#211 Sonic the Hedgehog

Posted: 25th February 2014 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , , ,
1

310th played so far

Sonic_the_Hedgehog_1_Genesis_box_artGenre: Platform
Platform: Mega Drive
Year of Release: 1991
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega

Wow. Back to Sonic already. Despite its status as big mascot, rivaling Mario at one time, only three games are listed, in contrast with Mario’s… well, lots. Not surprising considering the massive fall from grace the Sonic franchise has been going through since the demise of the Dreamcast.

Although we previously played to Sonic Adventure, the series first 3D outing, today’s game feels like we’re playing Sonic as it is meant to be played – the fast-moving 2D platformer.

Our Thoughts

When you know a series well, it can be difficult to judge it without looking at its sequels. For some games on the list, that’s fine – it’s the only one on the list, and analysis of one implies looking at the series as a whole. This should become relevant when we get around to playing Mega Man.

For Sonic the Hedgehog, that doesn’t apply, as we’ll be covering its sequel at some point in the future. At the same time, it’s difficult not to, as what the game is done well now will be done that bit better in the later games. No Tails, no spin dash, it’s a bit simpler.

One thing the game still is, is fast. While your eye can still keep up with it (which later games don’t always seem to allow), you get the illusion of speed once you get going, and there’s little more satisfying than racing through the levels and feeling you’re progressing. One of the main shames, really, seems to be that these don’t seem to last as long – there’s no extended runs, while this speed is what you really want to enjoy. The game mentions pinball table style levels, but these take a while to really show up.

Beyond that, the game also seems to be intended as a showcase for the Mega Drive’s capabilities. One of the bigger examples (to me) was the bonus stage. Aside from the place where the chaos emeralds show up, what was more interesting was the rotation of the field. Seemingly done on the fly, it looks a bit jerky now, but makes for its own interesting, weird style of gameplay. It’s a fun addition to a platformer – too annoying for regular play, but good for a bonus level like it.

As catchy as the songs were, I didn’t realise that they were until I associated them with Sonic until now. I wouldn’t reproduce them as immediately as I could do as Super Mario Bros. first level, but decent nonetheless.

I had a different experience revisiting this since this was one of the first video games I actually remember playing (well I actually played it first on the Game Gear but I did also have it on the Mega Drive). I don’t have as many memories for this as I do with Cool Spot but it was still great to play it again.

Final Thoughts

In the end, I suppose Sonic didn’t pay off as well as his creators wish it would. It was a competitor in the short term, but Mario seems to have won in most cases. Still, separated from the rivalry, it seems to have spurred everyone on to create a far better game. It’s fast, looks good and is a lot of fun.

#675 TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

Posted: 21st February 2014 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

309th played so far

256px-TsfpboxGenre: First-Person Shooter
Platform: XBox/PS2/Gamecube
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: Free Radical Design
Publisher: EA Games

It has been a while since we previously covered TimeSplitters 2, a shame considering it’s one of Peter’s favourite FPS series.

Before we started playing this there was actually a bit of panic. It took a while to find the memory card that contained Peter’s old save game, which already had a lot unlocked (and as much not yet) – worthwhile for trying everything, at least. When I think about all the hours I spent on this game (possibly one of my most played games ever) I do wonder how much of the time I just spent setting people on fire with a flaming crossbow rather than playing through the story mode…

Our Thoughts

And that’s right, there is a lot to unlock. 150 characters, for one, probably more than I’ve ever seen in a game. And while many of them appear to play the same – there seem to be distinct groups that are reskins, though with different models. To be fair nearly all use the same basic frame (something you can really tell with ‘floating’ character like the snowman which bob up and down as you would expect a torso to do) but there is joy in the variety of people to gun down. Apart from the monkeys… who I abhor to this very day.

To unlock these, you need to play through the game several times – completing different levels of the story on different difficulties. There are also the challenge and arcade modes that lead to the unlocking of characters. These function much in the same way as in the previous game and rewards your ability to throw bricks and decapitate zombies… similar to Dead Rising in that respect.

With the aforementioned save game, I didn’t really get a chance to see much of that. But then again, single player isn’t the main enjoyable part of the game – based on Peter’s experiences and the description in the book – so I didn’t really get to see it. Instead, we focused on the multiplayer part of the game and that part is certainly fun. There’s a multitude of multiplayer modes, playable with bots or other people. The online servers (unfortunately) went offline some time ago, as it seems like the 16 player chaos would be amazing. Even now, playing mostly with bots, it’s just as much a case of firing at everything that moves sometimes.

