but this is a good thing because you may struggle initially to get through them. You get to learn the controls while tackling simple obstructions such as a few logs or a truck.
Once you get through these the terrain starts to get more difficult and the obstacles are even harder to get over. However, once you master them you start to wrack up the points, which will bump you up the leader board.
Unfortunately there is no auto save option, which is standard on many internet based games. Therefore you have to blitz the game and do as much as you can do initially, because if you want to play it again, you’ll have to go right back to the beginning and start again.
Game: Motorush FMX http://www.addictinggames.com/motorush-fmx-cheetos-game.html | Developer: Addicting Games http://www.addictinggames.com/index.html
August 28, 2010
 RAWR Dofus
Dofus is one of the undiscovered gems of the internet. It is a free MMORPG with over 25 million players. It is outstanding because of its battle system and its graphics. I am only going to scratch the surface with this review.
Gameplay
This is a pretty straightforward MMORPG. You have multiple character classes to choose from, of which there are 12 (from warrior to animal trainer). Then you assign your skill points and you wander around. Yes, they will train you how to move around and stuff. That’s not important. If you have started, by now you will notice how incredible the graphics are.
I have quite honestly never played a multiplayer game that is as visually appealing as this one. The creators obviously took an incredible amount of time on this, and it shows. With the blend of American rhapsody and Japanese attention to detail, you will have fun simply walking around.
 Home Sweet Home Yes, I suppose you’ll have to battle someone at some point. This leads me to the second part of what makes this an exemplary game, the battle system. It is turn based. Yes, you read that correctly. You can form a team and have 8 person turn by turn battles. It’s awesome, and it’s a thinking man’s RPG.
Technical
What is also striking is the size of the world this game inhabits. 7 continents with over a thousand monsters to battle. This is an incredibly complex game. On top of character class, you can choose a profession for your guy or gal. Maxing out is a barely attainable goal, you have to get to 200.
I’m sure you’re wondering where the word Dofus comes from. Well, a dofus is a dragon egg that you collect by finishing huge quests or beating certain dungeons. I won’t go into details, but they are very powerful.
This game is very accessible. There is not the ‘hardcore’ element that is present in most online RPGs. You can have fun battling or selling your profession. I wouldn’t say that it is a combination of Second Life and WOW, but that would be a useful way to think about it.
Final Verdict
You know what’s the best part? It’s free. WORD. Play this game. You will find it to be much more than a pleasant experience.
|
|
| Gameplay: |  | | Technical: | | | Multiplayer: | | |
Game: Dofus | Developer: Ankama
August 27, 2010
 Fortix is an adventure strategy game about reclaiming your ancestors’ land. Basically, evil beings have taken over the once fertile land of Fortiana. Your mission is to pillage castles and return glory to your rightful hands. You get to fight dragons, even.
I liked this arcade-esque game. It was really easy to get a hang of the controls and actions, which I was not really expecting. I like to look at the screenshots before I decide to try a game out and this one looked a little more complicated than what I am used to. Still, I am glad I tried it. It was one of those games that had a nice learning curve. It was not hard to get but ultimately, as the game got tougher and the controls and power ups got more advanced it was a very challenging adventure.
It is not really what the game developers focused on but I loved the story for this game. Rather than just killing for no reason or defending some nameless castle, you have a point and reason for everything you are doing. This might not seem like an important thing to everyone but to me it is really important. I do not want to do all that work for something I do not care about.
The visuals and music for Fortix are nice. The game runs smoothly and really takes you to another world while you are playing it. It is one of those games that you can really sink into. Not to mention that this is a game that is family friendly. You can play it with anyone of any ages. The mechanics are childs’ play, being very simple and easy to remember.
 One of the most obvious things about the game is also one of the most compelling. A fantasy game really sucks you into the world it sets up. This means that you do not only play as a valiant knight who battles dragons but you are also presented with many different chances to really submerge yourself in the medieval culture.
