CHRIS:
Certainly a technically impressive entry from Bibin, but Cavern Tale failed to make me excited, primarily down to the fairly mediocre level design. The premise is good actually - you control a little man, who, armed with a flamethrower (to melt ice obstacles), must save a man and his dog and return them to the exit flag to complete the stage. The flamethrower, although it can blast through ice and kill enemies, also serves another purpose - as a makeshift jet-pack, used to help you get to higher ground. The issue I have is that some of the levels are simply quite bad, while others are pretty good. Fortunately Bibin has included a level editor in the package and it seems to work quite well. Technical brilliance aside however, Cavern Tale simply didn't raise my eyebrows - but certainly it's a good effort.

FLAVA:
This game basically consists of created levels which you can choose to play in any particular order. You're given a list of different levels and the aim of the game is basically to gain a hi-score on all the levels. Your score basically consists of how quickly you complete a level. The game was simple in that you had to collect the dog and a person, and then get to the flag. I liked the use of the torch to fly up to high places too. As a game itself, it's fun for a few minutes but there isn't really any final goal and I wasn't really motivated to try and beat my own high-score. Overall the game is well built - the engine is great, the graphics are good but I think the game would have been better if you had to complete a level to progress. The music was also a nice touch, as was the level editor.

ASSAULT ANDY:
This game was pretty fun to play. The graphics were all very neat. I really liked the way that the ENTIRE game had a constant theme throughout it (take note, other developers/competitors). The whole game had a nice retro feel to it which was evident through the graphic style (all that pixelated stuff), the transitions, the menu styles (check the options) and the sound effects. So well done on that. The game however does get tedious after a while. I think if the author tweaked a few of the game elements he could develop this into a killer game. One thing that would be interesting would be a minimap. Some of the levels you just don't know where to start or where to go (However I assume that is also the intention of the gameplay style - being explorative.) Another thing that would be useful to keep the player interested for longer would be pickups. Even just simple coins that make the player happy when they collect them would add to the game enormously. Powerups would be good too, such as double speed or super fire power, etc. The scoring system needs tweaking to make it worth while. At present the counter simply goes up as the level is played out. I think that if this game had an online highscore system, because then the points would actually matter. Seeing if you could beat other player's times would give you a real rush. Another thing is the invulnerability. You can't seem to die in this game (correct me if I'm wrong) so I think it would make sense to add extra time to that counter whenever you hit a bat or spikes. Some enemy variation would have also increased the longevity of the game. If Cavern Tale had some sort of community or place to get new levels, a few extra features and some more gameplay elements then it would surely become a killer game.