Reviews

Review by h8or all reviews by h8or

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Scores: Overall 1 Artistical 1 Technical 1 Genre 1

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: Changes eras.
Bad: Not very fun.
Pizza?
Comments:
I’m glad you have music, that makes up for much that is lacking in this game. There are some interesting things, but not enough to change my mind.

Overall: Dull, but works. 2

Artistic: This IS ugly. 1

Technical: ASCII art feature is awesome. The text-flying-thingy-feature is awesome. Few menu choices don’t work and controls are somewhat awkward. Here’s a 3.00, don’t use it all in one place.

Genre: The best implemented feature of this game, deserving of a 4.

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 1 Technical 3 Genre 4

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: Finally getting back at those squirrels…
Bad: Disorientation.
Love and Peace!
Comments:
I played this for a long time; it’s gotta be good, right? Well, I’m not so sure. I am sure it’s got the coolest song of TINS06 entries.

Overall: Pretty difficult, controls are somewhat awkward and acorns don’t always go the full distance. Nonetheless, it’s kind of…mesmerizing. I give it a 157872/52624.

Artistic: It’s like an Arcade and a gameboy had a child! 2.

Technical: ASCII is there, somewhat. Help is there, somewhat. Game functions, somewhat. I’ll give you a somewhat 2.

Genre: Check. 3.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 2 Technical 2 Genre 3

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: Something different.
Bad: You’ll probably want more of the same.
Forget TINS and make a real RPG!
Comments:
I’m glad someone made a RPG-feel game. It was a nice break and I agree, the exploration feature was extra nice. Unfortunately, there’s nothing to find, other than a little lake which serves no purpose. Again, start over, write a new plot and I think you can probably pull together a really neat game. I’ll be the first to play!

Overall: Sorry, the only fun thing was exploring. The battles were painfully lame. Maximum damage of 2!

Artistic: Not very impressive and what is good was ripped. Bam, 2!

Technical: Nah, I can’t give you more than a 2.

Genre: 2? Nah, 3 for being creative and doing time travel (or saying there was time travel).

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 2 Technical 2 Genre 3

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: Fulfills TINS requirements really well
Bad: Missing key game features
Best ending. Ever.
Comments:
I really enjoyed this game, even if it is a bit…strange. The constant barrage of “frozen explosions?” and pressing keys really makes for some exciting play. Add a little music, sound effects and a title screen, and it would be a complete game. I’ve beaten it on medium and still working on hard. The fact that I’m still playing makes it a quality game. Good job.

Overall: It’s fun and functional, but lacking in a lot of polish that would distinguish it as a game. In this instance, the ASCII art is kind of jarring, and real train/sprite bitmaps would better suffice. I’m giving it a 3.

Artistic: Bleh, anybody walking by would say it is ugly. 2.

Technical: Yeah, you got ASCII art, but I don’t think it fits very well. However, the garbage thrower is awesome and balances out my dislike of your ASCII “talent”. The help screen is really good and the game is functional. I’d say 4.25, but I can’t, so 4 it is!

Genre: Bing! We have a winner. This game is rocking with both time advancement and focus. It’d be a 5, if perhaps the game changed somewhat with the times. 4 it is.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 2 Technical 4 Genre 4

Review by miran all reviews by miran

This game probably has the most impressive ASCII art of all games in TINS '06. OK, the helicopter looks more like a pig with a rotor and CCCP written on it than a real helicopter, but everything else looks really good. The smoke is an especially nice touch. But the ASCII art is unfortunately the only good thing about this game. The gameplay is minimal at best, you just press right and wait until your helicopter reaches its destination. The help screen is less than brilliant, the train and time play no major part in the game, the whole engine doesn't seem very advanced and there's nothing extra special, like sounds or music or something like that. Overall it's not a very good game, heh it's not even a little good, but I have to say it again, the ASCII art is really nice.

Scores: Overall 1 Artistical 2 Technical 4 Genre 2

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: The title.
Bad: Low replay value.
Easy. Easy. Hard!!!!
Comments:
This is nice. Everything is here. Music (I swear it sounds like Freya’s theme at times), functional, challenging, fun, etc. Way to go!

Overall: It’s just a great game. I wish there was more replay value, but you can’t ask for everything in a 72hr competition game. It does get hard really fast unexpectedly, but it’s at the right time to keep you hooked and having fun. With the fitting music, I was having a gay time. I’ll give you a very, very low 5 (you know, like that 89.4445 A you got in Trig?).

Artistic: It’s got a very cartoony feel, which I like a lot. And it’s very consistent. With each level changing to a new feel, I’m inclined to give my second 5.

Technical: ASCII was weak. Help for each level was good. Game engine was sufficient. Score was 3.

