Review of 'Yellow Block' by dereklarue

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At first I didn’t like ‘Yellow Block’ very much.  It seemed like just another one of those “infinite sequence of obstacles” games, where your character runs forward and you’re tasked with jumping over things, and the jumping controls themselves seemed overly floating and exaggerated.  It was only after I looked at the clock and found the time I had allotted to play Baldur’s Gate II had mysteriously been spent on this modest little game that I realized that ‘Yellow Block’ is in fact a marvelously addictive and tightly made pick-up-and-play game.

Now, chances are you’ve played something like ‘Yellow Block’ before.  Like space shooters, tower defense games, and ‘Click the Clown’ re-skins, “infinite sequence of obstacles” games are a dime a dozen on YYG.  In ‘Yellow Block,’ you control the titular yellow block in his…err…quest to escape evil red blocks.  By jumping and hovering over them.  The game is controlled entirely by the up and down arrow keys.  Tap up to jump, hold up to hover, and press down to “ground pound.”  Evading the red blocks that populate the top and the bottom of the screen requires mastery of all three moves, and the balance between all of them is near perfection.  This is a game that, once you get the hang of it, just feels RIGHT.  Successfully hovering over a line of ground-based red blocks with some delicate teasing of the up arrow is strangely compelling, as is frantically slamming back down to earth when their ceiling-dwelling brethren threaten your well-being.  It’s a perfect example of a simple and polished concept that is far more addictive than it has any business being.  In fact, about the only bad thing you can say about ‘Yellow Block’s gameplay is that it’s so simple.  There’s not much in the way of depth or progression.

Like me, you probably know what to expect from the graphics of ‘Yellow Block’ as soon as you heard its name.  And the game does not disappoint.  It’s made up entirely of solid, brightly colored blocks (red and yellow, and some small white debris effects).  The style isn’t too unique, but it’s well-executed, and some little effects such as screen rumble and rudimentary motion blur help to spice things up.  Overall, it’s not a fantastic-looking game, but it’s not ugly either.

‘Yellow Block’s’ sound is just as polished and tight as the rest of the game, and just as simple.  A few nicely done blips and crunches and “boiiiings” are about all you hear, and about all you NEED to hear from such a small game.  The accompanying techno music, composed by Chris Garcia, is fitting and unobtrusive, and I like how much credit is given to the composer (including a link to his site).

Overall, this is a marvelous little pick-up-and-play game that may not overwhelm you with its depth, but certainly knows how to entertain.  On the “game over” screen, there’s a button you can press to donate money to the game’s creator, Derek LaRue.  Normally, I find this sort of thing to be a fairly crass attempt to gain some unearned cash.  But in this case, I think that Mr. LaRue has created a fine little product, and has earned whatever donations he gets.  I personally did not donate any money, partially (read: completely) because I don’t have any to donate, but I think that if you have a few extra bucks floating around in your bank account, you could certainly give it to less deserving people.  I give Yellow Block a 4/5.             

P.S Derek, that donation button isn’t a bad idea at all, btw…

*puts on list of things to add to next Nurf Nerfus game*

Review of 'Killer Ship' by martan92

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It’s been a few weeks now, and I still don’t know what to say about Killer Ship.  I mean… in terms of polish and professionalism, you don’t get much better than this.  This game just DEMANDS to be respected, and leaves even great games like Strikers and Kaos seeming amateurish and rough compared with its slick presentation and design.  However…the gameplay… I don’t know.   On the surface, the gameplay also appears nearly flawless.  But it’s…well, kinda stale.  I’m not sure why, and I can’t point to any specific ways in which it fails, but somehow it doesn’t end up being nearly as fun as either of the previously-mentioned titles, and nowhere near addicting enough to encourage the kind of lengthy play that its unlockables and achievements suggest.

                  So, speaking of gameplay...err…let’s talk about the gameplay! (see, it’s those sort of smooth, subtle transitions that separate good critics from godly ones).  Killer Ship is, at its heart, a mob-based space shooter (albeit one that appears to take place on white graph paper) with unlockable upgrades and weapons to spice things up.  Although that’s not anything too terribly unique, Killer Ship does manage to set itself apart from other games of its type with its magnificent and highly unusual control scheme.  You see, in most contemporary space shooters, you control your ship with some variation of the famous “wads” layout, as made popular by first person shooters.  I.e, use the w,s,a, and d keys to move your ship, and use the mouse to aim and shoot.  It’s a tried-and-true system that nearly always works.  Killer Ship, however, utilizes a mouse-only scheme that on paper sounds like a recipe for absolute disaster, but in practice works marvelously.  You move the mouse to move your ship around, and the computer takes care of aiming, automatically targeting the nearest enemy ship.  As I said, it sounds awful, but trust me—it’s not.  Unfortunately, that’s about the only unreserved praise I can give for Killer Ship’s gameplay, because nothing else about it feels particularly unique or special.  There aren’t many different types of enemies, upgrades take a long time to unlock and provide little payoff, “special” weapons feel borderline useless, and the scoring/combo system feels arbitrary and inexact.  Like with Void Disturbance, Killer Ship’s gameplay is solid but ultimately pretty forgettable.

