ID:9001
 
Keywords: reviews
Incase you guys are interested, here are my personal reviews of the 8k Cartridge Classic.



Fallout: by ATPDevelopment

Gameplay: 7/10

Fallout is a fun game that was built mainly on multiplayer, though it is still fun and playable for single player. The powerups in the map make it more interesting, but I feel that more could have been added to this simple concept.

Presentation: 8/10

The graphics were well done, and proved their point. There could have been a hud instead of a statpanel to make look better. Sounds could have been a good add-on when your character dies, or gets a powerup. The in-game help looked very nice. The guidebook also shows pictures of the powerups. On another note, there was a 'showcode' verb, which serves no real purpose to the actual game, and probably wasn't taken out wihle debugging, even though it doesn't seem to have any debuging purpose.

User-friendliness: 4/10

The keys were a little bit obscure for me, until I read the guide. I had to pretty much press random keys to start up the game. Even though the guide says how to do it, most people wouldn't play if they didn't know how to start the game right when they joined it. On the other hand, the left and right keys were a given, and are the only keys needed to be used in the whole game.

Overall mark: 6/10

Fallout is a fun minigame to play, but a lot more could have been added to the simple concept.


Airsoft: By ATP Development

Gameplay: 3/10

The game is fun, to an extent. You can only play against someone if someone else is logged in. You need to get used to how to shoot a gun and move, since it uses a turning movement system. However, the point of the game really doensn't interest me that much. The game would be more complete if there were more modes to play in, like team battles or a time limit. AI would be a nice addition to the game also, so you don't need another player to join in to play. When I started the game, there were runtime errors, and bugs with the hud and players. Sometimes, players would not be damaged. I would get an annoying runtime error every minute, or so. Also, when you respawn, your HP never gets reset, and you start off with your negative HP. The game is not in a playable state, and the bugs should be fixed.

Presentation: 4/10

Right when the game starts, you are sent to a browser window that shows the link of where the guidebook is, and not the guide itself. Aside from that, even though the game is required to be played multi-playered, there doesn't seem to be any communication verbs. On the other hand, the HUD are decent, and shows the required information that you need to know, with some nice health and armor graphics. The environment icons looked very nice. Sound effects would be a nice addon to the game.

User-friendliness: 6/10

Aside from having to manually go to the guide book, the game takes a little while to get used to the key settings if the player isn't used to using the left and right button to turn. Otherwise, the player can play the game fine.

Overall mark: 4/10

The game obviously is not in a playble state, and should have been improved before being submitted to the contest. Aside from the lack of a communication verb, the runtime errors, the game could have been fun.


Breakout: By Ben G

Gameplay: 8.5/10

Breakout is a fun game to play with another person. The game has a simple concept, and still manages to keep the player interested to the game, such as Checkers.

Presentation: 9/10

The graphics to Breakout are very nice, and the board looks very descriptive and much like one of those wooden chess boards. The graphics for Breakout are pretty consistent, except the letterings on the side and bottom of the board. The help window that pops up in the BYOND browser looks very nice. The sound effects are a nice addition to the game.

User-friendliness: 10/10

Breakout is very user friendly, and has a simple concept. The simple concept really helps new players to understand how to play right when the jump in the game.

Overall mark: 9/10

The game is fun, and is reminds me of chess, but with only pawn pieces. I certainly enjoyed playing this with another player when it was released (before it was submited), and I still do.


Traffic Jam: By Crispy

Gameplay: 9.5/10

Traffic Jam is a very addictive game, and the level editor makes the game more 'complete'. I played up to the 15th level, and found it very interesting. One problem with the map editor is that sometimes, if the cars are overlaped, the icons would mess up. Deleting the car fixes it.

Presentation: 9/10

The car icons looked very nice and descriptive, and the walls and pavement looked very smooth together. The exit marker didn't look very attractive, though, and would probably look nicer as arrows.

User-friendliness: 8.5/10

It took a few seconds to learn how to move the vehicles (since the rules don't pop up when you joined the game), but it is pretty much the only thing you need to know how to do to play the game. After you know how to move the cars, you are set.

Overall mark: 9.5/10

Traffic Jam is a very fun puzzle game, and the map editor makes the possiblities of maps virtually endless.


Gello Jumper: By DarkCampainger

Gameplay: 9/10

Gello Jumper is a fantastic game, and the side-scrolling pixel movement is a very nice feature, since you don't really see that very often in BYOND games. Checkpoints are a very useful feature if you tend to die a lot, like me. I really enjoyed some of the parts of the map (and pulled my hair out in others), since they are intelligently placed for you to think before you move. (i.e. the pit where there are spikes on the top of the ledges) This makes the game more challenging, but certainly not impossible.

Presentation: 8/10

The graphics for the game are very nice, and the in-game help file was useful too. The start music was very motivational to play the game. :P

User-friendliness: 8/10

It was a little bit hard to control movement while in air at first until I mastered the movement system. Other than xhat, the control keys are the only keys that you really need to use. The guide shows the necessary information for the player.

Overall mark: 8.5/10

Gello Jumper is a very fun game to play, though there isn't much of a replay value to it, since most of the time you go back to your last checkpoint and have seen everything already.


