Nazcarunners

[Ganepark32]

This is my first review so im going to do things differently here.
Im reviewing (as the title says) Nazcarunners.

Background info
The nazca series has only been around for a short time but has made quite an impact. I think u'll all agree with me when i say that you should play nazcadreams and at least give nazcaspheres a try. Pablo Cervantes has done great things with this small series so far and here's hoping he continues.

The Game
After playing the two other nazcas i was looking forward to this. As soon as u load it up u get lured into a sense that this will be good by the intro video, which i might add is quite good. But as soon as the video is over, you can instantly tell that this game didn't take long to make. The character graphics are reasonibly good but the tracks look horrible. I mean come on. The tracks are badly pixelated. And it appears there are invisible walls everywhere. Go off the track and u get stuck. Try using the run button and nothing happens. The controls are quite loss but that can be overlooked as loss controls are needed here. Gameplay wise, this will keep you going for awhile. With three modes:- Championship, Single race and time attack this will keep you going until ur ds or psp comes (thats if u've ordered it and are waiting for it). Plus theres more tracks to unlock.
Overall, its not a bad game but its not a good game.
Gfx:- 6, Music:- 7, Gameplay:- 8, Lastibility:- A couple of hours, Overall:- 7/10

 

[nazca]

Woah! I think you were a little bit strict.
There's much to improve and I am aware of (i can't do much on things like pixelation on mode7 though). Collisions can be better, i agree with you, and other things too, but when reviewing homebrew stuff you have to consider that we amateur developers have to do all the work by ourselves and that we code just for fun. Don't expect commercial-quality for a few hours of work.
Anyway, thanks for your review, it motivates me for improve the game.

Regards.

 

[Blah]

I like it. It's a good replacement for Mario Kart GBA, and its made me want to never touch my GBA again. B)

 

[triksR4rabits]

you can instantly tell that this game didn't take long to make. The character graphics are reasonibly good but the tracks look horrible. I mean come on. The tracks are badly pixelated. And it appears there are invisible walls everywhere. Go off the track and u get stuck. Try using the run button and nothing happens. The controls are quite loss but that can be overlooked as loss controls are needed here.

Damn, a little harsh eh? Perhaps you should try to be a bit more sensitive when reviewing homebrew... I was very impressed by this game. Not my fav game to play but it shows a great deal of promise. nazcaspheres is still my favorite though

EDIT: Ummmm ok. Saying that "you can instantly tell that this game didn't take long to make" and "the tracks look horrible. I mean come on" are constructive comments?

 

[toxibunny]

I like it. It's a good replacement for Mario Kart GBA, and its made me want to never touch my GBA again. B)

​

you lie


I like Pablo's stuff though

 

[Esn]

He's honest at least! People who give glowing reviews regardless of quality are really not helping anything. Enough people have said that Nazca Runners is great, but so far he's the only one who mentioned that some things can be improved.

Besides, this is his own opinion, don't bash him for expressing it!

Whenever someone reviews my work, I'd really prefer that they were honest. It helps me in the long run! h34r: I know that most people don't share my opinion though, it's understandable...

P.S. No, I haven't played Nazca Runners yet. I WILL however say that despite all of the praise given to it, Pablo's previous work hasn't been perfect either. It's often very good, but there have also been parts that could have been better (platform placement in Nazca Dreams comes to mind ).

 

[Ganepark32]

And to tell you the 7/10 was generous. I wasn't completely harsh as i said it had good parts (unlockables, three modes). Anyway Nazca Dreams is best.

 

[mechanori]

Yeah, although I loved NazcaDreams, and enjoyed NazcaSpheres, NazcaRunners was of the least polished of the series. The handling is a bit wierd, collision etc. etc., but it definitely has promise. Give us more Nazca!

 

[BobBorakovitz]

ok, first off, I'd like to say that Nazca's games are among my absolute favorites on the GP32, I like all of them! You can find my Nazca reviews at:

Don Skeeto's Hombrew Review Page

Anyway, 7/10 seems like a fair rating, but I disagree with some of his wording. Nazca Runners has more promise than any of his games so far, but I have to say, in it's current state, it's my least favorite of his. The controls could be smoothed out, I'm always coming around a corner and hitting the water and coming to a dead stop. It's a little frustrating. The graphics look good, obviously, Ganepark32 just doesn't understand mode7 very much. I love the fact that Nazca put characters from some of his games in it, like Konami's Krazy Racers on GBA, very nice, I love that little guy from Nazca Dreams! I just think that this type of a game has been done so many times that everyone has a certain expectation. Lets face it folks, this isn't Mario Kart, this is a FREE game made by one person. And it's an excellent attempt.

I hope this thread does spur a little motivation to get this updated, it does have a lot of potential!

All of Nazca's games are among my favorites and they all will stay on my dedicated homebrew SMC for a long time! Thanx Nazca!

-BobBorakovitz

 

[Ganepark32]

When i said all that stuff i wasn't doing it for the worse. Those are just some improvements that could be made. I do hope that the game gets updated with new stuff cause it does show potential.

 

[diablo2]

there are more nazca games than just the three your thinking of
look at his site

 

[Tobriand]

As has been said, a little harshly worded - and bear in mind that, as Nazca says, mode 7 "floors" inevitably become pixelley because of how mode 7 works (i.e. displays a flat image zoomed in at an angle). Ok, I do find the getting stuck thing a little annoying (happened to me when I bumped into the tree first time) but I've only been hit by it once, which isn't bad at all really.

However, 7/10 is pretty much right; maybe 7.5. This does not affect the fact that it is still a fun racing game and - most importantly at the moment - one of very very few such games around for the GP32 natively. Which puts it in new territory

I think I'd describe it, rather than not bad but not good, as good but not great - but with potential to reach that if the bugs are ironed out. Basically, its like an uncut diamond; it doesn't look amazingly special right now, but polished a bit more and it'll shine once more as a stunning example of what can be done with Fenix

 

[Fishbong]

With correct clipping and nicer sounds this game would really rock ! That fella who wrote the review has probably never even heard of mode7, nor how it works...
Anyway, 7 points isn´t really wrong .