The multiplayer modes borrow a lot from existing modes (capture the flag, deathmatches and so on), but put their own, more humorous spin on it. ‘Catch the Bag’ isn’t that different, but it sounds a lot more fun.

Add to that the nice option to run around as a monkey, and all has been said, really. Single player may be nice at that point, but just not as necessary. Unless you revel in the hackneyed phrase ‘It’s Time To Split!’. I know I do.

Final Thoughts

In a way, this harkens back to games like Team Fortress 2, where it’s all about the multiplayer fun. While there’s a story, everyone and everything has been telling me it doesn’t really matter – and in one way that’s certainly true: multiplayer is already a lot of fun, and if it’s anything like its predecessor, the story doesn’t set it apart enough, really.

#10 Lunar Lander

Posted: 17th February 2014 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , ,
1

308th played so far

Lunar_Lander

Genre: Flight Simulator
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1979
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari

Going back in time almost as far as we can go, Lunar Lander is one of the last remaining games of the seventies that we have to cover.

Its premise? Simple. Land a lunar lander on the moon (or some other similar surface… I don’t think it’s that clear).

Our Thoughts

Sometimes, you get a game that does one thing, and does it extremely well. It’s probably the strength of these early games – they have simple graphics, simple gameplay, but are extremely playable in their simplicity. Due to the technological limitations of the times developers really had a restricted freedom whereby not everything was available so they could fully explore one idea (something they, ironically, do not have the freedom to do anymore).

Lunar Lander has you land a ship. You can turn it and turn on its rockets to influence its acceleration. You’ve got a few difficulties for the places where you land, giving you different options for scores, but that’s it. Beyond that, it’s about being careful and not crashing.

It’s not a game concept filled with hours of play, sure (not these days, at least), but the core gameplay has held up nicely and you’ll certainly want to give it a few goes when you start – first to land successfully, then to land in one of the more difficult places to go to. And in between that, you get to learn a bit about gravity and acceleration as well, to complete the puzzle.

Final Thoughts

Sure, simple and straight forward, but as a diversion, this game is pretty fun. There’s versions online now, so just play it whenever you want to, really. See whether you can replicate that feat.

#132 Nethack

Posted: 13th February 2014 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , ,
3

307th played so far

Genre: Role-Playing
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 1987
Developer: The NetHack Dev Team

I am writing this post slightly out of order, as this time I really want to make notes while we play the game.

I’ve played Nethack before several times (it being one of the games whose source code got me started on coding, even if I never did much useful stuff with it). This means that going back to the game is an exercise in remembering – I’ve got to do this, look out for that, test here, be careful there.

Nethack is an opensource RPG, a roguelike (that is, derived from Rogue, a game we’ll be playing later). This means large, randomly generated dungeons, usually with ASCII art, and a general rule of going deeper and seeing where you end up before you worry about your mission.

Our Thoughts

Peter has not played the game ever before, however, and only saw me play it for a bit as prep for this post. Now that he actually is playing, he’s actually quite into it. He’s saying he’s not loving it (I turned out to really like it, oh ye of little faith), but he’s interested enough to give me a running commentary and wonder about what to do. Jeroen makes it sound like I narrate my own life…

Nethack is an interesting game for that, really. Not designed as much as organically grown, the options and possibilities are huge, with interactions that you’d normally dismiss as too complex and unnecessary and features that you may not even use while playing the game. It’s a game where standard gear usually includes a blindfold (for telepathy and beating Medusa) and where you have a use for carrying an expensive camera around with you.

The story is simple – get an amulet from deep down a dungeon (following a few diversions) and then ascend to the heavens to sacrifice it to your deity. The levels are mostly randomly generated, but with a couple of pre-designed levels (some of which are story-related or otherwise notable).

Considering how punishing the game can be – one wrong item used or bit of food eaten, or one bit of pushing forward too much, and you’re dead – it’s amazing what a bit of help and a lot of persistence can do. Peter’s first game made it to level 3 before ending through death (the game’s fully iron man – no save games, you can pause and save to take a break, but not save and continue), which is actually a pretty big accomplishment.

