The Great 2011 Review Contest [Reviews: 200]

I don't plan to add visuals but I am definitely updating the game and adding music once the contest's officially closed.

---

Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition

JSH’s 2011 OHR Game Blog #37 – Deforestation 2 by Spoonweaver

Deforestation 2 is generally more of the same joke as the original, only with an additional sex joke thrown in this time. I thought the joke was pretty funny, but... as you might expect, the buck ends there. This is just a rehash with little keeping it from completely fading away.

So instead of discussing Deforestation 2, I want to talk about Spoonweaver's use of advertising, and preface this with a cold, hard truth: Spoonweaver could very well be the most successful OHR developer in the future. Why? Well, he knows how to show off his work better than anyone else in the community sans perhaps Fenrir-Lunaris. Getting your game out there is just as if not more important than making quality work!

I realize that hearing this sounds like blasphemy to a lot of developers, and they refuse to accept it. Proof? Some of the best games I have reviewed for this contest so far were massively underplayed. Final Dragon Legacy is a great example. The creator didn't do a good job getting the game out there, even though it's pretty fantastic, and now it's bound to barely scrape the Best Games of 2011 list in HamsterSpeak. I'm not good at promoting my own work either, and my games have always suffered for it.

Spoon has been a controversial user here at times. He doesn't get along with everyone. However, he's got a certain panache for this that makes him a valuable person to know, and the same extends to others like him--people who have marketing skills. The ad campaign for Deforestation overshadows the game itself, not unlike the advertising for movies often does. There are people who make big bucks doing this kind of thing.

It's a skill every game developer needs to learn something about, myself included. You can promote a turd in a box if you know how to do it, so just imagine the benefits of promoting a GOOD game in the same way. It's something to think about.

Rating: 3 Movie Posters out of 10

---

My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com

Doom RPG
---

Full disclosure: I've played it before, but not the more recent updates. I consider the author an ohr buddy. He's already done a great job building an audience, something 99% of ohrers fail to do. Before the ohr, I messed with DoomII mods. I can't hate on it, but this isn't my thing. I don't think it translates well into a rpg. It's not to say it can't, just not like this. It's not bad, but it's not outstanding as it is.

The title screen and music is boss. The readme would be better served in a graphical html format, otherwise it will be mostly ignored. I'm not a fan of automatic, scripted text advancing. I can give it a pass for the credits portion of the intro, but once I'm in the first scene, it went by too fast.

The graphics and sound are a mixed bag. Some of it's great, some of it at best passable. The biggest problem area are the walkabouts. I know how the green space marine's armor is shaped, and can see the artist knows too, but to add the curve around the exposed belly, it makes it look silly. Like I'm some skinny fat guy in a space helmet. And the side frames do not match at all.

Voice acting's cool. So is the doom guy's head. Think it needs a menu backing like in the actual game.

Maybe DoomIII's lackluster story has ruined this game for me. It's a bit generic, and like watching your favorite action movie one too many times. It's difficult for me to maintain interest.

I also like the fact that the maps are identical to the doomI designs, but this is problematic: this is a top down rpg, with a slow walk. It's a different beast, and requires a different approach to the design.

Judgment: With tighter design, this could be a winner.

Dungeon Quest
---

Blank title screen - does not bode well for anyone involved.

We begin our adventure greeted by matrix music, told this is Mission 1: Portal Escape. The scale of the game is what strikes me next, everything's tiny and empty. Walking around, I've already lost interest, but I need more to say...

This is a maze game. The first map doesn't have enemies, and is long and tedious. The next has blobs who attack, which if you run away, they're still there, and they can and will re-trigger the fight. Same thing if you beat them, they never go away.

The exit on the second map doesn't seem to work. So a maze game. Yup. I appreciate the change of pace, but this is more like a mini game within a bigger rpg at best.

Judgment: Not much to it.

Deforestation
---

I like the music. I don't like the auto-advance text. It was entertaining to see during the context of the movie contest.

As it stands now, it is a short scene with one deadpan joke. It's voice acted. All of two text boxes.

The explosion at the end does strike of flash work. It kind of ruins the experience, cheapens it. The game closed itself, which I've never seen an ohr game do before. I don't remember this the first time. It's a neat trick.

Judgment: Download if you enjoy newgrounds-type humor.

Deforestation 2
---

I like the music. I don't like the auto-advance text. It was entertaining to see during the context of the movie contest.

As it stands now, it is a short scene with one deadpan joke. It's voice acted. It has more text this time.

Watching it again, I missed the joke this time around. I remember getting it the first time. Re-watching... these intros don't really lend themselves to repeat views. So the joke involves the lumberjack mixing up what to do with a Mung beast and the female of alien people.

