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Review: Unknown Game 2434
Author: David Newton (DavidN)
Added: 16/01/2003
Overall:
Average:7/10

This game comes as a .GAM file, no .EXE included, and also has the MIDIs in the zip, which isn't really necessary. The music is a mix of standard GFactory musics and "cover" MIDIs. The readme file, whihc is imaginatively titled "New Text Document" isn't very well-written, but it's understandable enough.

On loading up the game, I was greeted with the title screen, which is hideous. Not wanting to sound overly harsh, but plain blue text on a red background doesn't make a good title screen - remember, this is what's meant to welcome players into your game.

After the story section, which is decent enough but has the same style of writing as the Readme file, you're put in the first level.

This is where things start to improve. The graphics here are a lot better than I expected, and there are some decent elements in the game (such as the raincloud that drops, well, water on to you). It's a bit Mario, but good all the same.

I wasn't sure if I was meant to wall-jump to get up to the top of the third screen, but that's what worked. (I later found out that the plant was a ladder. Obvious when you think about it). Until the fourth level, these levels are only one screen long, but it's here that the author has ventured into using scrolling.

The gradient in the background is what cripples the speed of the game, though. I have no idea why it does it, but GFactory gradients just shouldn't be used, good as they sometimes look.

After venturing through another style of level, which was a refreshing change, there was a boss. The trouble is, I'm not even sure whether the "!!!11"-style joke in the boss's dialogue was intentional or not. The boss idea isn't terrible, but it's nothing special, and the hot spot (or is it the "return to start" movement?) needs sorting out.

Beyond the boss, the game returned to one-screen gameplay again for a while before returning to scrolling on a level reminiscent of Cool Spot. After that, I went on for a few screens before realising that I'd been deposited back in the same level.

I had taken the wrong route along the way - I won't give anything away, I'll leave you to work out how to get past this section.

The game is quite good for an early attempt, but its major flaw is that it's far too easy, mostly due to the fact that you're provided with plenty of lives every step of the way. Adding something to the game that is in any way challenging would improve its longevity no end.

The plus points, though, are that it's competently programmed, the graphics are quite good in a cartoony, stylised kind of way, and it has some (but not nearly enough) imaginative enemies. Also, it's long for a 'newbie' game (though as said before the non-existent difficulty level makes up for this). invaderzim could well turn into a good Clicker with more experience, and it's worth downloading this effort.

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