As I said before Fortix is great for the family. It has something for everyone. It is fantastic and gritty while being both a strategy game and a casual game. It is very versatile and you might be surprised by the different levels. It was a real pleasure the entire time I was playing it.
Game: Fortix | Developer: Nemesys Team Studio
August 26, 2010
 Harry Quantum and his trusty robotic sidekick, Graeme. Harry Quantum: TV Go Home is the first episode in a series of point-and-click Flash adventures about the detective, Harry Quantum.
 This seems a tad bit embarrassing. The adventure begins when the boss of a TV station (who bears a striking resemblance to Mr. T) walks in and informs Harry that he has misplaced the tapes of that channel’s four best TV shows. He will pay $100,000 if Harry can find a way to recover the lost episodes. Graeme, Harry’s robotic sidekick, says the TV signals probably ended up in space somewhere, so Harry should just go into outer space to retrieve them. The problem is that getting into space is no small task. Well, Graeme has a simple solution: just signal a UFO.
After the whole UFO dilemma (I will let you see for yourself exactly what that entails), Harry gets the video footage, but it’s all scrambled. In order to make things right, Harry must step into a Virtual Reality system and fix each program from the inside. Of course, this means visiting each of the four TV shows and straightening out the mess by hand.
The subplots in this game are absolutely ridiculous. In a good way. You’ll be laughing at each of Harry’s missteps as you try to solve the puzzles spread across the game. And there are little homages to various video game-related things scattered throughout for the observant, pop-culture savvy gamer. (Hint: look at what is currently on Harry’s computer screen in his office.)
To make the game more interesting, there are PIPs (Private Investigation Points) spread across the game for players to discover. These points have no bearing on whether or not you complete the game, but they are sure fun to collect. To find them, you must try looking in places and finding combinations the average player would simply overlook. So if the puzzles are too easy, you can still challenge yourself by trying to seek out all the PIPs in the game. (There are 15.)
Harry Quantum: TV Go Home is quirky and has enough little non-essential tidbits thrown in to keep players on their toes. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a long and entertaining series of point-and-click adventures.
 Welcome to Virtual Reality, where you can step into various TV shows. Game: Harry Quantum: TV Go Home | Developer: Long Animals and RobotJAM
August 24, 2010
 Get those birds away from that track! If you believe it’s impossible to make a game that is both incredibly addictive and so simple that it can be played using only a single button, then Epic Coaster is about to prove you wrong. Yes, you read that right, this game is 100% controlled by pushing one button. The spacebar. Press it to make a speeding roller coaster hop into the air. Now, I know that may not sound very cool, but I think you have to play this one to believe it.
Epic Coaster is a simple little thrill-ride that takes a good deal of skill and timing. You must hop the coaster over the gaps in the tracks to keep the thing moving and the passengers breathing. Your score will keep climbing as long as you keep the coaster moving. Once you crash, the game is over and you are shown your score. On top of time and distance you can score bonuses that are instantly added to your score. These are earned by scaring away birds, getting narrowly missed by low-flying airplanes, causing the tracks to sparkle, and a few other completely random ways. My personal favorite way to rack up points is the “perfect jump” bonus. In order to score this one, you must make your coaster land perfectly on the next set of track so that just the first car hits it. This can be pretty difficult sometimes, because the difference between a perfect jump and a horrible free-falling death is so tiny. If you miss the timing by a hair, you’ll send the coaster (and all its passengers) crashing into the pavement below.
 Look at that jump! That is why the word "Epic" is in the title of this game. In addition to the bonuses, players can unlock 80 different achievements. The more achievements you unlock, the higher your base score multiplier gets. So if you want to be a top scorer, you’ll need to unlock as many of these as you can.
You can view the achievement list between runs, but it doesn’t tell you how to earn them until they’re complete. But don’t worry, some of them are pretty obvious. And in case you need some hints, here are a few: earn “Stop It” by scaring away 50 birds, “Full Force” by jumping with maximum power, and “12345″ by landing 5 “perfect jumps” in a row.
