Gbax Competition Review Thread

[ketchupgun]

I'm DLing the torrent right now
what's funny is (in light of all the Ruckman talk) when I saw all the screen shots, the first thing I said was "Oh! That PacMac looks really cool."

Lookin fwd to playing all of them, and being totally impressed by talents I don't posses!


completely off topic:
Hey, has anyone played the board game Carcassonnne?
That would make a sweet Turn-Based video game.

 

[Quiest]

Wasn`t this supposed to be a review thread <_<

I`ve finally gotten around to test some entries yesterday, here are my tiny reviews:

Boomshine2X: Good clone of a flashgame, but I find it a little too colorless (is that a word? ). Its nicely coded though, but could go well with more funky graphics. And to me, it feels like the explosion takes to long to grow. (3/5)

F341: A demo actually, but a stunning one, I`m really impressed by the graphics & effects... I hope this engine is going to be used in a game sometime. (no rating)

FleshChasmer I: Absolutely interesting 3D rpg, I quite like it, though the camera behavior is bad, and enemies keep spawning at me every second, so I died very quickly. I can`t save freely and I dunno where to go... The graphics are top, I`ve never seen anything like that on the 2X, but I`m no graphics whore, I`m a gameplay fan, and the gameplay is to slow (is that guy always sneaking?) and unresponsive for me. (3/5)

Mister Block: Another remake of a flash game, I finished it pretty quick and I liked it. There could have been more content, but it was fun while it lasted. (2/5)

Ruck-Man: An absolutely stunning remake of Pacman, Ruck-Man is simply great, graphics and gameplay, and even though I`m no Pacmanfan, I enjoyed playing it, especially the new game modes (Panic is my favorite). Thumbs up, this should definatly score one of the top three. (4/5)

Sqdef: My favorite so far, I`m a big fan of tower defense games, and having a stunning one like this on the gp2x is awesome. I love the simple graphics style and I love the awesome implementation of the interface. Too bad is, I find the gameplay too hard at the moment, I was only able to beat the 10 waves levels yet. I would give it 4/5 because of that, but it gets another point for the save function, which I have never seen in any TD game. Make this game first place, dammit! (5/5)

Super Sonic Speed:A very nice physics based game, I spent quite a lot time plaing it yesterday. The interface could need some improvements, like showing the strength of one of the magnet thingies or whatever they are, and those blood splatter effects (as much as I like splatter) render the game pretty hard to play, as they cover parts of the level and you`ll hardly be able to see where the particles crash into a wall. Still a nice game. (3/5)

More to follow, will play other entries this evening.

 

[Don Miguel]

Ruck-Man 4.5 / 5
the game could have more New features. Now it's just a super cute clone of the actual game 8)

 

[kardasan]

FleshChasmer I: Absolutely interesting 3D rpg, I quite like it, though the camera behavior is bad, and enemies keep spawning at me every second, so I died very quickly. I can`t save freely and I dunno where to go... The graphics are top, I`ve never seen anything like that on the 2X, but I`m no graphics whore, I`m a gameplay fan, and the gameplay is to slow (is that guy always sneaking?) and unresponsive for me. (3/5)

I totaly second that. Graphics are quite good but why do I get killed every second...It seems I suck at action rpgs

Sqdef: My favorite so far, I`m a big fan of tower defence games, and having a stunning one like this on the gp2x is awesome. I love the simple graphics style and I love the awesome implementation of the interface. Too bad is, I find the gameplay too hard at the moment, I was only able to beat the 10 waves levels yet. I would give it 4/5 because of that, but it gets another point for the save function, which I have never seen in any TD game. Make this game first place, dammit! (5/5)

It's graphics are simple, clean and beautiful. What it lacks is some music but otherwise it's grat and addictive. I've spent 2 hours at night playing Sqdef in bed and now my RPG session I'm about to do today is totally unprepared because I overslept

 

[Nova]

For those who have said Boomshine 2x is too dull (colour wise) , just save this image to the Boomshine2x/data/ folder.

Job done

 

[sam fisher]

For those who have said Boomshine 2x is too dull (colour wise) , just save this image to the Boomshine2x/data/ folder.

Job done

Indeed a custom BG feature is present. Howver, for now, the image must be called "bg.png". Case sensitive linux remember

 

[Nova]

Ah yes, the file was renamed by imageshack. Let me rehost the original image

 

[PokeParadox]

I still haven't got around to downloading all the entries just yet... in fact.. a job for now I think!

There is a torrent out there with all the GP2X entries in.

I was aware of that... but can't download torrents at uni... (Currently no net at home due to moving flat...)

I tried SuperSonicSpeed... I like the idea behind it but the controls didn't feel too intuitive... until I realised you hold down the buttons to change the strength gradually... I thought it was more of an on and off deal from the readme.

Mr Block was fun but way too easy and the visuals are simple. May look nice with a visual upgrade but unsure. Oh the blocks that invert the screen messed with my eyes but yeah fun stuff.

BeatBox doesn't work too well for me... not sure why. The timings of the notes don't fit and sometimes it crashes when I hot a note with a perfect... I like the idea of it but I wish it was more reliable for me :S

Ruckman... the visuals look gorgeouse! The visuals look gorgeouse!!! but aside from that I'm not a fan of Pacman much, I do think the extras such as the ghost that eats the ghosts etc is a nice touch and adds some originality.