                  So let’s not talk about its gameplay anymore.  Let’s talk about its other aspects, all of which are magnificent.  Graphics, for instance (see, there’s another one of those brilliant transitions!).  At first glance, Killer Ship doesn’t look like anything special.  Just another game with a quirky art style to hide the designer’s artistic failings (at least, that’s why I always use quirky art styles in my games!).  It’s only upon further examination that you realize just how detailed and sophisticated the game’s visuals are.  I’ve always spent an inordinate amount of time on my graphical effects (my current project, the next ‘Nurf Nerfus’ game, has 9 different types of smoke, 4 kinds of screen rumble, and upwards of 50 types of debris, among other things), and Killer Ship is the first GMK game I’ve seen that shows a comparable amount of attention in this area.  At any given in-game moment you’ll see tight screen rumble (unlike the more loose “shake” in Kaos), motion blur, environmental scorching, shield bloom effects, hyperactive animated “score” announcements, fantastic particle explosions, and more.  Style-wise, Killer Ship takes the IMac “white and clinical” approach, consisting mostly of smooth, monochromatic outlines.  And it works well, lending the game a “scrawled in a bored highschooler’s notebook” feel.  If there’s one bad thing that could be said, visually speaking, it’s that sometimes Killer Ship looks a little TOO simplistic.  The game features only one enemy design, and little in the way of color variety beyond white and black.  More often than not you won’t notice, but it can seem a little bleak and bland compared to other more visually lush titles. 

                  The sound in Killer Ship is just as wonderfully done as the visuals.  There’s not too many sound effects, but they’re all just perfect, from the satisfyingly weak “pop” of your bullets to the juicy, explosive “squelch” of enemy deaths.  Nothing sounds engineered or “synthy,” and some sounds have hints of the human voice to them, which adds to the feeling that Killer Ship takes place on the pages of someone’s chemistry notes.  The musical track is a little less driving and a little more tense than we’re used to for this sort of game, but it fits well, and sounds very professional.  The icing on the cake of Killer Ships presentation.

                  Overall, Killer Ship is very much like Void Disturbance.  It’s got a lot of shine and glaze heaped onto some fairly uninspired gameplay.  What sets it apart is the sheer quality of the shine and glaze.  Its fantastic presentation and professional polish do a lot to make Killer Ship an attractive title, even if its gameplay isn’t quite as striking.  I give it a 4/5 

Review of 'Void Disturbance' by DXsmiley

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Space may be the final frontier in the real world, but here at yoyogames it's a veritable Las Vegas--albeit one with copious explosions and death (so in other words, exactly the same).  That is to say, there are a lot of space shooters on YYG.  And for all intents and purposes, Void Disturbance is basically a space shooter.  It may not take place in space (in fact, I don’t think there’s any way of telling where it DOES take place, outside of consuming dangerous amounts of LSD), but its mechanics and gameplay style are pulled right from the final frontier.

So… on that note, let’s discuss its mechanics and gameplay style.  They’re…err…pulled right from the final frontier.  You pilot a big green circle that shoots deadly yellow ovals at various red shapes, all of which are intent on killing you.  Like Asteroids, Void Disturbance takes place on a single wrap-around screen, which I suppose was meant to lend the game feeling of claustrophobia and tension, but in reality it just makes it feel uncontrollable and frustrating.  Too often you’ll fly off one side of the screen and find that a mass of enemies was waiting on the other side.  There’s really no dodging to be done, either, as enemy mobs become too thick to avoid by the third or fourth wave.  Spraying and praying and utilizing your shield are far more important than reflexes.  For the most part, though, the game is well-designed, featuring online high scores, weapon upgrades, and a slew of different game options.  And although I found the gameplay to be a little underwhelming, it can be entertaining in short bursts.

On the other side of things, the graphics are FAR from underwhelming.  In fact, they are borderline OVERwhelming.  There’s just so much stuff going on visually that the game.  The background alone is enough to cause seizures, and add in copious amounts of “spraying” effects that accompany your ship, explosive enemy deaths, and some foes that can fill up nearly a 4^th of the screen and the game most certainly deserves an epilepsy warning (which it actually has).  Void Disturbance certainly has style, but the sheer flashiness of the visuals can get in the way of functionality.  It can be difficult to make sense of all the insanity that’s going on onscreen.  That being said, it really is a very good-looking game once you get used to it.

The sound for Void Disturbance is pretty good.  Unlike the visuals, there’s a certain amount of reservation in the sound effects—only explosions for enemy deaths and your own death—and the music is appropriate, although I myself take some issue with some of it (the music for “Extreme Mode” in particular keeps pausing for a strange “piano solo,” which keeps it from ever reaching the sense of driving adrenaline that a game such as this requires).  It’s not quite at the level of, say, Strikers, but it’s good nevertheless.