As tough as the game is, the size and openness of it, together with its randomness, also appeals. There’s a lot to pick up on and go through, without immediately being overwhelming – the learning curve somehow actually works to an extent, giving you time and a chance to get used to the game while you do your exploration. While it takes a long time before you master the game so you can finish it (and it really is a skill you need to develop), the initial learning curve isn’t that steep, and actually makes that first part fun.

Final Thoughts

The interesting thing about this game really is the randomness that it brings. As mentioned I got to Level 3 which I wasn’t aware was an accomplishment for a first game… but apparently it is which says a lot about the game and means I am actually looking forward to playing Rogue.

#123 The Sentinel

Posted: 9th February 2014 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , , ,
3

306th played so far

250px-Sentinel-coverGenre: Strategy
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 1986
Developer: Geoff Crammond
Publisher: Firebird

The book describes this game as “chess with added paranoia”. To be honest, I’ve never heard of this game before the blog and keep forgetting about it afterwards. It’s vague enough that today, we have no clue what to expect. We just need to hope it works for us. To me it just sounds like something from Robot Wars.

Our Thoughts

This isn’t the most incomprehensible game we’ve ever played – we’ve not covered Elite yet although we’ve given it a go (we don’t want to return to that in a hurry) – this is certainly not an easy game to get into (at least at this point in time).

The game takes place in a 3D world, where you’re a robot who needs to get to a top leve by copying himself, jumping to a new (often higher positioned) copy until you can jump into the Sentinel, located on the highest peak in the area.

That’s all fairly straightforward, but it gets tougher when you start the game itself. First, the amount of buttons to memorize is surprisingly large – thirteen, each necessary yet difficult to memorize. Second, the controls are awkward. You have the cursor keys control a pointer on the screen, which moves so slowly it is both annoying or dangerous. You can turn it off, but then there’s a lot more guesswork where you are actually taking your actions.

You need the speed, as the Sentinel starts shooting at you when it sees you (turning towards you), something that happens quite quickly already. For us, it’s quite unfriendly, as it takes quite a bit of time to get used to the basics, while you never seem to get enough time to find your way around to see where you are meant to be going to complete your goal. We complemented our playing of the game with some Youtube videos and even they did little to explain the game and make it easier for us to continue.

Even if you actually have no desire to play this game I would watch someone else try (and fail) to play this game well… it’s so so SO true that games were more difficult in the 80s.

Final Thoughts

While there is an interesting idea here, the execution feels like it leaves something to be desired for us. I can see how it would have once been a great game, and the strategy parts of it still are, in theory, but the controls just don’t feel adequate enough for what should be either an adrenaline-fuelled game, moving around, or slow strategic rush through.

#383 Resident Evil 2

Posted: 5th February 2014 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , ,
1

305th played so far

250px-Resident_Evil_2Genre: Survival Horror
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 1998
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

The Resident Evil series is one that keeps haunting us. Not in the spooky scary sense, but in the sense of a series that has several entries in the list, while we’re not the most keen to play it.

As might have been clear from previous survival horrors, it’s not our favourite genre. We have to play them, it’s part of the blog, there are some (like Gregory Horror Show) that we do get into, but it’s the other genres that are dragged in that seem to determine how much we enjoy it.

Resident Evil, then, as the big example of the genre, seems to be the big example of this. We played the first Resident Evil a while ago (a year and a half – wow!), which didn’t endear us to the series much yet – as much because of its dated appearance as gameplay. Hopefully the sequel improves on some of this, just to keep a bit more playable.

Our Thoughts

I’ll be honest – Resident Evil 2 starts off a lot better than its predecessor. You start off nearly surrounded by zombies, forcing you to flee and (once you get a weapon) shoot them to get through. It sets the tone and starts off fairly simple as a tutorial to the game. Only when you reach your first truely safe point – the police station – does the game kick off.

From that point it’s a similar mix to what we’ve seen before.  An adventure game with shooter elements, where you explore a large building, finding clues, solving puzzles (mostly to find the item to use on a lock or something similar) and shoot or (as often) avoid the smaller and larger enemies.

Most of it seemed a lot more streamlined than the first game. The controls feel a bit better, although still awkward – although we played the PC version, all actions were still mapped to the four buttons of a PS2 controller, meaning that use item and shoot are the same button, rather than splitting these and making for less context-based ambiguities.

One bigger change that unequivocally better are the graphics. They have improved a lot, looking quite a bit nicer. The rooms are a lot more distinct and the streets look nice – it is the sort of semi-apocalyptic setting you expect.