Judgment: Download if you enjoy newgrounds-type humor.

Deforestation 3
---

I like the music. I don't like the auto-advance text. It was entertaining to see during the context of the movie contest.

Notice how I copy-pasted text for all 3 reviews? That's kind of how the games feel. They were more fun at the time of release. You had to be there to get the full enjoyment, I suppose.

As it stands now, it is the most interesting of the lot with ohr character and author cameos. The voice acting here was pretty good. The female pronounces "Giz" as "Jiz". I also like how when the lumberjack rips Powerstickman in half, and everyone runs away, one of them is giggling as they run.

Personally, I find the Triangle and Surlaw cameos over-played. How did these two become icons of the ohr? Rhetorical. Think the sex scene between the lumberjack and triangle was in response to the Triangle movie. The rock scene at the end was neat, but as James or JSH (can't remember who) pointed out in irc at the time, he kills every character but Bob, so there's a slight suck up tone or an attempt to lessen the blow of whoever would get insulted over this. Did anyone? I can't see it personally, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Judgment: Worth a watch if you enjoy OHR celebrity tabloid-type material.

Escape from Strong Castle
---

I vaguely remember this being released for some contest. It has a 'note to judges' in the readme, but no mention of anything else. Am I the only person who looks at readme's just to shake my head at what a shame it was someone even bothered writing it for so few to ever see or care?

First impressions: The title track loop sounds homemade, all 1 second / 1 measure of it. The graphics are a huge tip off of what's to come: airbrushed MSPaint clouds, gray castle, green grass -- all of 6 colors used. Expecting pain.

Pain delivered. White maptiles with a black border: that's the entire screen. And the maps are huge. The setup is to escape through random battles for 20 floors. I'm punching out...

Judgment: Will pretend this never happened.

JSH’s 2011 OHR Game Blog #38 – Harbinger 6EQUJ5 by Willy 2 Electric Boogaloo

Uh... I guess this game's too deep for me? After about ten minutes, I can't figure out even the very first step in solving whatever puzzle is presented here. I would try harder, but the sound effects, like in the last Willy game I played, are too obnoxious for me to put up with for prolonged periods of time.

One nice thing about this is that I think the visuals are better than in some other similar games released this year. This one actually looks rather intricate, like an 80s vision of a space station. I enjoyed the look of it a lot, so I'll give it points for that.

Ultimately, the lack of good tutorial kills this for me. I don't need a fairy explaining every last thing I need to do, but a push in the right direction, or at least -a- direction would be a godsend. There's another game development lesson, kids: tutorials are your friends when implemented well.

Rating: 1.5 Even More Confused JSHes out of 10

---

My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com

Escape the Wolf OHR
---

As a devoted readme observer, this is the first so far to have formatting issues. Oh, that wild and crazy Spam man. I bet he wrote it in who knows what.

The music is boss: it's someone singing do's and dee's.

I'm not a fan of choosing difficulty at the start of a game. In this case, it means instead of stages of challenge, there's just one that can be made more frustrating. I usually go with the normal option, whatever the basic game was designed to be.

For 48 hours, this is amazing. The generated maps are great, but in all honesty, that probably was a lot of work for something nobody would have noticed otherwise. What happens with the wolf when you win is my favorite part -- it's worth seeing at least once.

Judgment: Worth a play if you are a fan of the ohr.

Spoiler Alert: the setup is actually to escape through random battles for 19 floors and get killed by an unbeatable unescapeable boss 1 tile away from the exit door on floor 1



Oops! unix-style line endings!

RE JSH Game Blog #38
---

Every game could use a fairy screaming HEY and LOOK in your ear, my good man. Are you daft? haha

That's pretty spot on about tuts. Seems to be holding Willy's work back. That and, well. Not being afraid of some scripting work. But I think that's really being unfair given the nature of the platform.

You are kidding me! That's... unspeakable. Not even Giz would stoop so low.

Wow.

Escape the Zombie Horde
---

Three escape games in a row; must have been a good year for the genre.

The author renamed game.exe, but gave it the long name, where the rpg file is simply 'escape', so it's kind of pointless.

It's Oregon Trail meets zombie apocalypse. You name 3 people, buy supplies, and 'press spacebar to proceed' again and again. Sometimes something happens, and if you bought enough, it's no big deal. Sometimes your people die. I couldn't beat it.

Great idea. Forgiven as a 48 hour contest game. In that context, it's hard for me to rate any game poorly, but there's not much here.

Judgment: Can't recommend it.

Neat lots of my "games" are getting reviewed.

I love reviews! Hurray review contests!