Knight: By Hiead

Gameplay: 8.5/10

Knight is basically a game where two players control a knight piece from chess as many times as they can. The game is fun after several rounds with people, but it can get dull after a while. It would be more fun to play again if there were different modes. There is a log of what moves the player moved to, but it gets wiped after every round (so if you didn't look at the log before the game ended, it is lost).

Presentation: 6/10

The graphics for the game is basically the Knight piece, the board, and a red marking on where the knight can go. The icons look nice, but the whole thing didn't need to look grayscale. It would have looked better if the screen was bigger, but the actual playing field was the same. Sound effects would be a nice add-on, though for a game like this, it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

User-friendliness: 9/10

The game was very user-friendly, since all you needed to know was how to click the red tiles. The guide book was helpful.

Overall mark: 8/10

Knight is a good game to kill your boredom, but excessive overplaying might bore you even more. :P


Pong: By Hiead

Gameplay: 4/10

Pong is the same generic Pong using pixel based movement. There was no attempt to add anything extra to the pong game. The game keeps track of how many hits the two players have, and has a nice AI.

Presentation: 6/10

Pong was pretty much a pixel game. It was kind of hard to see the ball, since it was only one pixel. But on the other hand, the pixel movement was pretty nice.

User-friendliness: 9/10

The game is fairly user friendly, since you only use the up and down keys to move your blocker.

Overall mark: 5/10

Pong needs a little bit more work for it to be a fun game that people will want to play. Having more than two players on the field, and adding sounds would have increased its mark.


SkyWurm8k: by SuperSaiyanGokuX

Gameplay: 9/10

I found the game very interesting, since you don't usually find these types of shooter games in BYOND. It was a bit hard for me, but I doubt it is impossible to get the final weapon, since I generally stink at these types of games. :P

Presentation: 9/10

I found the graphics for the game very nice. The dragons were very detailed, and I like the dithering when the game starts and ends. The music fits the theme for the game very well, and the sound effects fill in the difference of an incomplete game and a completed one.

User-friendliness: 7/10

The game isn't very user friendly, since there is no guide book, or any indication on how to control the game. The mouse pointer icon kind of threw me off and made me think clicking on dragons attacked them. I had to manually look at the source to see how to shoot fireballs. But after that, everything was very straightforward. With a more cleaner sweep of the source code, I figured out to fire with an alternate weapon, you use the down key.

Overall mark: 9/10

SkyWurm is a very exciting game, and has the quality of professionalism. The only thing that could have been improved was the lack of a guide.


Nauseas Ned: by ThugHead

Gameplay: 4/10

The gameplay for Nauseus Ned is very straightfoward. You find the amount of pills required for that level in a time limit. There doesn't seem to be any attempt in adding anything more mildly interesting, other than the random map generation. Other than the time limit, there doesn't seem to be anything else that makes you want to continue playing the game.

Presentation: 3/10

The icons do their job, and the player seems to look decent (though molded). The pills look like bouncy balls. Not much presentation at all. The least that could have been done would have been autojoining the walls.

User-friendliness: 7/10

The controls are straightforward, since all you use are the arrow keys. The guide explains how to play the game well. The use of rebooting is unneeded, since all you really need to do is reset some variables, and relocate the player.

Overall mark: 3/10

Nauseas Ned is pretty much an empty shell with no replay factor. The game has a simple concept, but it doesn't stop it from having something more interesting to play around with.


Combat Proliferation: by Polaris8920

Gameplay: 3/10

It would have helped for the icons to actually show up, since I didn't know where the walls were. The map took way too long to load, and it would have helped just to have them already loaded as map files. It was a bit hard to tell who was shooting what, especially when the walls and floors were invisible.

Presentation: 4/10

The sounds are a nice addition to the game, but the browser interface is a bit annoying and ugly to look at. Most of the icons don't even show up, so it was a bit hard to tell where the walls were at.

User-friendliness: 7/10

The keys were well documented, and the controls were easily managable.

Overall mark: 3/10

Because of the bugs in the game and the loading time, the game felt like buggy beta software. The game has potential, but the bugs need to be fixed.


RogueStickz: by Polaris8920

Gameplay: 8/10

RogueStickz is a side scroller where you destroy other zombie stickmen in a notebook. The game has a multiplayer and singleplayer mode, which are both nicely done. One thing about the enemies is that sometimes you can jump over them and essentially skip through the whole level. The multiplayer mode is basically a deathmatch where you just destroy other players. I would suggest making the floor enterable from underneath, since the floor seems to be dense under it too. I found reloading very odd, since the sound only plays at the end of 5 seconds. The enemies don't seem to do that much, other than shoot blindly at your general direction.

Presentation: 8/10

The icons do a good job of describing pencil marking in a notebook environment, and look very descriptive and good looking. I found the rocket launcher icon animation and sound effects very nice. The ingame help describes the game well.

User-friendliness: 7/10

The keys are straightforward, and simple to use. I found it confusing when reloading because you don't know you've reloaded until the end of the 5 seconds, when the reload sound plays.

Overall mark: 8/10

RogueStickz, though meant for single player and multi player, probably would be more enjoyed playing with other people. A bit more could have been added to the game though, like more weapons. The game didn't look very polished, either. On the other hand, it's nice to see a side scroller game on BYOND.




If you have any questions, you can post on the comments page.
HOW CAN YOU NOT GIVE GELLO A JUMPER ATLEAST A 9