Overall, Void Disturbance is a lot like caffeine: it lacks substance, but it’s good for a quick jolt.  It doesn’t have the gameplay chops to merit a 5/5, but it’s a fairly polished and professional-looking title.  I probably won’t be playing more after this review, but it’s a good choice for those who are just looking for a flashy, chaotic shoot-em-up experience.  I give it a 4/5.

Review of '8 Bit Rampage' by Guimby

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What can be said about Super Mario Brothers?  It’s possibly the single most influential videogame that has ever been made, serving as the inspiration for countless developers, many of whom created behemoth classics in their own right.  The private game development community has long emulated (and copied) Mario as well.  The simplicity of its mechanics yet perfection in its design provide a tantalizingly reachable goal.  8 Bit Rampage is one such game, but not in the sense that it copies SMB’s mechanics, or gameplay, or philosophy.  Rather, 8 Bit Rampage explores an interesting concept: super-glue Mario to the ground and arm him with military-grade firearms.  In other words, it’s one of those “turret” games, but set in the Mario universe (read: LSD land).  And it works well enough.

So…gameplay.  Like I just said, it’s a turret game.  So enemies mob toward you, and you have to fend them off with copious amounts of ammunition.  Timing your reloads and prioritizing foes is immediately necessary to survive,  though, so spraying and praying is NOT an option.  There are a good number of weapons available to buy at the end of levels (using coins earned from killing foes), and the ability to do some modest upgrades to things like fire speed and clip size.  Or, you could use the same money to make repairs to your tower, which will inevitably be damaged from the many Goombas and Turtles you are mobbed by.  So it’s a solid enough game, with some meat to it.  But unfortunately, it isn’t terribly engaging.  8 Bit Rampage lacks that addictive, great feel that a good arcade game needs.  Shooting feels bland, the difficulty curve causes frustration more often than determination, and…well, there’s not really anything here that you haven’t seen before.  It’s a solid, fairly well-made game, but it’s not very memorable.

Graphically, 8 Bit Rampage consists almost entirely of sprites/animation ripped out of SMB (I assume that most of it is from an emulated screenshot, but I could be wrong).  And this is entirely appropriate, considering the game’s subject matter.  Unfortunately, Guimby’s own additions less than impressive.  The gun sprite in Mario’s hand rotates to point where you’re aiming, but it isn’t centered properly, and looks rather odd considering the rest of Mario remains standing perfectly still.  Bullets are little black dots, which is fine, but the same sprite is also used for your crosshair, which makes aiming feel a little inexact, especially when black parts of the background “eat” your cursor.  Overall, neither of these issues are too severe, but they do lend 8 Bit Rampage an unpolished feel.

The Sound is actually pretty darn good, combining classic Mario music and sound effects with good-quality gunshots and reloading sounds.  All the music is well implemented too, with an eye for fan service (for instance, the Mario “win” theme plays in the upgrade screen).  I would say that 8 Bit Rampage’s sound is easily its strongest asset.

Overall, 8 Bit Rampage is a solid effort, with some nice sounds and a nifty concept, but it lacks…something.  It’s not a bad game at all, but it is a rather bland one.  Enjoyable for a few minutes for its concept, but not very hooking in the long run.  However, if you’re a fan of Mario, or you enjoy games of this type, you could do worse.  I give it a 3/5

Review of 'Strikers' by Daggerhog

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Usually, I make a point of finishing the games I review, in order to be as fair as possible with my critique (or my praise).  But with Strikers, it was an achievement even to finish the first level.  It took me literally weeks (albeit, not nonstop) to master the finely tuned dodging skills and multitasking that the game requires to survive the hordes of enemies and  projectiles it throws at you, and to learn the methodical way of collecting powerups so that I had a chance of defeating the level's boss.  Last night, after about 20 tries, I finally beat the first level.  And immediately died on the second level.  "Well, that's it," said I.  "Time to write my review."  Strikers is one of the more polished and well-made games I have played on this site, but only the most patient and dedicated of players will ever experience everything it has to offer.

Strikers is basically a throwback to the arcadey scrolling shooters of yesterday, so its gameplay really isn't anything unique.  The screen advances as you shoot enemies and dodge shots with your ship.  You can collect various powerups along the way.  It sounds basic and boring, but the sheer level of polish the game exhibits combined with a sprinkling of original, highly fitting ideas makes Strikers so good a knockoff that I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't playing an emulated version of some forgotten arcade or NES classic.  Strikers perfectly channels just about everything that we love about classic games of its type: The zen-like feeling, the hidden depth, the simple entertainment of garnering points and earning powerups, and most of all the addictive quality.  If you can get past Striker's biting difficulty curve, you'll find that there's a lot to fall in love with.

Striker's graphics are just as magnificent as its gameplay, in just the same ways.  Daggerhog's sprites look great, his animation looks great, and the way everything fits together looks great.  But it's the game's sense of style that really shines.  Like the gameplay, Striker's art could have easily been pulled straight from gaming's golden days (setting aside the fact that one enemy is a giant IPod).  Even little details like the color choices for the menu or the number of frames of animation used perfectly capture this style.  Flashy-looking games like Kaos are certainly impressive, but there's something to be said for the reserved, subtle mastery that Striker's visuals exhibit.

