Shellblast is kind of like a cross between Sudoku (where columns have to tally) and Minesweeper. Each bomb is a puzzle with randomly placed "pistons" which must be properly identified in order to diffuse the thing. Though the game is played on a grid, each puzzle uses a different "shape" for its bomb. Though there's no real difference between a tile which isn't used in the puzzle and one which is used in the puzzle...
It's actually a little unfortunate that Nintendo has set the bar so monumentally high in the "kart racing" genre--any casual racing game will inevitably be compared to the Mario Kart franchise and most likely lose. Wacky Karts has everything you'd expect from a retro Mario Kart clone: a variety of "karts" (each driven by different large-headed characters with different speed/acceleration/handling attribute), a campy soundtrack, a grand prix mode, time trials, and a battle mode. The...
When I'm reviewing a game, I have a pretty high tolerance for things that make me say, "WTF?" With Shardscape Assault, I went so far past my WTF-limit that future games will be rated on a WTF scale of 1 to Shardscape Assault. The game opens with an unskippable text intro sequence, with a single line of text appearing at a time. While it's nice to see that some thought went into the backstory, I could...
The best thing about Jungle Blocks is the cute little Aztec/Mayan-themed background. The gameplay, like the rest of the game, is completely unremarkable. Collision on the paddle is pretty weak (I often "hit" on the edges only to have the ball fall through), but it hardly matters. Taking out the bricks above works in a simple combo routine--the more blocks you hit between successive paddle hits, the more each of those blocks is worth. You get...
Nebulon is a pretty badass looking game, but unfortunately the awesomeness doesn't translate to the actual gameplay itself. You play as a little glowing ship flying around and blasting the crap out of things. Enemies have a natural progression--their "difficulty" is based on the number of orbs which make up their ship. Blast enough of them and they'll drop powerups, which you can use to improve your own gear. Unfortunately the powerups often drop in...
Timing-wise, I picked a pretty good day to review Nasty--which I downloaded and tried out this morning. When I sat down to do the review, there was a press-release in my inbox announcing it had been updated: The 1.5 update to Nasty features several tweaks to gameplay and new weapons that promise to make Nasty a more fun, more action packed experience. Many of these changes were made to address concerns gamers had about the...
Ninja Guardian is a lot like Machiavelli's Ascent (which we reviewed here), only with Ninjas. And smaller. The game screens are each divided into three panes, each textured to look like canvas. When not in use (i.e. a game screen or some sort of message), each screen sports a Hiroshige-styled Japanese landscape painting. While playing the game, the center 1/3rd of the screen acts as a platforming bounce-field. Depending on the level or game mode,...
While most games try to do a bit too much, Fishing Girl is content with being a bite-sized little mini-game. Two young lovers are separated by an ocean, and you have 10 minutes to re-unite them. This can be accomplished by casting your line all the way to the next island and reeling the whole thing back in. To be able to cast that far, you'll need to upgrade your rod all the way (I...
I didn't have high hopes for Spaceman. Going simply on the screenshots and the description, it looked like yet another game based on the platform starter kit provided by Microsoft. And not even a good one--the screenshots look ugly as hell! I don't know if they're just badly compressed or weirdly distorted, but the game looks much better than advertised. The premise is fairly simple: you start on a platform, and you must gather a...
There's a lot to like about Gum Drop Celestial Frontier. The game is gorgeous, the music is great, and it's hands down one of the most polished games on the Indie Game channel. It's also trying something new, which is great to see. With all my caveats out of the way, let's get straight to why I don't think GDCF is worth 200 points: my thumb hurts. Like, a lot. And I play a lot...