If you log onto Armour Games, you can record your best score and compare it with others out there. You can also share your score on Facebook or Twitter and challenge your friends to do better.
Epic Coaster is an extremely simple game that will keep you hooked for much longer than you’d ever expect. So hop on and challenge your friends to a coaster duel right away!
 Racking up the bonuses in the middle of the night...
|
|
| Gameplay: | | | Technical: |  | | Multiplayer: | | |
Game: Epic Coaster | Developer: Knigg
August 22, 2010
Red Storm
 Upgrade screen. Yeah, that's your mech. First off, yes I am aware that there is a Red Storm 2. I am going to play through this version, then I’ll play the newer one. Moving on. Red Storm is top-view 3rd person shooter where you inhabit a mech suit and blow things up.
Gameplay
The controls for this game are about as good as it gets. Arrow keys move the mech around. Mouse aims. Pressing the mouse button unleashes the fury from whatever you have equipped in your 3 weapon slots. You can have any combination of lasers, rockets and machine guns in there. On top of that, you have 4 more slots where you can place extra armor, healing patches or things that up your hit points.
 Blue & Green = Bad. Your mech is where the explosion is. Oops. You buy these things at stores which are conveniently located around the level. Regardless, when you kill things or blow up boxes and pickup green things, you build up points, which you can exchange for guns. On top of this, you also get XP, which allows you to level up. There are certain weapons that can only be carried if you are above a certain level.
Technical
This is a marvelous game technically. I love the pacing of it. You move from room to room. When you enter a new room, it is going to be filled with all kinds of bad guys. No question. The thing is, you can’t leave until you have killed all of them. Yeah, so no guerrilla tactics. You hold your breath, get your cursor where you want it, and then blast away.
The upside to this is that you can just leave it going. Yeah sure, you could sit down and play a couple hours of this game, but that’s not really the point of flash games, now is it? Deal with it episodically. Great fun.
The best part? There are practically no repercussions if you die. Some rooms will be repopulated with bad guys, but you don’t lose any XP or Upgrades, which, in a manner of thinking, could mean that it is a GOOD thing to die. Go figure.
Final Verdict
Great game. Can’t wait to try Red Storm 2. This is one of those games where I feel like I should have paid for it. But I didn’t. It was free. Thanks internet!
Game: Red Storm | Developer: 24/7 Webgames
August 20, 2010
 Take that, you annoying bug! Castaway is a charming RPG in which you find yourself stranded on a mysterious island. Very early in the game you come across a village which, conveniently for you, is in a bit of turmoil. Helping these villagers regain the peace that they somehow managed to lose on an island where they are the only real sentient inhabitants will help your hero level-up and gain new skills. But of course, this requires fighting a massive amount of strange, often extremely aggressive creatures.
 I know he's green and has one eye, but I resisted the temptation to name my pet Mike Wazowski. The villagers give you quests to perform various tasks for them (usually requiring you to kill a certain amount of creatures or collect a certain amount of items, which are acquired by killing the aforementioned creatures). Completing these quests grants you experience and cash, and makes the villagers happy.
There are various parts of the island you will be asked to explore, each one getting more and more difficult. The final quest in each area is to start the generator on that part of the island.
But you won’t be asked to do this completely alone. In the very first part of the game, you will find a one-eyed monster, which will be your first pet. This pet will gain experience alongside you, and will level up as well. (However, it will not get any experience when you turn in a quest, so it will eventually stay at a lower level than you.) Killing creatures will sometimes result in an egg dropping, which can be taken back to Castaway Village and hatched into a new pet. Personally, I never swapped out the default one, since I didn’t feel like re-leveling a weak pet. And I got pretty attached to that one-eyed freak.
