Castlevania: Sonata in Red (2007)
by Hardle . (Download)
plays fine on both Wine and Vbox on Linux
Castlevania SiR is a magnificent rendition of a Castlvania game (of the SotN-kind) as an old-school jRPG. It sports the same addictive gameplay as it’s 2d-cousins, the-one-more-room-and-then-I-stop-playing syndrome that makes you play until night has fallen and sleep deprivation set in. But what fun. There’s the ingenious level design (the game has around 21 levels) that isn’t fulled by a linear succession of different areas, but by a complex maze of interwoven areas. This is combined with a level-up-system that forces you to explore, since you can only level-up once in each area, after you’ve beaten a certain number of enemies.
While fighting (in short: grinding) is very much essential to the game, without it you won’t get the strength to beat the many bosses, there are no random battles that are part of so many jRPGs and can be quite annoying. You see enemies wander around and can confront them (or not) at will.
Another lovely aspect of the game are the countless secrets, for example there’s a boss rush mode whose final boss is much harder to beat than the final boss of the game. There are certain passages under water, for which you need an item to dive indefinitely. The sub-weapons you can collect and other stuff. Backtracking areas you’ve already traversed is essential to find everything, but that’s made easier by a teleport system. Another well done aspect, the story, is told in small pieces here and there and fits neatly with the whole Castlevania-canon of the official games.
All in all, an excellent game that perfectly captures the atmosphere of Castlevania games. Heartily recommended.
Rating: 5/5
Barbie Seahorse Adventures (2007)
by imitation pickles . (Download)
playable on Ubuntu via Python: python run_game.py
Since my recent move to Ubunutu I’m searching for some good freeware games for that system, but so far my search wasn’t that successful. I knew that when it comes to commercial games Linux-systems aren’t exactly crawling with the good stuff, but I had hoped it might be different with freeware games. Sad to say that most of the stuff you’ll find are simple arcade clones. One - maybe the major - reason is that Linux-systems seem to miss good game creation tools like RPGMaker, GameMaker, AdventureGameStudio and all the others, that have created a wealth of freeware games on Win-systems. But enough about that, I wanted to talk about Barbie Seahorse Adventures, which is platformer game playable on Ubuntu using Python.
First the good stuff. I really loved the style and graphics, reminds me of some good platformers I played in the past on my old, battered SNES. The controls themselves are also well done, making it easy to move around with precision.
Now the bad stuff, which also reminds me of some platformers of my console days and these are not good memories. I absolutely hate the level design. Most of the time while playing I was trying to figure out whether I could go a certain direction safely or whether I would plunge to my doom. Games with such a level design need a certain Trial and Error method to advance: Can I go there? I can’t see whether that’s the right way. Lets jump. Oh noes, killed. Maybe that direction. Arghh. No, that wasn’t good too. Ahh, he wanted me to go that direction. Repeat ad nauseam. That’s not funny and not a good way to design levels. But yeah, the art is nice.
Rating: 2/5
An Untitled Story (2007)
by Helix Games . (Download, Solution)
tried to play it on VirtualBox with a WinXP installation, didn’t work out, had to play it during Easter holiday on my sister’s WinXP-system
As difficulty goes, this one is slightly easier than the Jumper games. If you played those, you’ll know that this doesn’t mean much. Even on the easiest setting AUS will prove unbeatable for most beginners and the highest difficulty setting will chew up most pros as well. I haven’t beaten it yet, still searching for two more gold orbs. Since I haven’t finished Cloudrun and the Nightwalk yet, I have an idea where they might be, but I’m not actually sure I want to play on. Like I said, it can be really hard. At first I thought The Curtain unbeatable, with some annoying ghosts following me while I tried to make some difficile jumps, but when I actually met the Ninja at the top and stopped him, I thought nothing could be worse. My error. Helix games can always get worse.
So far I haven’t talked much about the game itself, which is a typical Metrovania-type of game, which emphasizes exploring and getting new abilities to enter new areas. Unlike most games of this type, it’s hard as hell, but unlike the Jumper games (which aren’t Metrovania games, but were made by the same guy) I thought it was much more addictive and actually made me want to finish it (well, unlike right now, I’m not sure I want to finish it anymore, having seen some of the difficult parts of Nightwalk). The graphical style is completely different than that of the Jumper series. Where Jumper was all straight lines, here everything is twisting and the landscape looks much more natural. The music is well done, as it was in the Jumper games. What I really like about the game are the inventive boss encounters. There’s a wide variety of bosses and beating them (hard as hell again) is as much about good skills as it is about finding out how to beat them.
Despite the difficulty, this one is even better than the Jumper games. Excellent game.
Rating: 5/5
Retro (2005)
by Cactus . (Download)
Retro is an Asteroids-clone where you control your spaceship via mouse. Like Insect Invade 2 this is something to play in between, when you’ll have two or three minutes free time. As far as Asteroid-clones go it doesn’t offer much more than just the basic concept, but the bare bones graphics, which still exhibit their very own style, and the fast action makes this one fun to play. And the music is excellent. That tune really enhances the gameplay experience.