With that, the story setup is probably the biggest and most interesting change, one that feels a lot more ambitious than many more games. You start the game with one protagonist – Leon or Claire, your pick – and go through until the end of the game. This then unlocks an extra scenario, where you play as the other character, seeing what happens from their perspective – and the game is influenced by what you did on your first playthrough. It’s an interesting way of playing where it’s a shame this hasn’t been explored more in other games, beyond one in a series we don’t care much about.

The main problem is just the usual trappings of a survival horror game. The focus on resource depletion is fine, but that even saving is as a premium feels a bit much (it’s the point though, creates a sense of urgency and panic). While I can see how some would consider it fun, for me it just feels tedious, with too much backtracking required if you take the wrong approach somewhere.

Final Thoughts

It’s a shame, as beyond this tedium there are some really good ideas lurking. In the right circumstances, I’d happily play more of it and with that, the game is a clear step up from the first game. The horror is fine… just with less survival please.

#787 Singstar

Posted: 1st February 2014 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , , ,
2

304th played so far

252px-SingStar_PS3Genre: Music
Platform: Playstation 3
Year of Release: 2007
Developer: London Studio
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

It’s been a while since we’ve done a proper ‘make music’ music game. We’ve played Guitar Hero before, but beyond that it’s usually down to dancing or moving in time, rather than generally trying to follow the music.

Singstar seems to be the pinnacle of it in a way though – you’ve actually got to sing, while the game checks and validates that. It’s scary… a good thing we have little shame around each other.

Our Thoughts

Singstar is one of those games that has been laying in games box for a while… the Playstation 2 version that is. Back in the day I played this game a lot, mostly by myself, and I was able to get obscenely high scores on  ‘Superstar’ by Jamelia. Granted this was back in 2004 where by voice had yet to break and it was easy for my to hit the high notes on a-Ha’s ‘Take on Me’. I am bringing this up because since I trained to respond to the notes before my voice broke which means I do sing in a head voice… so I never play this with people I don’t have dirt on (even then I refuse to sing Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’).

The idea behind the game is simple enough.  The game analyses the pitch of your singing along to the music and assigns points based on your accuracy and, like how a scale appears to spiral upwards, the pitch recognition isn’t exactly absolute. Someone with a naturally lower singing voice is still able amass a large number of points on songs with higher notes… just not as well as someone with a wider vocal range. Actually, the game seems to allow you to transpose – go down an octave – and still accept it. It’s to make sure you stay able to sing the songs.

For the Playstation 3 version the main draw, aside from the obvious karaoke humiliation, is the store where you can download new songs for your game. There is a wide selection from ABBA to The Zutons but it is not the case that you could sing along to every single you can think of. Yes you can download Amy Winehouse, Take That and the Jackson 5 but there is  not a trace of Madonna, The Beatles, Michael Jackson or Christina Aguilera. Also, the speed of the store can be very varied. Still, that doesn’t compare to the main issue of pricing. If it was the standard iTunes 79p it would be one thing but £1.15 feels a little bit steep. In fact, I would say that unless you’re a big fan of an artist and know you’ll be playing the game often, the purchase price often won’t be worth it. Pricing tends to be a bit too shocking too often.

If you want to negate some of this then buy some pre-owned expansion packs. The great thing about the Singstar is that you are able to insert other games from the franchise (including PS2 games) and play any of those songs… which you can purchase for less than a quid for about 20 songs. Bargain for a great expansion for a great party game.

Final Thoughts

In gameplay, the game doesn’t offer anything else after you’ve played a few times. The diversity mostly comes from different song picks, which can get quite fun, and more important, playing this with other people, when the game becomes one that’s fun to play together as you laugh at each other. With that said, it’s good fun, as long as you can get the additional songs cheaply.

#995 Mass Effect 2

Posted: 28th January 2014 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

303rd played so far

masseffect2Genre: Action/Role-Playing
Platform: Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC
Year of Release: 2010
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Woo! Time for something else fun. Aside from my documented love of Bioware, we both rushed through the original Mass Effect after our blog write-up.

Mass Effect 2, from what we’ve seen, has decided to become a bit more of a shooter and a bit less of an RPG. Possibly a shame for me (and a real woohoo from me), but the main thing in the game are the characters, not just the stats, right?