So... guess what the sound and music are reminiscent of?  Yep.  Same exact deal here.  Everything that should have a sound effect has one, and they all sound perfectly retro.  There are a good number of musical tracks that change depending on whether you have powerups or not, and all of these are great as well.  And yes...very retro.   

But if there's a single complaint you can level at Strikers, it's that the game is almost ridiculously difficult.  I mean, you preferably want the first few levels of your game to ease new players in and get them hooked.  THEN you can start piling the difficulty on.  You don't want to be stomping on them from the get-go--especially on a free games site such as this--because most people will just give up.  Strikers isn't an unfair game.  Your deaths are 99.9% of the time the result of ineptitude on your part.  But it requires a good deal of skill to make any progress at all, and a good deal of replays and grinding to acquire that skill.

Overall, Strikers is a wonderful title that is only marred by its lack of forgiveness.  If you're patient and willing to put some time into the game, you'll find that it's a title you can really dig your teeth into.  But sadly, I don't see the majority of YYG players doing this.  And it's really their loss.  I give Strikers a 5/5.

Review of 'Ether' by TheEther

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Why why WHY do people have to put commercial bands' music in their games???  I know this probably doesn't bother anyone else, but it's one of my biggest pet peeves.  Seriously, it's just like starting up an FPS and finding that all the graphics and sounds have been ripped from Doom.  Well, ok, maybe not EXACTLY like... but similar.  Actually, to be honest, ripping graphics from Doom doesn't even annoy me as much as this... sorry, what were we talking about?  Oh yeah... Ether.  A game about...something...that you guide through...somewhere...because...aww, screw it.  Who cares what it's about.  It's fun.

So gameplay basically consists of one long 3d tunnel filled with various randomly-generated hazards (such as spinning blades, spikes, and wooden blocks).  Your character runs down the tunnel, and you dodge the hazards.  Different powerups help to spice things up, but chances are you've played something like Ether before.  Still, it does a good job with its solid execution, and you'll find that it can ber quite addictive if you give it a chance.  Furthermore, Ether features a splitscreen multiplayer mode, which is very well-done.  I doubt anyone is going to bother tearing themselves away from Call of Duty or Halo long enough to give it a try, but if you do I think you and a friend will enjoy yourselves.

As I already mentioned, Ether is a 3d game, so it's already got graphics points for that.  And this is definitely no tutorial re-skin.  The 3d looks good, and most if not all of the objects (besides your character) are true 3d, not sprites--at least as far as I can tell.  The animation and textures look great as well.
Now... the sound (dun dun DUUUUUUN).  There is no sound.  No sound EFFECTS, that is.  Ether DOES have music... and the best part about it is that you can turn it off.  Look, I'm not saying anything against whatever band wrote those two songs, or anything like that... I just really REALLY hate when developers use commercial tracks in their games--ESPECIALLY commercial tracks with lyrics.  And in this case, the angsty lyrics you hear in Ether don't fit the game's lighthearted, cartoony tone at all. 

But apart from that, Ether is a wonderful little game that plays nice and looks nice.  I most definitely recommend it to anyone who wants some addictive fun either alone or with a friend.  I give Ether a 4/5.   
 

Review of 'Flyspray' by Advanced Electronic Games

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I've been trying to think up one word to accurately describe Flyspray, the the best I can come up with is "Dopey."  It's a dopey game.  But it's also the sort of game that makes me smile.  It's flawed in just about every possible way, but it's so endearingly flawed that it's very nearly magnificent.  And I don't mean this in a cynical "ha ha this game is so bad that you have to laugh at it" way.  Flyspray is like that affectionate old dog your cousin has that keeps chewing up furniture and peeing on the carpet.  It's bad, but you can't help but love it anyway.  

I'm not entirely sure how to categorize Flyspray's gameplay.  I guess it's sort of a minigame collection, although there are only about 5 "minigames," 4 of which are nearly identical.  Basically, there's a mode where you defend your restaurant from incoming flies using a can of flyspray or a flyswatter, and mode where you defend your restaurant from incoming flies using high-tech deployable turrets--overkill, maybe, but pretty awesome nonetheless.  The flyspray/flyswatter mode isn't really all that impressive: flies swarm towards an open door on the left side of the screen and you have to spray/swat them before they get inside.  Once all the flies are dead, you progress to the next "level."  It's moderately challenging and entertaining for about a minute or so, but it's nothing that's going to keep you playing for days to come.  The turret mode would fare a little better--it's just a generic but playable tower defense game--save that it's way WAY too easy.  Like, easy to the point where I literally placed a few towers, and went off to play Quake for about five minutes.  When I came back, nothing had managed to get past my defenses.  I actually stayed up late seeing how far I could get without dying, and I got up to something like 500 flies killed before I gave up and went to bed.  If you want to crush your enemies with ease, this is the mode for you, but those looking for a challenge should seek elsewhere.