Genre: I’m not sure where the time requirement came in, but I’m willing to give a 2.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 5 Technical 3 Genre 2

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

The basic idea of this game is that you are a "Train Master" controlling a whole network of railways and all the trains on it. You have to switch tracks at junctions at the right moment so that all trains follow the right route and arrive at their destination stations in time. You have a view over the entire railroad in a single screen, so you get a good overview, although that also means some of the graphics are tiny and sometimes hard to make out.

There are four different levels, varying in difficulty. The easy level is indeed easy enough, because there is only one train to control. The train schedule is not very tight so you can make the train go very slow and you have plenty of time to make the necessary adjustions to the junctions before the train arrives there.

In the normal level it gets quite a bit more complicated. You have to control three trains at the same time, and there are many more junctions and stations. You have keep an eye on so many things at the same time that this becomes quite a challenge.

I must say I haven't really played the "quite difficult" and "no fair" modes. One look at the levels shows they are quite interesting, but due to some interface problems detailed below I didn't play them thoroughly.

The main issue I have with this game is the poor user interface. It has several glitches in it that make the game hard to play. For example, I often run into a problem where the speed dial gets stuck at 100 or -100. This is especially a problem when I want to stop a train, but it won't go slower than 100. At other times the speed dial seems to loose all bounds and you can go way past 1000, so the train zooms accross the rails in no time.

Another big usability problem is that the game doesn't tell you when you're doing something wrong. Sometimes you're playing and suddenly, quite unexpectedly the "You're Fired!" screen shows up. Perhaps one of your trains crashed somewhere, or perhaps you missed a target station or perhaps there is a bug in the game. Who knows? It would have been much nicer if the game would have pointed out problems e.g. by showing a big explosion when your train crashes somewhere, or a big red mark when you are late at a station. But as it is right now, you can't learn from your mistakes as you don't know what you're doing wrong.

The graphics are nice and colourful, the (voice) sound effects are nice too. The music is ok, but moreover it seems to have been made during the time of the competition which is a big plus. The ascii art is a mixture of automatically converted images and hand-generated, and is quite fitting. The help function is there, although it is rather basic.

All in all this is a decent entry with a fun concept, and it would have been really great were it not for a few annoying user-interface glitches.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 4 Genre 3

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: Odd enough for me to like it!
Bad: I doubt anyone else will…
TINS award: Funniest game available.
Comments:
What a hoot! It’s worth going through more for the hilarity than the actual game play. There are some great moments that are Napoleon Dynamite-worthy. However, judging is based on game value, rather than comedic value (which is a shame).

Overall: There’s not much point or purpose to playing this game. Time would be better spent ripping the code and reading the script than actually playing. That equals 2.

Artistic: Very ripped and not very consistent. Another 2 for you.

Technical: Ah heck, make it a third two.

Genre: 3 for giving SOME purpose to this game.

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 2 Technical 2 Genre 3

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: It’s cute!
Bad: Can’t lose, unless you try.
I like me some trains to jump.
Comments:
Ah, finally, a cute game I can let my nephews to play. I doubt I’d show it to anyone else. Although the game does have a cutesy little story and character, which saves it from certain doom, it just lacks implementation. Yet, I do feel potential exists with a few more levels (that actually involve challenge).

Overall: Sorry, it’s just not a game. 1

Artistic: What is the definition of artistic? Uniqueness? I believe this game was handcrafted, which for programmers IS artistic in its own way. Have a 3.5 buddy, I’ll even round it up to a 4.

Technical: It definitely has the ASCII art, but compared to the others, it just doesn’t stand up. So, relatively, I have to give it a lower score. Help screen is exactly that, a help screen. Can’t seem to die by falling off the trains (shouldn’t that happen) and you can’t go backwards, so I’d say it’s a poor engine. I knight thee Two!

Genre: Time is involved and central to game play. That’s three-worthy.

Scores: Overall 1 Artistical 4 Technical 2 Genre 3

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: Cows!
Bad: Level 4…
Does this game seem familiar? No, not in the least…
Comments:
Niunio’s Train is actually pretty fun, even if it is a little unoriginal. It’s functional, it’s got all the elements needed and it’s not an eyesore. In other words, it’s a game! That’s a big deal considering most competition games aren’t truly complete enough to be a game. I do agree that it can be slow when you have your tracks set, but in the later levels, it’s almost too fast. I enjoyed it and someday, I’ll beat level 4.

Overall: It’s fun, playable, polished and it’s got music. It feels almost like carnival game, specially with lucky-go-round music. This definitely deserves a 4!

Artistic: Not bad, but not good either. The main title screen is pretty impressive, but during gameplay it could be a lot better. It does encompass the train and railroad requirement and seems to focus around them, so that is deserving of a 3.

