The 2014 In Review Contest [Reviews: 97]

Make games! Discuss those games here.

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JSH357
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Post by JSH357 »

Carcere Vicis

This is a game made by a programmer to impress other programmers. It's clunky, it's buggy, and it's got a lot of ideas on display without a whole lot of fun factor for the rest of us. When I started the game up, first I was given a wall of tutorials that I promptly forgot, then I had no clue I was supposed to equip items I had been randomly assigned and almost assumed the game impossible to play after getting annihilated by enemies. Let me ask this: in what professional game made in the last ten years have you seen a game open with a heavy-handed tutorial, give no story, then assume you got it all and throw you to the wolves? Not any good ones I've played lately, that's for sure.

Once I did replay and equip things, I was then disappointed by the terrible Ys-style combat, chaotic messages being displayed in a news reel, and general lack of a real challenge. The challenge part may change later on, but I didn't care a whole lot after finishing exploring the first two dungeons.

It's pretty clear this was made for a contest or something. There's no reason to make a game like this in the OHR otherwise, and that probably holds it back a fair amount. I was impressed by the resolution mod (hope that becomes standard in future OHR games) and that's about it. The problem with it is that the game just isn't much fun. You walk around, touch enemies, find some crap loot sitting around. I can do this in hundreds of other games that are complete if I want to. CV introduces some kind of phase shift system, but I didn't even use it and after some random attempts and I couldn't even remember what each one was or why I might choose one. It might have been a neat idea, but without proper presentation (read: gradual) there wasn't much motivation to experiment. Perhaps a visual indication of what it's accomplishing would help too.

This game is messy and I can't recommend it to anybody unless they want to steal some scripts.

Leaderboard
1. Megaman Sprite Game
2. Dungeon Cards
3. Okedoke
4. Batman & Robin
5. Carcere Vicis
6. Stand
7. Iron Galaxy
Last edited by JSH357 on Fri Jan 16, 2015 2:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
My website, the home of Motrya:
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Post by JSH357 »

The Pumpkin Warriors

Earthbound is a magnificent, unique game that sparked the imagination and thirst for RPGs in the rejects of a generation. It's a game I hold dear to my heart to this very day. To say that my own games were influenced by Earthbound is to say that water is wet. The Pumpkin Warriors loves Earthbound, which makes me fairly cool with it, but it's not on Earthbound's level. Maybe some day, though.

My first impression is that this game is somebody's first game, but that somebody could be going places. Characters seem to be based on friends, designs are cutesy, that kind of thing. The graphical style of Pumpkin Warriors is better than in a lot of OHR games, though it's weaker in some areas than others. It's very vibrant and soft on the eyes. I was also impressed by the first dungeon, which had a neat gimmick by being full of treasure chests, most of which were empty, some of which could be opened to lead onward. Sadly, these points are about all I can say in the game's favor. Not much sets Pumpkin Warriors ahead of the pack, and it shows Earthbound influence so much that you just feel like playing one of the Mother games instead. (Almost every song in the game is taken from Earthbound)

A game, especially one made by an individual, should be a work of its author's style. It shouldn't rely on some other game as a crutch, and this game does that too much. Between that and its general incompleteness, I cannot recommend Pumpkin Warriors, but it shows that the creator knows how to put some maps together and could make better things.

Leaderboard
1. Megaman Sprite Game
2. Dungeon Cards
3. Okedoke
4. Batman & Robin
5. Carcere Vicis
6. The Pumpkin Warriors
7. Stand
8. Iron Galaxy
My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com
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Post by Gizmog »

Dragons! Is reviewed! For a game called Dragons! I only saw one. Got a really bad headache from this one. I forgot to mention it in the review, but the music was pretty good... until I had to listen to the same two songs OVER AND OVER for two frickin hours! The second dungeon had its own music and I can only assume that trend continues, explaining the file size. [/url]
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Post by JSH357 »

Compilation Games

Graffitti Goose - It's a puzzle game, I guess? I played it for a while but I couldn't figure out how the game worked, how to advance, or what the point was. It looks like you combine colors, but I'm not sure to what end. Music and graphics were nice; could barely tell it was an OHR game. A short tutorial might be helpful for new players.