Castaway has some pretty neat visuals and the music contributes to the overall feel of the game. But I have a few complaints. First of all, the controls are confusing. Since the map is tilted at a 45 degree angle, it’s easy to forget which direction corresponds with which d-pad key. And they don’t always respond immediately. I’ve had plenty of instances where my pet died because I pushed a button and nothing happened. This is especially frustrating since you can’t revive your pet. Once its dead, it’s gone. Of course you can always raise a new one, but that’s a lot of extra work. In fact, if your pet dies, you’ll most likely want to reset the game and start over from your last save point.
Another complaint I have is that there are some serious visibility problems. Especially in the jungle area. There are monsters hiding behind trees, and you’ll never know they’re there. Once they attack, you still won’t be able to see them, which makes it extremely difficult to fight back. When a creature dies, it usually drops an item. But these items will often block your path. You can’t walk over them or through them. So it is pretty easy to block yourself into a corner. This problem is greatly compounded in areas with low visibility.
Despite its flaws, I really enjoyed Castaway. It’s sort of quirky and lighthearted, and the overall feel of the game is pleasant enough that you won’t find it too hard to forgive it for its shortcomings.
 It's a weird feeling, being completely surrounded by swamp mutants. Game: Castaway | Developer: Likwid
August 19, 2010
 Explore the cave, kill baddies, and find treasure. The Enchanted Cave is an interesting little flash adventure in which players are given a quest to see how deep into the cave they can explore. The main goal is to see how far down you can get without dying, but each maze contains monsters to kill and treasure to plunder. While seeking out every treasure chest isn’t completely necessary, you’ll want to loot as many as you can since many of them contain items that are useful on your quest. Inside the red chests you’ll find armor upgrades, potions, spells, and a pair of escape wings that allow you to warp out of the cave and end your quest. (You can always start a new quest, keeping some of the things you’ve earned on previous quests.) Yellow chests are much rarer and contain artifacts. Artifacts are the real deal. You definitely won’t want to pass them up. While most of your items will vanish upon using the escape wings, artifacts will always remain. And some of them are pretty useful, like pieces of armor and new swords. Besides chests, there are gems that offer permanent boosts to your stats.
 Hmmm. This floor seems a tad bit easy. The treasure seems alright though. I sure hope this isn't a trap... On the first floor, and every floor that ends in a 9 (9, 19, 29, etc) there is a shop that will give you money for any items you don’t want and sell you things you’d rather have instead. And reaching a shop is sort of a checkpoint: every time you discover a new shop, the floor on which you start your next quest gets deeper. For example, if you make it to the store on the 29th floor, the next time you start a quest you’ll begin on the 19th floor. If you make it to the 39th floor, you can start at the 29th. And so on. This is pretty helpful, since The Enchanted Cave gets very perilous very fast. In fact, on your first quest you probably won’t make it to the 20th floor.
This game has 100 floors, many of which are challenging enough to frustrate even the most hardcore gamers. That makes this a game that will take a considerable amount of time to get through. Basically, The Enchanted Cave is a lot of game for free. You can’t really beat that.
 Which way to go? Should I try to get all the treasure, or should I just skip it and head for the next floor?
Game: The Enchanted Cave | Developer: Dustin Auxier
August 17, 2010
 Oh, how I love blasting zombies! I don’t know what it is, exactly, but there is something about zombies that has always intrigued me. So when I saw Zombies Took my Daughter! on the main page of the Kongregate site, I had to try it out. This cartoonish Flash shooter tells the story of a man who has lost his daughter, Anna, in the city. Whilst searching for her, he runs into a few tiny snafus. Like the fact that the city is completely overrun by zombies. And that it is scheduled to be nuked in 36 hours. The hero must scour the city in order to find Anna before the zombies do, or before the bomb is dropped. This gives players a sense of urgency, as the time remaining is constantly displayed in the corner of the screen.