Our Thoughts

As I’m writing this, Peter is finishing the last few assignments on this game before he dives into the end game (helped with having a few weeks of deserved holiday), while I’ll soon start the second half of the game. In between playing other games, we’ve been getting into the game and enjoying it a lot.

It’s debatable which of the two games is better. Mass Effect seems to offer the stronger customization system, with more options per level, while Mass Effect 2 has an extended cover and shooter set-up (as well as – yuck – quick time events in conversations). There’s less tweaking of gear and such (possibly a good thing) but you’re missing some of the vital stats to determine which weapons are better.

On the other hand, parts of this have actually expanded. Raise a stat far enough (with less possible ‘levels’ than in the first game) and you get to customize part of its use, specializing in one or two versions – lower cooldown, damage or adding splash damage are quite common. Instead of getting weapon upgrades, you research squad upgrades, which improve your weapons, but also improve your armour, biotics and (in several places) your ship’s capabilities.

Overall, while it’s a shape you lose part of the customization (the streamlining feeling a bit much) the added systems work quite nicely. It’s a shame they didn’t keep a bit more of it around.

Still, this is Bioware, so the systems aren’t the most important thing. It’s story and characters they specialize in. The story is as good as you’d expect. There are some interesting twists and turns, none necessarily diverging too far from the obvious path the story takes, but fun enough to offer a different perspective and give a few different versions of the same story. While there are a few ‘you must now do stuff’ moments, with only minor foreknowledge you can prepare yourself pretty well for those points.

It’s the characters where the game really shines. We’ve got Joker again, who’s as entertaining as ever (in particular when bantering with your new ship’s AI), joined again by many non-party crew members who join you. More of these will interact with you than in the previous games, and even those that don’t have conversations when you’re around that comment on the events of the game.

More visible, however, are the party members. Their number has increased from six to ten (plus two DLC. And one sort-of substitute). Their amount of characterization seems to have increased. There are more conversations with your party members, and they’re longer. It feels like there are more interactions and interjections into the game. While the famous elevator sequences are lost, the times where you get interactions are more integrated.

Whilst it is still fun to mix things up I still managed to rely on a main party for most missions with others being brought in for the sake of variety. One thing that this game did compared to the original is balance out the members more. In the original Tali died very quickly and so I never used her (so I did mourn the idea of a loyalty mission); now she actually has as much a place in my team as most others. In the end I did rely on a main team of Garrus and Miranda for the majority of the game. Despite the fact that I have a bit of a crush on Miranda.

I suppose that’s one thing that’s lost with the larger group though. While individually, they’re more detailed, they don’t get as much of a chance to interact as they do before. There are a few comments during cut scenes – all set up beforehand – but not the more spontaneous-seeming interactions from having two characters in your group.

Thing is, the way the characters are in there, you don’t notice it as much. The characters are more quiet (with, it seems, the amount of interactions partially down to who you have with you), but you find out enough through the interludes on the Normandy that it doesn’t matter as much during the action scenes.

Despite few of the characters from the first game being part of your team this time (only two out of six), there is one other characters that I did miss while playing. The MAKO, your trusty ground vehicle for planetary exploration, is gone, replaced by a (costlier) scanning and probing mini-game that sends you to further missions, and a mission structure that dumps you in the right place straight away rather than forcing you to travel to find the right place.

While it streamlines the game and missions, it loses some of the game’s flavour. The exploration was fun, trying to find smaller pieces and collectables, while the extended focus on missions, together with its XP streamlining and stats simplification takes some of the RPG and gameplay changes out of the game in favour of focusing on some of the more shooter aspects. It’s a shame.

Final Thoughts

The big question that remains, really, is which is better. The original Mass Effect gave more of a RPG environment, which was streamlined in the sequel, improving the story aspects but also adding more shooter and action elements. I can see how it would appeal with a larger group of people, I just wish there could have been more of a combination in between the two.

As it is, the first probably feels better overall, but on the other hand, they complement each other nicely. Now I just need to finish it so we can both move on to the big finale of the third game.

Personally, whilst I did play on Mass Effect 2 for about 26 hours this game still felt a bit short compared to the first one. I also think that it was a bit easier than the original (or that could be because I finally started using the biotic powers instead of rushing into rooms of Geth and other nasties. All I can say is… I am biding my time with Saints Row The Third until Jeroen finishes his game so we can start Mass Effect 3 together.