Elephant's Most Wanted - This is a five minute joke game demo that isn't funny. Shades lowering accuracy got a light chuckle from me.

Fart - This is just script errors on my end.

Munch Meow - It's... a Pac Man game? A really bad one.

Orange Monday - Teehee, Garfield. Butts.

pH - It's either a bad joke game or a total failure of an artsy fartsy game, I guess. You hack a terminal and go in an empty room. Not much else happens. Incomplete? Or just very dumb? Graphics were fine for what they are.

Poot-Poot Rocket - Farts

Rogue Demo - Hello I am an OHR game

Tetsuedo Demo - Hey, I'm the same OHR game pretty much. Just with Fenrir's graphics.

The Location - Obvious contest game. Took me forever to figure out the controls, and it seemed like a neat tactical game maybe, but it froze after I killed an enemy, so I can't say much. At least it seemed to have a plot!

Leaderboard
1. Megaman Sprite Game
2. Dungeon Cards
3. Okedoke
4. Batman & Robin
5. Carcere Vicis
6. The Pumpkin Warriors
7. Graffiti Goose
8. Stand
9. Orange Monday
10. The Location
11. pH
12. Iron Galaxy
13. Munch-Meow
14. Elephants Most Wanted
15. Poot-Poot Rocket
16. Tetsuedo Demo
17. Rogue Demo
18. Fart
Last edited by JSH357 on Fri Jan 16, 2015 4:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com
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Post by JSH357 »

table

table is a very short horror/joke game. I can't talk about too much without spoiling what happens, but I guess I have to write something.

The presentation is okay. It starts out with a little narration setting you up for the events to come, but it's not written well and has a lot of typos. The graphics are about as simple as it gets, but they do the trick.

It's very possible that somebody could play this and never figure out how to finish, but it's literally maybe two minutes long if you do. That means it has about as much gameplay as Gone Home!

Leaderboard
1. Megaman Sprite Game
2. Dungeon Cards
3. Okedoke
4. Batman & Robin
5. Carcere Vicis
6. The Pumpkin Warriors
7. Graffiti Goose
8. Stand
9. Orange Monday
10. The Location
11. pH
12. Iron Galaxy
13. Munch-Meow
14. table
15. Elephants Most Wanted
16. Poot-Poot Rocket
17. Tetsuedo Demo
18. Rogue Demo
19. Fart
My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com
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JSH357
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Post by JSH357 »

t4r4d1ddl3

Another game I really don't have much to say about, mainly because as far as I can tell it isn't a game. You just walk around and look at pretty visuals until you can no longer find a way forward. And yeah, the graphics are pretty impressive. It's all drawn in a surreal style set to appropriate, high-quality music that you simply need to see to grasp. I was left wanting to know more about the world of the game, but since there's no story and no dialogue that reveals anything, it all just comes off as dadaist.

There are a lot of NPCs in this game, but they just say random-seeming stuff; some of it is witty, some slightly insightful, some dumb. You also collect a bunch of pieces of clothing that can be equipped to raise stats that don't appear to do anything.

Basically, I'm pretty sure this game is meant to be a metaphor for enjoying life and beauty instead of needing a goal, and it's presented in a way that's at least fairly unpretentious. Unfortunately, dadaism can only take a work so far without much else backing it up. This one is for the art lovers in the crowd, and not somebody looking to play a game they're going to get traditional entertainment out of.