Technical: Not much ASCII, but what little there is, is moderately artistic. The help screen was weak, but functional. I’d say a 2.5, (aka 3)

Genre: The only “time” portion of the game I could see, is the implicit timing of get the tracks to the right places before the train derails. Since time itself wasn’t pivotal to the gameplay, I feel 2 is about is good as I can offer.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 3 Technical 3 Genre 2

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: It’s like sex. You have to move just right, move faster and faster until you explode and it only last 30 seconds!
Bad: It just doesn’t feel very…TINS-ishy.
Dodger’s Highschool Yearbook quote: Most likely to have a Cult following.
Comments:
What can I say about Dodger? To quote the wise miran, it’s his best game evar. Once again it is my favorite game as a result of a competition. However, and unfortunately, I don’t feel like it should stand a top the TINS06 trophy board. It feels like the idea was conceived prior to the competition and it was just bent to satisfy the requirements. There’s nothing wrong with that, really, but I feel it is unfair to judge it the same way as the others.

Overall: Fun, addictive, professional. 5!

Artistic: Although professional looking, it’s really nothing “amazing”. The railroad/tracks don’t really serve any purpose in this game. A 3 for you, come back one year!

Technical: Help screen is nothing special and ASCII art is lame and forced. Engine is awesome though, so very little for help screen, nothing for ASCII and the rest for engine. That adds up to 11 in binary!

Genre: Good use of time, but nothing special. I’ll give you a 4 and you better like it!

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 3 Technical 3 Genre 4

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: You included a game I suggested!
Bad: I ran out of Tylenol. 
Do I really care about the old lady?
Comments:
It’s a text-based game! I can’t really call that…ASCII art. While there are some fun mini-games, I’m just not thrilled by this game.

Overall: It works, that’s got to count for something. I dub you 2!

Artisitic: The train at the beginning is kind of good, but I’ve seen better in the other TINS games… The blur affect when the help screen is nice. Gotta say another 2.

Technical: Little ASCII, so you get 1/2 point there. Help screen(s) is good, two points there. Game engine works, ½ point there. That’d be a 3.

Genre: 3. Nothing else to say, really.

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 2 Technical 3 Genre 3

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

This game reminds me of a part of the SNES classic "Secret of Evermore", where you could make huge amounts of money by buying bags of rice from one side of the marketplace for 2 gold pieces and selling them at the other side of the martketplace for 3 gold pieces. And in both games you quickly get a feeling that being a transporter of virtual goods is a boring job.

It would have been more fun if the buying and selling were less repetetive. For example, I can imagine that it would be great fun to fight yourself a way through a maze of caves filled with space monsters to reach that final outpost where it is rumoured they pay big bucks for saxophones. You'd have to interact with other travelling salesmen to get small hints about the best location to sell your excess lightbulbs. But as it is right now, moving from station to station poses no obstacle other than the time you have to spend on it.

There is one more thing to note about this game: the implementation of the time theme is very poor. This is certainly a weak point in an otherwise very well-polished game.

This game should be commended for it's beautiful, in-game generated ASCII art (in color), it's smooth GUI and help function, it's beautiful graphics (the main character is clearly unpolished programmer's art, but that doesn't really reduce the overall impresson of the graphics too much). Overall a solid entry that is well-polished but slightly hampered by the repetetive gameplay.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 5 Technical 5 Genre 2

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: I saved 15% by switching to Geico.
Bad: Everything
Soooo sad.
Comments:
At least you tried. Don’t let my low scores get to you, come back next year (or competition) and try again.
Overall: 1
Artistic: 1
Techncial: 1
Genre: 1

Scores: Overall 1 Artistical 1 Technical 1 Genre 1

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: It’s a puzzle game! I think…
Bad: Trying to find what’s good.
Are those tetris pieces?
Comments:
Okay. I know there is a game here. There’s got to be. But what is it? This is the first game I’ve ever played where the puzzle is to actually figure out what the game is! Is that a paradox? Whatever the case, this game doesn’t deserve very high ratings. If there were a help screen or readme, possibly this game would do a lot better. Trying to figure it out on your own is just frustrating. I think it has something to do with delivering the Tetris-like pieces, but I’m not sure what to do and it’s really hard to get another piece due to the camera. Thanks for adding the S key to speed up to your own death!

Overall: Read “Comments”. One.

Artistic: I’ll give you 2. See, I AM a nice guy.

Technical: Boo! Neither requirements done and game engine is poor. I have no choice. One point (and if there were a lower score, that’d be given)

Genre: There’s a genre to this game? I didn’t know. One.

Scores: Overall 1 Artistical 2 Technical 1 Genre 1

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: Offers at least five minutes of gameplay
Bad: I wish I had my five minutes back
What kind of grass were they smoking? Apparently ASCII…
Comments:
Master Lenman and Deathlord’s Train Shooter is a solid concept, but lacks in actual implementation. I enjoyed the ASCetic scenery and once enemies come in, it does get somewhat challenging, providing some fun. It’s a good entry, but just lacks actual entertainment.