I did play some others but those are some observations I made. I must say guys, please play CromoZome! (and of course the other entries)Don't just sheep the other entries that other people have posted in the thread before (which appears to be happening) basically give each of the entries a fair playthrough!

 

[tikka]

Hi !

Could anybody give me some feedback about my entry:

Tikka Dungeons

I've put a lot of work on it, and I would to know how it has been welcomed by the community

 

[trooper]

Hi !

Could anybody give me some feedback about my entry:

Tikka Dungeons

I've put a lot of work on it, and I would to know how it has been welcomed by the community

You might be better off creating a new thread (like a lot of the developers here have done) announcing your competition entry/game to everyone here, Supplying a link to it from the entry list, And request some feedback.

Worth a try, It worked for the others.

Trooper

 

[Apesandtapes]

Here's some opinions on the competition entries I've tried so far:

Boomshine - very relaxing, pretty game. Not particularly challenging, but it doesn't need to be; feels more like a bit of artwork to pass the time with than a game. I think it took me about 15 minutes to play through once. I felt a nice sense of satisfaction when I managed to clear the entire 12th level. I like the default music. Gameplay: small colored dots stream across the screen. You have one chance to click the cursor which causes a circular "explosion" where you clicked; any balls intercepting your explosion also explode, causing a chain reaction. Each level requires you to detonate a certain number (or more) balls before you can proceed to the next, but if you fail I believe you can retry infinitely until you pass. Very simple, yet clever. Very well done.

The Reverse Prophet - Yikes. Not sure what's going on here. First you're presented with a screen of tiny hard to read text over a background that makes it even harder to read. Moving the joystick causes the screen to start scrolling over repeating images of... something... floating around? There's some kind of meter or numerical gauge at the bottom of the screen. After a minute of this what might possibly be spinning skulls started flooding the screen; it seemed like when I pressed B something happened, there was the occasional sound effect and the gauges changed, but I honestly don't know what I was supposed to be doing or what was going on. Needs a clear read me file with instructions.

Acid2x - Cute little game where you control two towers and shoot down zeppelins before they bomb your orchard. I found that if I just set the tower guns to a certain angle and alternated button mashing, I could pretty much shoot all the dirigibles infinitely. Looks nice, works well; I didn't find it to be much of a challenge. Perhaps the balloons could have variable speeds or erratic flight paths to make it a little more challenging?

Alienz - Good looking space shooter. The kind of game I am terrible at. I didn't play it for too long - but I did notice that there doesn't seem to be a "hold down the button to keep firing" option, you have to keep pressing the fire button. I know people have different opinions on whether that "constant stream of fire" in shmups is, I dunno, manly or something, but since I'm terrible at them to begin with I like the "bullet hose" option myself. Maybe it could be an option you pick before playing?

AMazing - Wandering a 3D maze can be quite the surreal experience. I felt like I was in an old 3D maze-style rpg with no monsters or features, or that Faceball game but without any faces. Controls felt a little stiff when turning. There is a small compass on screen but I didn't find it to be that helpful. At one point I think I discovered a graphics bug; it was like I was out of the maze and could see an area that I couldn't move to, so I had to just backtrack. Sadly I didn't have a lot of patience to mess around with it further than that. Seems like it could well become the basis for a more complicated game.

Battlejewels - Really quite fun. The combination of 3 in a row tile switching puzzle and fantasy combat is good stuff! I'm looking forward to future versions with more items/classes/monsters/modes - some sort of speed mode could be a good thing. I think I encountered a bug - I played 3 rounds, then in the menu screen after I had bought some stuff in the store, and checked my character sheet, I went to save my game and the game froze. I had saved several times before without any problem. I just played again for a few rounds and this time the game froze in the middle of a battle. I've got the gp2x plugged in to power so it isn't a battery issue. Each time it seemed the music stuttered for a moment before it froze.

Beatbox - A simple, entertaining rhythm game where you have to use the buttons and joystick simultaneously. I really like the default music for this one as well.

BisfoG - A puzzle-solving game where a small man pushes euro coins around a maze. Tricky. Seems well made.

Blocked - really nice variant of match-the-colored-blocks type puzzle. The music is great. Very polished. I'll be playing this one often on work breaks, I think.

F341 - 3D demo showing off the gp2x's capabilities. Looks pretty cool!

Fleshchasmer - I agree with the previous comments about this game - it's impressive! But too hard for me mainly due to the camera controls, and the very slow moving main character. I couldn't see where I was going and kept getting ganked. Really impressive though and I hope it gets some serious playtesting and revision, it could be great!

Ruckman - Just to add to all the previous comments - the best Pacman game I've ever played. Three cheers!

Sqdef - My gods I love this game! It's got so much depth and replayability, it's beautiful, and it's very challenging! I've played it for about 5 hours solid - (that's why my "reviews" above got shorter and shorter). Ok, I've got to play it some more. Hopefully I'll get around to checking out the other games and stuff as well.

 

[quasist]

very slow moving main character

DEX attribute affects moving speed
Thief class at each levelup gains some 'haste' status
Cleric can cast 'haste'
Walk speed lowers when MV bar is lower than a half

Do not blame hard-working camera - player will never run few screens away from your eyespy.

 

[Apesandtapes]

Thanks for the pointers on moving faster Quasist - I've been playing Fleshchasmer all afternoon, got the hang of it now - it seems I hadn't even gotten past the intro before! Great work!