Leaderboard
1. Megaman Sprite Game
2. Dungeon Cards
3. Okedoke
4. Batman & Robin
5. Carcere Vicis
6. The Pumpkin Warriors
7. t4r4d1ddl3
8. Graffiti Goose
9. Stand
10. Orange Monday
11. The Location
12. pH
13. Iron Galaxy
14. Munch-Meow
15. table
16. Elephants Most Wanted
17. Poot-Poot Rocket
18. Tetsuedo Demo
19. Rogue Demo
20. Fart
My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com
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JSH357
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Post by JSH357 »

Mr. Triangle's Adventure

It doesn't really matter how the author tries to sugarcoat it; Mr. Triangle was the main character in a newbie game that had text boxes and graphics like this: http://www.castleparadox.com/gamelist/201/172/1.jpg Mr. Triangle's Adventure seems to be aimed at children, and it makes me uncomfortable accepting that while knowing the character's origins. This won't bother someone coming in fresh, at least.

The unfortunate thing is that, even with the steps forward that this game takes, it still falls in to a lot of the same problems those games (and a lot of beginner's RPGs) have: vast maps, an overabundance of healing items, inappropriate battle speeds. Nothing about the gameplay in Mr. Triangle's Adventure feels as fresh or engaging as the music and cartoony vibe want it to be. The music, by the way, is yet another amazing effort by William Pandelis, who also composed part of Motrya's soundtrack. It's by far and away the best part of Mr. Triangle here. It's honestly pretty funny hearing a wonderful piece of music alongside such lazy maptiles and endless repetitive halls that make up the dungeons.

The main gameplay gimmick utilized in this game was awfully familiar, mostly because it was the same one I used in one of my older games, Thanksgiving Quest (which, incidentally, was also an offensive game I wouldn't have made now that it's 10 years later). Each character has a very narrow role in battle, like attacker or healer or buffer. TQ's combat was based on Fire Emblem's simplicity, but this game feels more like a 'generic' JRPG trying to shoehorn in the same system. The huge amount of healing items you get takes away one of the healer's primary advantages over the other characters, for instance, which is at odds with the philosophy of such a system. I am probably reading way too much in to that aspect of the game; it's just hard for me not to since I have direct experience.

I didn't play the full length of this game. At one point I tried to use a healing item and the game crashed (new engine bug I guess?) However, I can make a reasonable judgment about how the rest of the game will go: it's probably very similar structurally to the beginning. According to the other reviews, I'm not far off. Mr. Triangle's Adventure would work a lot better if it were scaled down and sped up. It's not just because the game would move along faster, but because that style of gameplay fits better with the silly/strange art and characters presented. As it is, I can't imagine playing through the entire thing.

Leaderboard
1. Megaman Sprite Game
2. Dungeon Cards
3. Okedoke
4. Batman & Robin
5. Carcere Vicis
6. The Pumpkin Warriors
7. t4r4d1ddl3
8. Graffiti Goose
9. Mr. Triangle's Adventure
10. Stand
11. Orange Monday
12. The Location
13. pH
14. Iron Galaxy
15. Munch-Meow
16. table
17. Elephants Most Wanted
18. Poot-Poot Rocket
19. Tetsuedo Demo
20. Rogue Demo
21. Fart
My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com
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Post by Gizmog »

Winged Realm is reviewed! Wish I hadn't screwed up so much on this one, but I guess it saves me the disappointment of the inevitable End of Demo.

Three games left, by my figuring! Two of which are HOTOHR, I believe. Gonna be tight getting my votes in.

EDIT: Troll Over done too.
Last edited by Gizmog on Sat Jan 17, 2015 1:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Feenicks »

Just going to link my hotohr reviews here:

Okedoke, or "might have been better as the pure western rmz thinks this is".

Mr. Triangle's Adventure, or "at least Yume Nikki had a thematic excuse for its huge empty maps".