Graphics are...meh.  They're functional.  The Flyspraying animation looks pretty good, but everything else is just your basic MSPaint images without any real sense of style or consistency.  And there are some noticeable "chinks."  For instance, there's no sort of swatting animation for the flyswatter, or even an accompanying sound effect, and in tower defense mode flies stay facing the same direction no matter which way they're walk...err...flying.

Sound effects are also pretty sparse, although there's nothing terribly wrong with what's there.  There's a "swooshing" noise for the flyspray can and a few lazer blasts for the deployable turrets.  And considering how many fantastic YYG games I've played that didn't bother adding sound effects, it's nice that Advanced Electronic Games did even the little bit he did.  Now the music...ahh, the music.  There's no way to describe the music except to say that it is absolutely sublime for all the wrong reasons.  Now as a composer myself, I know how deceptively difficult it can be to create your own musical tracks, especially using the midi keyboard improvisational technique that Advanced Electronic Games was obviously using.  And...well, let's just say that Flyspray's music exhibits the toll of this difficulty.

But now here's the catch.  I love Flyspray.  I really do.  I mean, it's just about the most flawed YYG game I've yet played, and probably deserves a low score and a dismissive review...but it's got so much enthusiasm and almost naive joy behind it that it's literally impossible to hate.  Flyspray is like a crusty old man with a fiddle, sawing out "Orange Blossom Special" and "Cripple Creek" at a breakneck pace.  Sure, his intonation may be horrible and he may have no sense of musicality, phrasing, dynamics, or anything like that...but to apply that sort of criticism would be to completely miss the point.  It's the same way with Flyspray.  So, despite my better judgement, I'm giving it a 3/5.

Review of 'Kaos' by commander of games

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On yoyogames.com there are games that I appreciate, games that I enjoy, and a few games that fill me with jealousy.  Kaos is one of those games, because I would dearly love to have been the one to make it.  Alas, it was not I that created such brilliance.  It was the egotistically-named developer commander of games.  But Kaos is also a game that fills me with frustration.  Not because it's hard, but because it could be something close to shoot-em-up perfection, if not for some niggling balancing issues that stifle its incredible potential.

First of all, Kaos is a feast for the eyes.  Its minimalist artstyle is well executed and well thought out, and the various explosions, halos, and glow effects are all top-of-the-line.  There's even optional "motion blur" (although it has hardly any effect).  Even the game's menus look great, albeit a little hard to read due to text glow (the game does allow you to disable text glow by pressing the 'g' key, but it makes the menus a lot less pretty).  There are a few small issues I have with the visuals--for instance, the rumble effect that accompanies explosions is a little sluggish and looses its impact as a result--but overall Kaos is one of the better-looking GM games out there.

Of course, what good are amazing graphics without killer gameplay ot back them up?  Luckily, Kaos is an absolute blast.  Not only do you have polished arcadey action, fantastic precise controls, and tons of creative enemies that are all fun to blow up, but you also have a fully fledged upgrade system, which lets you augment your puny little ship with increased speed and armor, better firepower, and even an auto-targeting machinegun turret.  But herein lies the one major flaw with Kaos:  it isn't a very well-balanced game.  You see, once you've maxed out every upgrade (which can be done quite quickly and easily), it's nearly impossible to lose.  Enemies spawn in far to infrequently, even when playing on the "extra hard" Frenzy mode.  After about 5 minutes, the game turns into an extended session of "wait for an enemy to spawn, kill said enemy, rinse and repeat."  It's really quite silly that a game of this caliber is dragged down by so simple a thing, and I earnestly hope that commander of games fixes this issue soon.  Because it's the only thing keeping this game from earning my complete unreserved praise.

Well, that and its lack of sound effects.  Kaos doesn't even feature as much as a blip or boop when you fire, and having some quality sound to accompany the quality visuals would just be the cake on the icing.  Musically, Kaos has one (and only one) phenomenal techno track which perfectly fits the game, and does a great job of "pumping you up."

All in all, Kaos is a magnificent arcade shooter that has the potential of being a Yoyo classic, if its issue of being too easy gets resolved.  Now, I usually don't review things based on the slippery slope of "potential" (which is why I'm wary of WIP games).  I mean, most of the games I've played have the potential to be great, if the developer ends up fixing all the issues after I review it.  And in its current state, Kaos is really only a 4/5, if that.  But I think I'm going to break my rule just this once, because this is not a game that is lacking.  This is a game that needs its latent potential freed.  Commander of games, you'd better start fixing your balancing issues and upload a new version.  Kaos is receiving my first 5/5.
 