The controls aren’t bad, but can get very confusing when having to switch between them. Having the accelerate and break keys as far apart as A and B on the keyboard is probably the major design flaw in the control scheme.

Artistically, the game meets the TINS requirements by providing both a train and railroad that obviously the game was designed around. If anything, the graphics are the main stimulus of the game. It’s kind of funny, since obviously it is programmer’s art and the fact that it is actually pleasurable.

Technically, the game obviously uses ASCII art and I have to give +1 (which makes the final score go from a 3 to a 4) for making the game entirely out of it. Yet, the help screen, the other technical requirement, wasn’t nearly as appealing as the rest of the game visually and appears more like looking at a technical manual. It’s just not user friendly, so minus a point there.

Genre-wise, the time requirement affects the game in terms of score, but it could be taken out with little consequence to the gameplay. Considering that, I just can’t give too high a score for the genre.

Add some bloops and bleeps for some background music and I probably could’ve bumped the overall score!

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 3 Technical 4 Genre 2

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

G-loop is the only 3D entry of TINS 2006. Unfortunately, similar to Marcello's entry this game is fraught with problems that make it unplayable on some computers.

This goal of the game is to steer a spaceship through a series of ring-shaped checkpoints, which reminds me of a couple of very hard levels of Super Mario 64. Each time the next ring is clearly marked with a sort of white shine in the middle. The spaceship controls are simple enough, although I found it a bit hard to control. It could be because the controls are done with the keyboard and not with the mouse, which would probably have been the more common solution, although it could also be just because I've never been really good at this sort of game. I end up circling the same checkpoint several times before I could actually go through it.

A strong point of the game is the rendered graphics. The 3D engine works very smoothly on my laptop. The three different levels have the same goal and the same texture but they look different enough to get you interested to play them all.

I find this is a very good implementation of the time theme, alhtough it would have been nicer if your target time was displayed during the game itself, right now you only see the time you have spend and the game leaves you wondering if you can still make it or not.

Weak points: the simplistic help, the lack of a real Train, the high hardware requirements and the problems it has on some computers.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 2 Technical 3 Genre 5

Review by amarillion all reviews by amarillion

Megaman 3vil prototype is a very solid entry that is hampered by a few serious bugs. Wether this is due to OpenLayer or the game itself I don't know, but the game only worked on 1 out of 3 computers I tried it on. This is very unfortunate because otherwise the game is fun to play.

The game is a fast-paced 2D platform shooter that is set on top of a speeding train carrying worn out brown TimeCom conainers, clearly inspired by Capcom's megaman series. Megaman has to use his blaster to fight flying clocks that appear all around him. Which makes me wonder. Who is TimeCom? Are they good guys or bad guys? The name of the game suggests that Megaman has actually turned evil, so in that case TimeCom must be the good guys. But what are they transporting in those containers, and why is it so important that it needs to be defended with flying clocks?

The artwork is beatiful. The animation of the enemies and especially the main character is very smooth. You have 360 degree freedom with your blaster, and you have to use the mouse to aim. There is an ascii-wave effect in the background that contributes to the speedy feel of the game. Superiour object programming combined with OpenLayer graphics goodness, plus graphics from a good gfx artist make this game a pleasure to watch. The object programming is done with lots of eye for detail, for example, I like how the blaster ray slows down the flying clocks, as though the flying clocks have to push their way against the barrage of blaster bolts. And bullet time is a really good addition as well.

A few minor points. How do I switch to full screen? I keep accidentally clicking outside the game window, bringing up a different window so the game is suddenly hidden from view. The help is present but doesn't really look great, it's simply a few lines of text floating in the background. Also the many bugs that make this game unplayable on quite a few computers makes this game not as good as it could have been.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 5 Technical 3 Genre 4

Review by miran all reviews by miran

Some of the graphics look very nice and retro. But the game is hard to control and not very fun to play. Also it seems to run too fast, at least on my computer.

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 3 Technical 2 Genre 2

Review by Steven Silvey all reviews by Steven Silvey

Good: Looks professional.
Bad: Pretty slow gameplay.
Trains moving through trains? That’s um-possible!
Comments:
Time-Table has that Sim City quality minus the crack-like addictiveness. Nonetheless, this game is beaming with potential and I’ll be keeping my eye out for further advancements. First things first, add some music!

Overall: It feels good. It feels like a game. It just doesn’t play like one yet. 3 will suffice.

Artistic: The game is very well balanced artistically. It looks like a 4 to me.

Technical: Help screen is very helpful, but not very enticing. ASCII art is minimal. However, the game engine itself is very good. I’d say somewhere between 3 and 4, and my random generator says 3.

Genre: Uh, could this be any more time-oriented? A perfect 5!

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 4 Technical 3 Genre 5