You are basically given free range of a city that is randomly generated every time you play. There is a main map with 25 locations on it. You can use the subway to get around, but be warned that every time you do, you lose an hour or two. Every location has 5 city blocks that can be searched, and most of these contain at least two rooms that can be searched. That means there are almost 250 rooms in which Anna could be hiding. But don’t fret. Some of the rooms have clues as to where Anna has not been, most of them have powerups and weapons, and a few of them contain survivors who will lend you a hand by blasting some zombies for you.
 Taylor and Brunner don't look like dudes who would survive very long during the Zombie Apocalypse, but who am I to judge? The weapons in this game range from incredibly useful (shotguns, molotov cocktails, and RPG launchers for the more pragmatic gamer) to the extremely bizarre (teddy bears, guitars, french loaves, and a slew of random items that you can use to bludgeon zombies to death). Unfortunately, there are no cricket bats, which would have been an awesome homage to one of my all-time favorite films. (Shaun of the Dead, in case you haven’t seen it.)
The graphics are cartoony and colorful, the music is eerie, and the gameplay is a perfect blend between mysterious (while you work at piecing together clues you find around the city) and action-packed (while you are running for your life and slaughtering zombies). However, I do have one complaint. There is a bug that allows the entire city to be searched without Anna showing up. The developer made this claim: ‘The notorious “100% and no daughter” bug has been FIXED (really, finally, at long last, 100% fixed. it will never trouble you again.)’ I played the game after this statement was released and still encountered the bug on my second time through. (On my first run, I ran out of time and was nuked along with the city.) But at least the developer is willing to attempt to fix the issues that are brought up during gameplay, which is pretty cool. Many larger game developers don’t care about their products this much. And I was able to find Anna on my third attempt, which proves this bug doesn’t always happen.
Zombies Took my Daughter! is a great way to spend some time, and the fact that the city is randomly generated boosts its replay value immensely. If the “The notorious “100% and no daughter” bug gets fixed permanently, (and I’m fairly confident it will be soon) this will be an incredible game.
 Work your way across the map, searching every nook and cranny. Your daughter has to be somewhere... Game: Zombies Took my Daughter! | Developer: Nerdook
August 12, 2010
 Run, Turnip, run! Action Turnip!!! (yes, the exclamation points are necessary) is a flash game that has you take control of a turnip and do stuff. Not a whole bunch of stuff, really, just run and shoot. Or both. It depends on which mode you decide to play. In Run ‘n’ Gun Mode, you must shoot things as you run. Turnip is constantly running no matter what you do, so you just have to use the directional keys or the WASD keys to move him around on the screen. Spacebar will make him jump and left click on the mouse will make him shoot. Simple, right?
There are sweet powerups that give you different abilities, or else they’ll just distract you. It’s a mixed bag, really. Some will change the screen to a different color, and some will give you boosts so you can use a rocket burst of flame to make Turnip jump higher. And if you score a combo by shooting enough enemies in a row, you’ll be rewarded with a change of scenery.
The other mode, Turnabalt Mode, just has you see how far you can run without falling off something. Just like in Run ‘n’ Gun Mode, Turnip keeps on running. You click either space bar or left mouse button to make him jump. If you fall off a cliff the round is over and you are given a score. In both modes, the ultimate goal is to score as many points as you possibly can.
Now, this sounds like a really lame game. I know. But the funny thing is that it’s not. It’s actually pretty addictive. You’ll be surprised at how long you spend trying to beat your own top score. The visuals are quaint and hand-drawn, which makes the game simply fun to look at. And the music is awesome! There is a retro-style 8-bit track that plays in a loop. It’s extremely repetitive, but extremely catchy. In fact, you’ll probably have it stuck in your head for hours at a time.
Action Turnip!!! is the perfect blend of simplicity, weirdness and good music. It’s truly stripped down to the basic elements of classic gaming.
 You get this sparkly rainbow mode by scoring a sweet huge combo. Game: Action Turnip!!! | Developer: Raitendo
Older Posts »
 |