Review of 'Lockdown' by Master Exploder

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When I started up this whole "reviewing games for other people" hobby, I knew I was eventually going to find myself in this situation.  Here is a game that simply oozes enthusiasm and hard work...and is ultimately borderline unplayable, and far from fun.  And as a reviewer it's my job to callously tear it to pieces, assign an appropriately unflattering score, and advise to seek your entertainment elsewhere.  The task is somewhat akin to stuffing a child's crayon drawing into a paper shredder.  And to make matters worse, the game's developer is none other than Master Exploder, the rather decent chap who recently posted some nice comments about MY game.

But let's start with the good.  As I already mentioned, Lockdown exudes the sense of unbridled enthusiasm that I love about privately developed games.  Also, kudos to Master Exploder for adding mouse control.  It's also got a nice atmosphere and some neat ideas (such as an emphasis on light as a navigation aid).  And the graphics are great (more about that later).  But the positives end when you actually sit down to play Lockdown.  Gameplay-wise, it's just a mess.  First of all, the mouse control is beyond sluggish, with no option for adjusting sensitivity.  Movement is also far too slow for the kind of dodging the game requires, and it's not at all uncommon to get caught on objects or corners for no discernible reason.  On top of that, you can't tell where you're actually aiming your weapon.  There's no reticule, and the gun sprite doesn't actually accurately show where you're aiming (something I had to find out through trial and error).  There's also no visible feedback on enemies when you shoot them, making it near impossible to figure out if you're actually hitting your target.

Graphically speaking, the game fares a little better. Its use of colored lighting is pretty impressive, and most of the sprites and textures are good quality.  However, even the graphics have some severe issues.  For instance, Lockdown is entirely too dark (at least on my monitor).  I like the feel that Exploder was going for, but there's a fine line between being dark and moody, and being dark and irritating, and this game often crosses that line to the point where some areas could be unplayable depending on your monitor settings.  A similarly noticable but much less severe graphical issue is that most if not all of the sprites were ripped from other games.  A common occurance among GM FPSs, I realize, but nonetheless an undesirable one.  But to be fair, at least Master Exploder didn't rip everything from Doom like most people do.

Sound-wise, Lockdown actually stands up reasonably well.  As you might expect, just about all the music is taken from other places (the famous 'Saw' theme makes an appearance), but it's used to good effect.  The same goes for the sound effects, which pop up for things like doors opening, ammo pickups, and monster appearances.  I don't think anything about the sound stands out, but it's solid.  And some effects are genuinely creepy.

Now... this is really the first game I have reviewed that makes any attempt at a story (although 'The Crates' had a rudimentary narrative, but it was hardly worth mention).  Now I like the direction Exploder was taking with the story, but...well, like most everything else in the game, it's botched by poor execution.  Misspellings, incomprehensible sentences, and a hard-to-understand twist at the end... It just doesn't work very well.  I applaud Exploder for putting effort into this aspect of the game, but I didn't find the final results to be convincing.

In fact, that last sentence sums up my feelings toward this game as a whole.  It should be commended for its conception, but condemned for its execution.  Despite the obvious effort and programming talent that was put into Lockdown, the result is hardly fun in any way.  I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to give it a 2/5, with hopes (and faith) that Exploder can do better next time.

Review of 'Neon Square' by the dude guy

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Neon Square is a game that, appropriately, stars a neon square, who shoots other neon squares with various types of shiny lasers (some of which are square, and neon).  It's nothing you haven't seen before, and the gameplay never really excels, but the game has a few neat ideas, and the pretty explosions are fun to look at.

The gameplay is basically exactly what you would expect.  It's a vertical shooter where different types of enemies swarm towards you from the top of the screen, and you need to destroy them to advance to the next level.  While there's technically nothing wrong with Neon Square's execution of this formula, I found it to feel a little... well, bland and flat.  Your shots hardly do any damage, so most of the time you'll be "spraying and praying" while dodging enemy projectiles (and enemies).  You also have a shield and limited "power shots," but neither of these adds that certain spark that a good arcade shooter needs.  On the other hand, I loved the different "character types" that you can choose to play as, each of which have different special weapons and sheild radiuses.

The graphics of Neon Square are great.  Sure, there aren't any detailed sprites or fancy 2d physics and lighting, or anything like that.  But it's sharp-looking and clean, and all the various particle explosions and glowing shots look quite pretty.  I don't like how your health and ammo bars are just solid black bars on the sides of the screen (I didn't even realize they were there at first), and I'm not entirely convinced that the artstyle is entirely cohesive... but I nitpick.  The game looks good.

Sound, on the other hand...well, it's competent.  Each game type is accompanied by the expected high-octane techno (some, and there are a few blips and beeps that herald bullets being fired.  Nothing terribly memorable about it, but nothing bad either.

In essence, this is a solid enough shooter with some neat visuals, but it's nothing that's going to hold your interest for a long time.  Still, all the requirements for an addictive arcadey experience are here, and you could certainly do worse.  I found it to be a little bland, but you might think differently.  I give it a 3/5.

