Mochi Game Review Mash-Up: October 7, 2009 (11 Games Reviewed)
Today the game selection kind of made me feel like I was looking though some of the various pirate crew Atari ST and Amiga late era disc menus from the 90’s. Some gems, some odd games with bad foreign translations, too many games with unintentional penis references, and many mediocre or unfinished arcade romps.
Games Reviewed: The Tickler, 2 Days 2 Die – The Other Side, Race, Gold Train, Raksha Bandham, Docokrampage, Kafrina’s Cart, Watercolor Shooter, MX Creator II, Surreal Worlds Shooter, and Soul Survivor.
Game Of The Day: The Tickler: One word…(ok two)…Fcuking (sic) AWESOME! You are the Tickler, a cyborg gone wildly mad who is hell bend on destroying everything in his(her?) path. The game uses a relatively simple, over-head view of an incredibly well animated Tickler to depict the action.
Using the mouse you extend your extending claws to rip, kill and strangle everything and everyone. The Music, presentation and action are all first rate. Don’t miss a few minutes with this little gem. This one might win for best game name since Panda Hate Maze!
Grade A.
2 Days 2 Die – The Other Side: (Coins Enabled) – Zombies, guns, heads exploding in washes of red, what more could you want from a Zombie side scroller. 2D2D (the other side) is a very well produced, fun arcade/adventure blaster that will have the kids enthralled for days. You are a SWAT team member who must walk through the city and shoot zombies in the head while collecting power-ups, weapons, and performing missions. What’s not to like?
Grade A.
Race: Race is a nice little first-person (actually behind) sprite-based motorcycle racer. The actual game play is done pretty well with the track tilting to depict turning while the controls are easy and intuitive. The interesting part is what is missing. Why make a game that looks this good, and plays pretty well (needs a better physics engine though) but leaves out the extra touches such as sound and music that would push it over the top. Also, some of the graphics in the game also look like they were thrown in by a different developer, so I am unsure of the exact origins of this engine. In any case, with a little love, this could be a winner.
Grade B-
Gold Train: This is a pretty standard catch game with a hard-rock mining theme.The idea is well thought out and interesting, but at the end of the day, it is still a simple catch game with very little flair. The black text on blue at at the top seems like a mistake, but it seriously detracts from what is already a below average game at best. For a first or second novice game, it is pretty good, but the quality of viral Flash games is well beyond this now.
Grade C-
Raksha Bandhan: This isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It’s crazy (at least to someone from the USA) though. You are a girl in a blue dress, chasing a dude in a red shirt. The graphics are animated well, but the game play employs those “floaty” physics from the early Atari ST/Amiga/Genesis (MegaDrive) days. Also, the theme must be from some sort of TV show or movie that is foreign to me. There isn’t much game here though other than pushing the left arrow and the space bar every now and then.
Grade C-
Docockrampage: I don’t know if Koffi realizes that the name of this game sounds A LOT like a some sort of hard-core porn game. In any case, this is a pretty well done version of the classic Rampage, but starring one of the baddies from a recent film concerning spiders and powers and such. Fun for a bit and presented well.
Grade C+
Kafrina’s Cart: Another Koffi game that could be pretty good if given a little more love. As it stands, you must race your horse drawn cart in the desert through a top-down scrolling environment. The action is pretty good, the visuals and presentation surprisingly well done, but the sound is so annoying that I had to turn it off within 30 seconds. You can fire HUGE missiles at other racers and they pop with a nice little canned explosion, but basically the game play is pretty generic.
Grade C+
Watercolor Shooter: A side scrolling little arcade blaster with some nice watercolor graphics. The basic controls are pretty simple: Mouse to shoot and aim, and arrows or WASD to move. The music is pretty good for a game of this type and the in-game action is OK, if nothing special. The problems is that the game needs some major work in organizing the interface. It is very busy and difficult to tell what is going on. Also, there is a pre-game screen with what looks like a dude and a GIANT penis (it looked like it to me). ( Updated Note: Steve pointed out that is is probably actually a thumb, not a penis.) Not a bad game, but needs some work here and there to make it something special.
Grade C+.
MX Creator II: A physics-based, side-scrolling motorcycle racing game with a full track editor. This is a nice little game with some good features. It kind of looks a little like a Cyclomanics tech demo. The game play is well depicted and fun. The sound is a little annoying, but probably appropriate for this type of game. I don’t want to make it sound bad because it actually is one of the best games today, but there is a lot more that could be done to make this a real excellent $$ earning game.
Grade B.
Surreal Worlds Shooter: A pretty standard action game that uses the mouse to blow up an an odd collection of items falling from the sky. There is a kitty in the foreground who I assume is blowing these things up with his mind.
Grade C
Soul Survivor: A pretty decent little single screen Asteroids style game with WASD + Mouse controls. I like the music and the glowing vectors, but ultimately these games need more optimization and faster game play. It is a little slow, but still a good effort.
Grade C+