Ymgve at 16:07, 29 November 2007

2007-11-29T16:07:14Z

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This is Shuze back again with a revolutionary new
chapter for you (well, maybe, anyway!).

GAME REVIEWS

No, not release charts, game reviews. You know,
those things that used to appear in Zzap!64 and still
appear in PC and Amiga mags (as well as the con-
soles).

Very few mags have ever thought of doing this, even
though most paper mags used to use game reviews
as their main reasons for living!

This month, I have decided to review 1 full game, and
one preview of a forthcoming game, which looks
pretty spanking hot, and a complete review should
appear in Skyhigh 18, when I get the full version.

And, YES, I will actually buy the full version!

So, on with the main review of the issue!

---------------------------------------------

BLACK QUIZ

from ART PROJECT STUDIOS

(Code by Marc Teufel and Matthias Kramm, Graphics
by Marc Teufel, Music by Bluez Mues)

Well, a German production from the Art Project
guys (in this case, Seytan/Arcoss and Quiss/Reflex),
but why do I state that it is a German production?

Well, its in German.

It definitely is.

Almost positively in fact.

Of course, for a game which involves understanding
words, it is not too much use for me, as I do not
undertand German. BUT, fortunately those kind guys
in SCS+TRC gave a hand by translating the game in
their version of it. Of course, I already had the
original sent to me by Marc Teufel of New Entry, so
I am not stealing their game.

So, the game begins with a pretty bog-standard
intro, you probably couldn't even call it an intro,
just a decent sized logo saying "ART PROJECT", but
its very well drawn, with some nice music to go with
it.

Then, upon pressing fire on Joy Port 2 (how many
people, like me, pressed space until they were blue
in the face?) the IRQ loader kicks in, and on rolls
the game, with a prompt telling you to press fire.

Up to this stage, the game looks very professional
indeed, with some superb graphics, and no glitches,
as well as the fast loader, which restores faith
in games (after COMPLEX, yawn). The relaxing music
is still there, and you get to a title screen, then
upon pressing fire, although the coder seems to
prefer showing you the graphics than reading the
joy port, as I found myself pressing fire quite a
few times before it said "Oh, yeah, you want to go
on do you?" or suchlike.

Then, the screen where you select how many players
and their names appears, nicely presented again,
there has been a lot of attention paid to design on
this game, which is good to see.

Then, major flaw number 1.

Giving a list of name for people to choose from may
seem like a great idea in theory, but seems to me
to be more like a waste of memory in holding the
names when a simple text inputter would have been
much better. That was pretty annoying, as I didn't
want to call myself "Rainer", but, I chose that, as,
well, it was raining outside!!

Then, some more nice graphics flash up, and we get
into the questions! Yes, some more great graphics
accompany an ultimately dull quiz game.

The ideas are all there, the graphics and music are
definitely there, but then, all it is is a quiz-game, as
you would expect from a game with the title :
BLACK QUIZ.

But why do I give such a negative impression of the
game?

The first problem is one that you get with ALL quiz
games where you type in your answers, simply that
if you phrase your answer differently to the one
given, you get it wrong.

A particularly bad example is the inconsitency in
names, that is, they way that some answer have first
names, and some only have surnames. The worst
example I found was where there were 2 different
questions, and on one of them, the correct answer
was Albert Einstein, and on the other, it was just
Einstein. This is not the coders fault, but is just
what happens in quiz games. Admittedly, some
questions specify whether they want a first name,
or a family name, but not enough. It really needed
to be made into a standard of only family names.

Other problems exist in the SCS+TRC version, but
maybe not in the original, with the occasional
spelling mistake.

Now, I come onto the truly unforgivable mistake.

I faced a situation at one point where I was asked
the same question 3 times in the space of 10
questions, an that is just pointless. With the amount
of files, you would think there are a lot of questions
but in 5 times of playing the game, I only ever got
about 4 new questions each time, with the rest con-
sisting of already used ones.

Of course, when you boot up each time, there is no
way of changing the order so already used questions
are not re-used, but I think it is important that an
attempt is made to mix the questions. I get the feel-
ing that they couldn't be bothered putting any more
in there.

OK, it is time for me to give some marks to this game,
in terms of games, not demos:

Idea: 60% (Good initial idea, needs more development)
Code: 55% (Nice GFX, but some unforgivable errors)
Music: 85% (Just a background, and not annoying)
Graphics: 92% (Great logos, well designed + placed)
Playability: 75% (Can sit down + play straight away)
-----------------

OVERALL: 76%

(Nice try guys, but it needs some more work to iron
out a few small bugs which ruin the game)

---------------------------------------------

And what is the next game to the slammer?

WALKERZ PREVIEW

from ELECTRIC BOYS ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE

(Created by New Entry)

Well, this is just a preview of a forthcoming game by
EBES, and it looks pretty brilliant.

In case you haven't seen the preview yet, it's a game
much in the style of the game HUMANS, which graced
the slopes of the L'amiga a while ago. But not quite.

The basic concept of the game is to move the one
platform you have so that you cover the holes in the
ground so your people (walkerz, I assume) don't fall
down and die. Its also much in the same vein as
Lemmings, and that old classic "Traffic", where
things get pretty hectic at points.

The first thing that will strike you about the game is
the great graphics, as they are pretty hot, with some
nice use of the top borders to add to the the feel of
the game.

As we have come to expect from New Entry, who pro-
duced the fabulous Arc Doors, this game just oozes
quality from all over. The graphics and music set the
scene perfectly, and everything is slickly coded so
collision detection is not a problem, as it could have
been.

It must be said though, if you are comparing the
game to Lemmings and so on, it missed out a bit, as
you could feel for the Lemmings when they squeaked
to their death, but, alas, not for these pixelised
men, as they are a bit too big (but they need to be,
so you can see them!).

This definitely bodes well for the full game, and
if all runs to plan, it should be released soon, if not
by the time you read this.

The game costs 5 pounds and 99 pence, and can be
ordered from ELECTRIC BOYS, whose address will
no doubt be kicking around somewhere in the mag.

And that is it for this issues game reviews and
previews. I hope you enjoyed them, and if not, tell
me why, and I will see what I can do (ignore you, most
probably! NOT!)

SHUZE

--------------------------------------------

Any coders who want their game specially reviewed,
should try their luck by sending the game to:

Paul
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Skyhigh 17 Game Reviews - Revision history

Ymgve at 16:07, 29 November 2007