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The Daily Click ::. Downloads ::. Review Review: Paul the Penguin REDUX - DEMO
PRESENTATION: It's solid. It's a title screen with a killer logo! Only thing that bugs me out visually is the flame in the background trying to make this entire frame look badass. It looks like if a kid thought the spray paint tool is the coolest thing in the world so he naturally did flames for the sake of edginess. Other than that, it's alright for what it's going for. I also like the presentation for the post section of the helicopter level, when you're falling down straight into water. I like the cinematic approach to these cutscenes, especially when giving Paul some dialogue while he's in mid-air and then transitioning to the next frame. I feel that's a nice touch. Because of the fire that looks very childish, I will give it a 9 out of 10, and because the logo ROCKS! That's what it's all about! GAMEPLAY: A simple action platformer with one other game mode that is practically a side-scrolling shmup, that's it. You control a penguin armed with a shotgun and you have to stop Dr Polar (I get the joke, hardy har har) before he uses his lazer to destroy Penguin City. This game's platforming engine isn't all that bad actually. I thought from the looks of the screenshot on Kliktopia that it will be the worst thing ever created, but nah. It's comfortable to play (especially when you jump, the release is so natural) and there's no actual momentum to it so your movement on land is consistent. My favorite part is when the shotgun moves up and down while in mid-air, it's so smooth and well done. Howeeever, I have some gripes too. When you bump into a platform from its side (whichever it may be) while jumping, your controls will get locked for a moment, unable to move or save yourself, and then get restored once your penguin feet touch the snowy surface, making you directly fall down. For the shooting itself, it's got about a one second delay to make it seem like you truly are using a shotgun and not a *minigun (we'll get to that later). The enemies are alright, the most common ones have the laziest movement, but they're not annoying to confront. In "Level 1: Too Cool", I found a way to get that extra life above you, it's very simple. You need to move forward, then climb onto the snowy platforms to backtrack, then jump onto the barely visible platforms leading up to the extra life (depending on whether you can see them) and there you go. It's not just the controls getting locked when bumping into a platform that makes this game a little amateurish, but also the fact you lose lives in the simplest way possible. When you collide with any harmful object or fall outside of the playarea, you get respawned back to the start of the level. And even if you get hurt again on your spawn point, you won't have short damage immunity, you'll just lose lives immediately. A simple lives decrement if you will. So that kind of sucks, but the platforming is decent enough. It's not frustrating to make good jumps, so I don't need to rip my hair out. Thanks guys. The most creative aspect of this game in my opinion is the inclusion of the password system IN ITS OWN UNIQUE WAY! It's not just "Enter the right parameters", it's "Enter the right parameters, and if they're correct, enter the portal leading to the right level". It's brilliant and wouldn't want it any other way. Yes, they also could've just made autosaves, but this ain't so bad as long as you can write down the passwords somewhere. I did it on my phone using Notes because I'm lazy with pen and paper nowadays, so I have them all (even that very special one, wink wink). This is pure evidence that I went through the whole game myself without breaking the game apart, because levels like 3, 5 and the helicopter one (which is the side-scrolling shooter I mentioned earlier) don't have any way to be accessed other than beating their lead-up levels which CAN be accessed via provided passwords. The first boss is alright, I don't really think it's THAT hard to avoid the falling projectiles as well as his horizontal shooting ones, but then it can sometimes feel like bullet hell when it gets trickier to dodge. On the topic of falling objects, there's a level that has falling boulders, and my first impressions where that they hurt you, but turns out they exist for a dramatic effect and can't do anything to you. Only the static enemies that can aim well, as well as the ghosts on the second half of the level before entering the helicopter. The water level is [very loud drum roll] not infuriating in the slightest, and you'll see why. You just keep whacking the jump button so Paul can slightly swim upward, since you're falling slowly the whole time underwater. It's no actual physics, yes, but it's not unfair either. You can dodge the obstacles which are in your way, so that's alright. The final boss is not that bad but sometimes becomes really stupid. So basically how it works is you have to grab the gray bullet slowly falling from the sky (giving you a chance to catch it) that also falls at a time because it's the only real way to hurt the Grim Reaper, not with your shotgun bullets sadly. The sfx when you hurt him is pretty good, but you can just hear the sound limitation not letting the shooting sfx finish properly and instead interrupting it (like having a conversation!), because this version of ClickTeam which is The Games Factory can't play multiple samples at the same time, or at least the author(s) didn't enable playing more than one sample at the same time. Big sad... I noticed that the final boss of this demo only initiates the shooting when you hurt him a certain amount of times, maybe when you drain a quarter of his HP. It's pretty good, kind of like they gave it a slightly harder phase so it's not too easy. The first one being that he only chases you slowly while you're jumping on platforms, and the other being the first but also giving it projectiles as an addition. Now for the secret secret password I can only say that it gives you a cheat that lets you shoot rapidly by holding down the shoot button like a *minigun, but I won't say how the password goes, since anybody reading this could easily beat the game in a matter of seconds! I think not spoiling it here is a good idea, play it fair and square first and then once you beat the game, you can do however you please. One more thing I noticed that really makes me happy about this game's logic is the platforms. When you jump under them, you go through them and then land on them. Now THAT is pretty nice. No sticky collision there whatsoever. So a 9 out of 10 would be okay. I don't like controls getting locked in games, or accidental softlocks in general, I like having freedom to move my character however I want, as long as the devs make it possible. GRAPHICS: I don't know about this one, I'm not impressed with the graphics as much as I am with the rest. My best guess is the bigger focus here was on the functionality and not the looks, because it if were the opposite, then the game WOULDN'T be so playable, right!?!? Well, I can appreciate the klik feel to them, but nothing too special. I do like some of the animations, like the purple portal one and the checkpoint flag one, but nothing else is that visually outstanding. Sadly I will have to give it a 6 out of 10, because it's whatever. Graphics for the sake of existing. SOUND/MUSIC: Doesn't feel like the sfxs that basic honestly. Some of them are, but not all. As I said for the GAMEPLAY, I like the sfx when you hurt the final boss, it's pretty fitting for a vile creature. I like when you fall down and lose a life, the screaming sfx. It's very good and dramatic, even though I probably might've heard it before. Music? Ohhhhh boy, I have some favorite ones. Those being the title screen MIDI which is The Demon's Dead from DOOM II, Ice Cap Zone (Act 1) from Sonic 3, The Final Fight from Sonic 3D Blast (yep, another Sonic game), Boss Battle from Final Fantasy X, Forest Temple from Final Fantasy VII, Password Input from Super Castlevania IV, Kuja's Theme from Final Fantasy IX and Seymour's Ambition from Final Fantasy X. Those that I haven't mentioned are whatever to me, but this is my loooooong way of saying "Me very like the majority of the soundtrack"! An 8 out of 10, because most of the time the soundtrack is playing safe with Nobuo Uematsu's work and the sfxs can become a little old listening to them, but not painfully old. LASTABILITY: It's a demo, what do you want me to say? It's 7 levels big, plus a final boss which I've talked about. I guess a 9 out of 10 can suffice since it's not complete. Sorry for not saying much about this, I just think a demo can't be judged the same as the full game, since demo is short for 'demonstration', right? So it just demonstrates the work made so far for the sake of feedback. OVERALL: It's going to be an 8 out of 10. I wasn't thinking it would be this decent, but here I am breaking all possible prejudice with niche games once again! I love when people turn anyone into a badass hero, it's a miracle seeing someone with more confidence than usual.
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