Review of 'The Crates' by yokcos700

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Videogames and crates go together like peanut butter and jelly.  We've broken them open for supplies, thrown them at foes, stacked them to get to high areas, hidden behind them... but to my knowledge, there hasn't even been a game where you PLAY as a crate.  Until now.  'The Crates,' by yokcos700, certainly has a novel concept, but the game itself can be fairly hit-and-miss.  It's good,  but a general lack of polish combined with a frustrating difficulty curve keep it from being great.

The Crates is a platformer.  And for the most part, it's a pretty solid platformer, and it's quite obvious that yokcos700 put a lot of effort into it.  This is no tutorial re-skin or casual 2 day project.  Levels are creative and new elements and ideas appear in almost every one, and there are 2 well-thought-out arcade modes with highscore listings on top of the appropriately long "story mode."  Unfortunately, the core gameplay doesn't always end up being fun, mostly due to some minor-but-frustrating glitches and a biting difficulty curve.  For instance, the game doesn't utilize the "move to contact" feature of GM, meaning that your character will often momentarily stop a few inches above the ground before falling again.  It doesn't seem like much of a complaint, but it will often cause you to miss jumps, which makes the already taxing later levels even more difficult.  A more helpful glitch occurs on the level selection screen.  Although in theory each level appears one at a time as you progress, it's possible to get to any level in the game by clicking the empty space where its button should be.  This is an unacceptable oversite.   

The graphics in The Crates aren't terrible, but like the gameplay they have some noticeable rough spots.  For instance, there are some color issues (one level in particular features platforms that are the exact same color and pattern as the background.  A most definite no-no), "NPC crates" appear out of thin air with nary an effect or animation, and most of the sprites are pretty plain and lack a certain amount of cohesion.  Still, the game is easy enough to look at.  And your little crate character is absolutely adorable.

I really wish I knew who did the music for The Crates, because it's actually pretty darn good.  There's a lot of it, for one thing, and it's all over-the-top and fun, perfectly fitting the game's lighthearted tone.  And although the composer sometimes makes some odd musical choices (such as maintaining an interval of a major third in the melodic line even when it clashes with the harmony), the score is relatively memorable and even catchy, and these choices usually come off as quirks rather than faults.  Unfortunately, there are almost no sound effects to speak of, and what sounds there are were either ripped from other games or taken from the GM stock folder.

But here's the thing... somehow, despite all odds, The Crates just WORKS.  It's level design is consistently good, its premise is unique, its music is absolutely lovable in its cheesiness, the ridiculously contrived story has a gleeful eye for comedy, and...it's really just quite charming.  Sure, it may not be consistently fun, but it has a weird sort of draw, and despite having tons of professional games to play, I still didn't at all mind taking 10 or 15 minutes a night to experience yokcos700's quirky little platformer.  I could see this garnering some fans.  And I would probably play a sequel if one is made.  So, try The Crates out.  It may not be the best game on this site, and it can sometimes be more trouble than its worth, but its worth a look.  I give it a 4/5.  

Review of 'No Time to Give Thanks' by Benji Cook

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First of all, 'No Time to Give Thanks' is an absolutely fantastic title for a game, and Benji Cook's method of advertisement (A small moving turkey in his sig accompanied by the text "Click on the Turkey") is brilliant.  The game itself is...ok.  Apart from its moderately novel premise (a thanksgiving turkey trying to escape the wrath of...giving thanks, I guess :P) it doesn't really deliver anything you haven't seen before.  But it looks nice, and it's reasonably polished, so it's worth trying out at least.

No Time to Give Thanks follows a pretty tried-and-true formula.  You perpetually run forward at an alarming rate, and have to jump over obstacles and hazards.  Your score is based on how far you get before dying.  It's simple, but historically shown to be effective, and there's not much you can screw up.  Just don't be expecting much in the way of depth.  In general, No Time provides an appropriate, albeit sometimes uneven, challenge.  Dodging gravy pits and bear traps isn't to taxing, but avoiding the game's quick hunters and tall butcher knives can be a daunting task.  Getting more than 70 or 80 feet will take some practice.

The best feature of No Time to Give Thanks is undoubtedly its graphics.  The game looks GREAT.  No, it's not Crysis (at all), but all the sprites are crisp and professional-looking, and nothing inappropriately sticks out.  In fact, I might even say that the game looks a little TOO seamless, as obstacles in the foreground have the nasty habit of blending in with the background.  There's nothing more irritating than being cleaved in 2 by a knife that was pretending to be a tree.

There's not much sound to speak of.  Just a single musical track that plays in-game (no menu music).  Composed by Ritheguardian of Newgrounds.com, the track has a nice sunny tone, and it suits the game well.  I think that Cook should have had at least SOMETHING playing on the menu, but this is a minor complaint.  Likewise, I would have liked to hear some sound effects, but I doubt that they would have noticably enhanced the gameplay.

In overall design, No Time to Give Thanks is as simple as you would expect.  There are some easy-to-understand instructions and some short credits along with the necessary "start game" button.  The main menu itself is absolutely brilliant.  Instead of simply selecting options from a list, you move your turkey around in-game to select different menus.  It's a small feature, but it's little things like this that give a game a sense of professionalism and life.  On the downside, No Time doesn't have a highscore list, something that I would think would be all but required for a score-focused game of this type.