Troll Over/Mantle Dwellers double feature, or "I missed what my goal was//Am I fighting the earth itself or what?"
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Post by Urkelbot666 »

Did a little review for Troll Over Here
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Post by JSH357 »

Zero: Secret Pasts Collide

This ended up being the most disappointing game in the contest for me so far, not because it's remarkably bad, but because steps could have been taken to alleviate the issues I have with it. Zero is a Final Fantasy clone in the best sense--a game that is essentially trying to be a new game set in a familiar universe with familiar mechanics but its own unique spin. I was incredibly charmed by its ability system, the pace of the storytelling, and the characters' battle styles, me being a big fan of the Final Fantasy series. The problems that plague this game might seem superficial, but they matter.

It's strange. Zero is composed almost entirely of ripped graphics and music, and they are imported and used better than seen in the majority of OHR games that reuse assets, yet the creator felt the need to (I assume) record his/her own sound effects. The voiced sound effects are very, very bad. Of particular note is a scream sound effect that plays over and over again in the first hour of the game. It was actually so grating that it was one of the reasons I stopped playing this. The midis used for the soundtrack are also very poorly sequenced. The OHR is capable of converting MP3 quality sound to OGG for use, and that should have been done in this game; creators need to stop worrying about file size and embrace the present day, though exceptions can be made for porting to the Google Play Store. I can't fathom how so much effort was put in to stealing other artists' work and making it look nice when so little was put in to the original aesthetic elements of the game. This disconnect makes the game look and feel a lot shoddier than it should. Even though the cutscenes are handled so well they feel like a professional game made on the SNES sometimes, the weird issues in other places clash violently.

The strongest thing Zero has going for it is its gameplay--we have a Final Fantasy 4/5/6-like game, which, surprise, is what this engine was built to make. Making things even better, the creator of this game took the time to understand how the OHR's battle stats work, giving attacks and equipment the proper numbers they need to operate in an interesting way. The battles I played were well-tested and balanced, and my only real complaint is that I ran out of MP and had no way to restore it in the first dungeon, which was admittedly probably my own fault. After playing so many weak games in a row, it was refreshing to see this, and kept me playing Zero much longer than I otherwise would have. There are other neat touches, like accessories that have special effects, a horse you can ride around, fancy save points; little things that matter.

The story has its ups and downs. Once things actually start happening, the villain gets off to a great start screwing with your home, and there's a great sense of tension and stuff actually mattering. The intro to the game is weak, though. It gives too much information all at once, which would have been better off gleaned from NPCs or environmental cues. It's clear the creator knows how to tell a story and just doesn't hit the mark entirely every single time, which I can't fault too hard.

Of course, the fact that there are so many little things that could have been improved is what ultimately made me pass on this one after a couple of hours. With good testing, more eyes and ears getting involved, these issues could have been ironed out, and Zero would be a pretty nice game to play. It could never be a big hit (too many ripped assets to really make a name for itself) but it would have been a fun romp nonetheless. If I can suggest a single change to fix things dramatically: Please, please, get rid of that stupid scream sound effect.

Leaderboard
1. Megaman Sprite Game
2. Zero: Secret Pasts Collide
3. Dungeon Cards
4. Okedoke
5. Batman & Robin
6. Carcere Vicis
7. The Pumpkin Warriors
8. t4r4d1ddl3
9. Graffiti Goose
10. Mr. Triangle's Adventure
11. Stand
12. Orange Monday
13. The Location
14. pH
15. Iron Galaxy
16. Munch-Meow
17. table
18. Elephants Most Wanted
19. Poot-Poot Rocket
20. Tetsuedo Demo
21. Rogue Demo
22. Fart
My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com
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JSH357
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Post by JSH357 »

Slimeomancy

It feels like cheating, seeing this game again. I know it came out years ago, and it was pretty much the same thing this time around. Of course, that's not to say Slimeomancy is a bad game. It's a decent puzzler, simple but engaging. The music fits, the style works. It's still a little lazy, but still pretty fun.

One of the things that bugs me most about this game is the "level complete" graphic. The bottom left part of the window surrounding the text is a different size than the rest, and it almost looks like the artist drew it hastily in MSPaint, made a mistake, then didn't bother to fix it. It's also a little irritating that the mouse graphic doesn't always follow along perfectly with mouse movements.