Rating: 4/5
Insect Invade 2 (2005)
by Cactus . (Download)
The simplest things can sometimes be a source of great joy. Which is odd when you’ll talk about a game sporting a random naked guy shooting at strange creatures falling out of the sky. Sometimes they leave (after you killed them) more powerful weapons or other items behind, which allow you to kill the falling creatures even better. This is not a very complex or deep game, but as I said, it’s surprisingly entertaining for those few minutes when you need something to occupy your time.
Rating: 4/5
I Wanna Be The Guy (2007)
by Kayin . (Download, Playthrough by BikdipOnABus: 1 2 3 4 Final)
If Jumper is something of a standard for insanely hard but still fair platformer games, then IWBTG is the same for unfair platformer games. What do I mean with unfair? Unfair means it’s not obvious from looking at a screen what’ll kill you. Yet, unlike other games, in IWBTG it’s not because of bad game design, it’s part of the design. IWBTG is made to punish you. I can imagine the creator sitting before his computer designing these levels with a mean grin on his face. It’s sadistic, but strangely also very entertaining at the same time. If you know your gaming history, you’ll have many nostalgic flashbacks, for example incorporating Tetris or Arkanoid (or Breakout if you’re even older) in a platformer strikes me as a touch of genius. Or the boss sprites. Still, this game is hard, first you’ll have to learn every screen like a memory game, then you’ll have to jump precisely and well. Or you can watch the playthroughs on YouTube.
(if you want to see something funny, here is the final played by cloud9745, who has also made a very lengthy, but also very entertaining playthrough of IWBTG, his final shows the discussion between your character and the final boss)
Rating: 4/5
Jumper Two (2004)
by Helix Games . (Download, Playthrough by Hydra92: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Final Secrets)
Second Jumper game. This one is as hard and difficult as the first one. Ogmo is back, a little red cube thingy, whose main purpose is to jump his way through countless (insanely hard) levels. In contrast to the first game there’s more to do this time, you can collect colored items to unlock some secrets. Despite being very hard, the game never becomes unfair, all you have to do is control your character flawlessly (which, I admit, is easier said than done). Still, it’s quite addictive and you’ll find yourself coming back to it, despite dying again and again at the same annoying spike.
(and watch the playthrough, that’s some awesome skillz, that guy makes it look like a walk in the park, color me very impressed)
Rating: 4/5
Flywrench (2007)
by Messhof . (Download, Trailer)
You play (or rather control) a short line (a rather abstract identifier for some spaceship thingy) that can change color by executing a certain action (fly up, fall down, spin around). This is needed to get past color coded barriers. Only if you have the same color as the barrier you can pass, otherwise you’ll die. There are eight levels, each is increasingly harder to beat, each introducing new gameplay elements.
Flywrench can easily become frustrating, especially because the gameplay is so addictive that you’ll play the level where you are stuck presently again and again until you’ve beaten it. Reminds me a bit of the Jumper series, not the gameplay, but the difficulty. The game is never unfair, everything you need to beat a level is right before your eyes, you just have to control your flywrench perfectly (which is not very easy to do, the controls are extremely sensitive, the only counterpoint to a well done game).
Despite having rather minimalistic graphics, everything looks very well done and very stylish. I even like the atonal soundscape. Overall, neat game.
Rating: 4/5
Space Barnacle (2007)
by Doomlaser . (Download, Trailer)
This is one of these exploration platformer (often called Metrovania) where you ran around and collect upgrades that allow you to enter new areas. Excellent graphics that remind you of old games of similar ilk, especially Metroid, well done controls, everything could be perfect. There’s just one flaw. It’s has lots and lots of abysses where you can fall to your doom. Which, in an exploration platformer, is IMHO a deadly sin. Worse, the level layout doesn’t make it obvious whether there’s an abyss ahead or not and even looking down (by pressing down) doesn’t help much in these cases. There’s a reason most of those type of games use abysses never or very rarely, since exploration means plunging ahead into the unknown. When this is far too often followed by plunging to your death, this transforms the gameplay from fun exploration to annoyed frustration.
Rating: 3/5
EverEternal WinterWorld (2007)
by SilverNova / Ben . (Download)
A not very long but very well done platformer. You get four weapons over the course of the game and can upgrade them by killing enemies (reminds me of Cave Story). The plot is completely negligible and momentarily actually detracts from the fun, but the excellent controls and the well done level design makes this one fun to play. Untypical for the style of the game (which is more cute than realistic) is the blood that you leave behind after slaying enemy sprites, which made it at times out of sync with its own style. And I wished there had been more variations on the theme, not just winter. Still, a decent game that is fun to play.
Rating: 4/5