Overall, No Time to Give Thanks (I keep wanting to type "No Time to Lose" :P) is a simple, unassuming, lighthearted game that is modestly entertaining.  It won't be cutting into your commercial gaming time, but as a simple game to play on a school computer or laptop between classes, you could do a lot worse.

Review of 'Pling Plong' by Red Ninja Productions

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Red Ninja Productions released Pling Plong just a few days after his previous title, Greeny, but there's a world of improvements exhibited.  Greeny was a fairly solid beginner platformer that was hampered by some shoddy graphical presentation and bland gameplay.  Pling Plong is still nowhere near ledgendary greatness, but its fairly clever level designs, colorful graphics, and moderately entertaining gameplay make it a very nice timewaster.

In Pling Plong, you play a little red ball.  Like most little red balls, you tend to bounce off things, and in a world full of spikes and evil faces, that can be more of a curse than a blessing.  Luckily, you have the inexplicable ability to control your movements, and even momentarily defy gravity (aka, use arrow keys to move and the 'x' button to "brake").  For the most part, the game's bouncing and gravity physics work, and don't cause too much strife.  However, unlike Greeny, Pling Plong can be fairly difficult, and the first level is hard enough that some people might be put off of the game.  Which is a shame, because Pling Plong doesn't really hit its stride until a few levels in, where the room design actually becomes fairly clever and creative and the game ceases to be a chore.  It's also unfortunate that soon after this, it ends (with narry a finishing screen or highscore list).

Sound...well, there isn't any.  Not even any upbeat Mario re-mixes this time around.

The overall design of Pling Plong closely mirrors that of Greeny, and utilizes the same autosave function (which I never ended up using since the game is so short).  It's simple and well-thought-out.  However, unlike Greeny, there are no in-game tutorials, and only someone familiar with yoyogames would know to press the f1 key to access instructions (which are fairly hard to understand.  I assume English is not Red Ninja's first language).  

Graphically speaking, as I already mentioned, Pling Plong looks pretty good.  It's simple and colorful, but there are no Greeny-esque disappearing characters or strange color choices.  It's clean, easy to look at, and functional.  Props to Red Ninja for fixing one of the problems with his first game.  The quality of the sprites themselves could, of course, be improved, but we can't all be great artists.  And Pling Plong succeeds with its visuals, because they never interfere with the gameplay.

Overall, Pling Plong is a noticeable improvement on Greeny.  It's still not an amazing game, but it's fun, and sparks of creativity in the level design make me think that Red Ninja has potential.  However, Pling Plong is still short of 4 stars, and since yoyogames doesn't allow decimals in its ratings, I'm forced to give it the same score I gave Greeny: 3/5

Review of 'Greeny' by Red Ninja Productions

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The platformer is to Gamemaker what the "hello world" program is to other languages.  Ok, maybe that's a bad example.  But the point is, just about every GM newbie has made a simple little platformer at some time or another.  'Greeny' is one of these.  It works well enough, but it's a little bland.

Graphically speaking, the game looks like it was made in MSPaint.  This isn't in itself a bad thing, but I don't get the sense that a lot of thought was put into Greeny's visual design.  For instance, on the last level, your character blends in with the mountainous backdrop, making it very difficult to see him, and grass tiles are stacked up like bricks. 

The gameplay is standard platformer fare:  You jump onto blocks and moving platforms while avoiding foes.  One small unique inclusion is the ability to "scrunch up" by pressing left and right at the same time so you can fit through small openings.  The mechanic doesn't effect gameplay much, and can feel a little stiff, but it's a small, neat addition.  I also like how Red Ninja took the time to implant "help boxes," that display tutorial information when you run into them.  However, the placement of these boxes can be a little...well...off.  For instance the first one, which tells you how to move and jump, can only be reached by both moving AND jumping.

Sound is...well, basically non-existent.  There's some music (aka, an upbeat rendition of a Mario theme that re-starts at the beginning of every room), but no sound effects.

The overall design of Greeny is actually pretty solid, although simple.  You progress through levels in a linear, tried-and-true-platformer style, but an autosave mechanic records your progress after each level, and a easy "load" button on the main menu will bring you right back to where you left off (it's certainly a better system then the one I employed in my first game, 'David Szymanski's Frenzy' :P).  As I already mentioned, there are help boxes that give clear explanations of the game's few basic mechanics, so it's easy to pick up and play.  Occasinally, I ran into some collision issues or ended up dead because my jump carried me off the screen, but in general it's pretty easy to breeze through the game.  One issue I do have is that Greeny ends with an uneventful whimper.  An easy last level gives way to a screen that says "End of part I," and the program closes back to desktop.  So... I guess Red Ninja Productions is planning a sequel.

Overall, Greeny is a decent attempt by an intermediate developer.  It's not any different than the many other platformers you can play here, but it works well enough.  I give it a 3/5.