#126 Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels

Posted: 24th January 2014 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , ,
1

302nd played so far

200px-Mariobros2japanboxGenre: Platform
Platform: NES
Year of Release: 1986
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

It seems ages since we last played a Mario game, with our limitations on the previous hundred, and our reluctance to do so after having played a lot of them in a short go while borrowing games. It has been ages… and considering the number of Mario games on this list it has been a long time coming.

More importantly, it’s the (expansion pack) sequel to the game we played sixth, the original Super Mario Bros. Not released in the US until it was bundled in the SNES All-Stars bundle, for the west Nintendo developed (or rather, adapted) Super Mario Bros. 2 instead, a game we’ll cover later. Reasons listed are both the difficulty of this game and its similarities to the original. Both will come up in our discussion.

Our Thoughts

With a game like today’s, I wonder whether we’re running out of things to say sometimes (we are). The graphics, while they have a certain retro charm, are nothing to write home about. Controls similar, the goal and story the same.

Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels really has two things going for it. First, most noted, is its difficulty. The original Super Mario Bros is tough enough, but Lost Levels ups the difficulty level to the point that a player capable of reaching the eighth world in the first game will find the first world here a challenge. That part of the justification for it being kept for the Japanese market only makes sense.

The game also re-purposes some elements in a different context. Warp areas are considerably more complicated, sending you forwards and backwards through the worlds. Fish appear on land, while normally land-bound enemies such as Goombas appear underwater. You’re expected to go outside game bounds sometimes, having to use secret parts of the level to finish them.

A handful of new elements are introduced – the poison mushroom the main one, which kills you instead of having its normal growing benefits. There’s winds and new spring pads to help you jump further.

In gameplay, there’s little new here, and we can be happy they didn’t go this route for future sequels. At the same time, what it is it does well – an extension of the original games meant to challenge you further, for those already addicted to the original game.

Final Thoughts

This game doesn’t feel as innovative as it should have been and, to be honest, I don’t think it’s different enough to earn its place on the list – it’s one of the weaker Mario games, with other games including far more inspiring changes. It just doesn’t fit.

With 29 games (or 1 in 35) being a Mario game I think that there is a lot of fat that could be trimmed if they ever chose to redo this list. Okay this introduced wind into a platformer (which is a big deal) but with 3 years of gaming happening since the book… there needs to be a shake-up.

#918 Noby Noby Boy

Posted: 20th January 2014 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , ,
0

301st played so far

Noby_Noby_Boy_PS_Store_North_America_icon

Genre: Action
Platform: Playstation 3
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Namco Bandai
Publisher: Namco Bandai

So for our first game of the fifty, we go in for another off-beat game – not as indie this time, but certainly a different sort of thing.

We’ve played the game a bit before, but for some reason never got around to writing it up. What we did find out is that Noby Noby Boy is, well, different. Quite different indeed.

Our Thoughts

There’s a pretty neat concept in this game. Controlling two ends of a creature, you move around a (small) world, often decorated as a village or otherwise. You let your creature walk around it, wrapping it around things to stretch it as far as you can.

And that’s it. Just do your best to get as long as possible (using the available furniture), as the global score (total lengths) unlock new worlds as planets are reached from the length of the titular Noby Noby Boys. It’s an extended version of what One-Dot Enemies does, but where it’s a small addition to gameplay there, here it’s the whole point of the game. At the moment they are still waiting to get to Neptune from Uranus… and seeing how old this game is I don’t think there will be enough stretching to reach there any time soon.

While I’ve discussed it with others who got into it (hi James!), it just wasn’t enough to hold my attention for long, as growing and stretching just doesn’t lead much further.

While the game offers some nice graphics, on the whole it’s fairly simple. They’re set pieces, not creating something that looks great or works well, just to provide things to stretch around. It’s not the selling point you’d want it to be.

As much as you can expect download games to be limited, this goes a bit far in the wrong direction, providing a gimmick done better in other places simply because it isn’t the focus of the game. A waste of a potentially interesting concept.

Final Thoughts

The previous game we discussed provided what seemed like an interesting concept – a large number (if not unlimited) number of goals, provided by the game as well as what you want to add yourself – it’s the beauty of the sandbox genre. Noby Noby Boy, on the other hand, has a goal you’re barely involved in due to its global nature, while not providing you with the tools to find any other. It just doesn’t work.

Older Entries
Newer Entries