I guess if I have any new criticism of this game now that I have replayed since however many years past, it's that there's no real replay value. If it had something like achievements or star ratings for your solution to various levels, it might have more lasting appeal. As it is, Slimeomancy is well worth a play, but not fantastic.

Leaderboard
1. Megaman Sprite Game
2. Slimeomancy
3. Zero: Secret Pasts Collide
4. Dungeon Cards
5. Okedoke
6. Batman & Robin
7. Carcere Vicis
8. The Pumpkin Warriors
9. t4r4d1ddl3
10. Graffiti Goose
11. Mr. Triangle's Adventure
12. Stand
13. Orange Monday
14. The Location
15. pH
16. Iron Galaxy
17. Munch-Meow
18. table
19. Elephants Most Wanted
20. Poot-Poot Rocket
21. Tetsuedo Demo
22. Rogue Demo
23. Fart
Last edited by JSH357 on Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com
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Post by Spoonweaver »

I'm actually not sure how Slimeomancy got on this list. I'm not sure what the criteria was to get on the list, but Slimeomancy only received some bugfixes and has fixed up to port to android.
I think it should really be put next to Graffiti Goose, being an android only review. I'd love to hear how people liked it on a tablet or something, or know of any tablet/phone bugs.
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Post by SDHawk »

Spoonweaver wrote:I'm actually not sure how Slimeomancy got on this list. I'm not sure what the criteria was to get on the list, but Slimeomancy only received some bugfixes and has fixed up to port to android.
I think it should really be put next to Graffiti Goose, being an android only review. I'd love to hear how people liked it on a tablet or something, or know of any tablet/phone bugs.
Then you probably should have said something during the selection process. The criteria is pretty loose, but basically there's a "new content required" rule in place only for games that have previously been in the review contest.

Games that haven't been in the contest before are given much looser requirements for being included simply because I think it's interesting to have several reviewers take a look back at older stuff again as part of the mix (once the review contest itself is old enough I might formalize this as "games that haven't been in the contest for 8 years" or something). This rule is how stuff like Bloodlust and Sparrowhawk's various newbie games ended up in the contest in previous years.

There ARE still some limits in place when the authors specify what has changed, and also based on how old a game is (the older it is the more likely it gets on the list despite minor changes). So stuff like Horse Game getting its music changed didn't qualify while slimeomancy's "a lot of little changes" did. If the game list got completely deluged with minor updates to older games I'd also probably put a harder limit on it (it kind of already is with all the Android updates, but most of them have so few changes that they don't qualify).

Like everything in this contest, the rules are pretty loose. If we keep the rule that people actually take a look at optional games next year, I might start lumping these older games in there instead of putting them on the main list (as well as putting all the tools and such that I filter out back on the optional list instead of omitting them entirely).

While we're at it, the reason table and stand got included on the main list was because I felt they had slightly more value to them than the typical optional list fare (table is at least an uncommon OHR joke game, and stand was a cool enough work in progress that I wanted it to get some feedback/recognition even if there isn't a ton to talk about). In general I like putting a few small games on the list just for pacing the reviewers with some breaks between all the RPG epics. The actually-play-the-optional-games rule was a late change so I missed putting them on it.

In short, look forward to the optional list selection getting a whole lot more aggressive next year now that it actually gets played. There's a lot of advantages to the new format: Stuff like stand can get some feedback, tools can potentially get some spotlight if they're exceptional, there will be some insurance against potentially missing anything cool just because it seemed short, android ports might get some platform specific feedback, etc.
Last edited by SDHawk on Tue Jan 20, 2015 4:03 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Post by Spoonweaver »

Yea, sorry. I don't remember why I didn't mention slimeomancy, I guess I didn't see it there. Or I mentioned it in irc and forgot to actually post. Anyways, sorry. Thanks for all the reviews of it though.
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