First Taste - Wings (Gameboy Advance)

Heylo everyone! GBA week continues with Wings!

It's a flying game! You take on the role, at least initially, of a fighter pilot in the British military during World War One. You fly the plane, shoot other planes, and go all "Bwahaha" about it!

Except...the game is terrible. Maybe I'm not used to plane games or something, but the controls just felt absolutely terrible and like I wasn't able to really control anything! Like, in the very first stage I had to shoot down a German plane, and they put it in my sights right away, which was nice of them, and then it flew past me...and I never saw it again. It was behind me the entire time and there was no way for me to turn hard enough to ever regain the advantage! So I got shot down. Then I had to make a new pilot, had a top-down view as opposed to the previous cockpit view, and...the controls were still loose and horrible feeling as I tried and half-failed to bomb some German bases.

The music and sound are nothing to write home about either. They just sound like the typical noises of a low budget handheld game, and that's never all that pleasant...

And that's about how I'd describe this game on the whole. It's just not pleasant. >.<

First Taste - March of the Penguins (Gameboy Advance)

Heylo everyone! I've decided this week I'm going to do a theme week... That theme is going to be just, in general, the Gameboy Advance! So each post will be on a GBA title. :3 And starting off the pack is....oh. Um...March.. of the Penguins... Wasn't this basically a documentary?... How...do you even make a game of this?

By...making a Lemmings sorta game, I guess! You have a buncha little options and stuff to go and get the penguins past obstacles to safety and all that and...well, I dunno... I've never been big on Lemmings type games, and this one I didn't get very far into either because the stage was huuuuuuuuuuuuuge. And it told me not only did I have to get all the penguins to the end of the stage, I had to collect a buncha snowflakes and I just couldn't figure out how to get the penguins up there to grab some of them.

The music was nice and relaxing, and it makes me wonder if perhaps it was just a chiptune version of music from the movie.. I've never seen it, after all... But really there isn't a whole lot to say. And that pretty much sums up my feelings entirely about the game... I just don't know what to say.

First Taste - Death vs. Monsters 2 (Flash)

Heylo everyone! Just a quick one today, I'm afraid... It's another flash game! In it you play as, presumably, Death! And you fight monsters.

Aesthetically speaking, the game is alright. It's somewhat cute, and very simple in design. The music flows well and it's really a very simple, but well presented package.

Where the game falls off for me a bit is in the gameplay... It's pretty tight, and the game in and of itself is actually fairly fun. But at the same time, the way you fight the monsters is with a constantly-shooting attack...that trails behind you. If you move up, then the 'gun' positioning will place it behind you and will shoot down. This makes it a lot more difficult to aim where you want as compared to the keyboard-and-mouse or dual keyboard "Twin stick" models that you'd normally see in a shooter like this.. They do help you out a little bit by letting you hold the mouse button down to "strafe", or lock the 'gun' in place. However you wanna call it! But even still, this can be awkward.

I just don't really have much to say about this game... It's okay, but nothing amazerating, or bad, or anything... For now, I guess I'd say it's salty. But honestly it's closer to bland than anything..

First Taste - Rogue Soul (Flash)

Heylo, everyone! Once again we're poking around at Kongregate.com to see what sorts of games we might find! This time around I went with Rogue Soul by Soulgame and either "produced" by, or just made in conjunction with Notdoppler or..something like that!

You play as a..erm, character? I'm really not sure if they are supposed humans or not.. It might be just a race created by the developer to use! (As I think sometime in the past I played another game of theirs but I don't recall what it was off-hand...) Anyway, seems he's a thief! And he wants to be the most infamous guy with the biggest price on his head! ...Erm, for some reason, and so he goes on a stealing and guard-defeating spree!

Really. That seems to be about the long and short of it! The game plays like many others of its type. Said type being the auto-scrolling reactive running sort of game! You run and jump around to avoid enemies and obstacles as you try to simply get as far as you can and gather up as many points worth of goodies as you can. Honestly it doesn't feel a whole lot different than most other games like it, eeeexcept for one little thing that makes a big difference... You only get three shots. And once all three have been used up, it's game over and you have to start again. As for my thoughts on this....that'll come later.

Musically speaking, the game doesn't really jump out with anything memorable, but it's also nothing unpleasant. Just nice flash game music. Good for where it is, but not something I'd listen to outside of the game.

Honestly I found this to be a rather sweet experience! And it's specifically because you have limited tries. So many games nowadays, especially flash games, hold your hand with nigh infinite attempts until you finally complete the goal. A lot of times this is specifically the point of the game, as you do terribly to start with and then just keep buying more and more upgrades to make it easier and further. Most of these auto-scroll running games are like that. And while that's all well and good, it means the game is more an exercise of patience than anything truly skill related. That's where this game shines, as to get further in it you need to get better, and start recognizing patterns. There are no upgrades at all. Just the required temp-items found in-game. This does make the game a great deal less likely to be beaten, but at the same time as I've said, I actually like that in a flash game. It makes me feel like the time I put into it will be well worth it!

First Taste - bit Dungeon (Flash)

Heylo, everyone! Oh my today's game was fun! bit Dungeon (No that's not a typo!) is an action-roguelike flash game that you can find on Kongregate.com at least, perhaps elsewhere as well, in which you take the role of...well, a nameless hero of some sort as you traverse the dungeon to..um...do something.. Okay, yeah, this game doesn't seem to have any sort of real story that I can see... ^.^;

However! The game itself is still wonderful! It's a game that revels in sprite graphics.. You know that kinda game... Where everything is all intentionally bit-y? Like, some people might call it 8-bit or 16-bit or whatever depending on exactly what it's most akin to, but it still doesn't quite fit those... But yeah, that kinda game! I just wish I could think of an example off the top of my head... ^.^;

The music is very unobtrusive, but if you like chiptune music it will definitely stick with you while you play. Sound effects are of a similar breed!

The gameplay itself is wonderfully simple. Do you have a mouse? Do you know how to right click? Then you know how to play the game. :3 It's really very automated as clicking will move your character around, and he'll attack nearby enemies automatically. You can perform a special attack(and block!) by holding down the button! And really that's about it! You explore the rooms, slay the monsters, compare and change about equipment, and continue forward on your quest to do...something.

It's sweet. :D

First Taste - They Took Our Candy!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Originally I had planned on playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent for a special Halloween episode, but then...well, admittedly I just kinda chickened out. ^.^;; I'll probably still do it sometime, but...yeah. Instead I took a look at a flash game called They Took Our Candy!

It's a game where aliens stole the kids' candy! So a group of kids decides to get it back! Going into the game I actually wasn't sure what to expect, and then it plopped me on a character select screen and I realized I was creating a team of four... Each character gives a different increase to the team's overall stats, and has a special ability! I finally found out that the game is basically an auto-scrolling shooter. Your team of four is kept in a 2x2 square and fire automatically at intervals. And...that's really all there is to it. You move them around and shoot aliens in hopes that they'll drop candy. At the end of the wave, the candy can be used to buy upgrades for the next wave. Upon losing all your health a rank meter will fill up based on how well you did, and if you get enough..erm,not sure if it's candy or general score..But get enough of something and you'll gain a rank and unlock a new kid in a costume to possibly put on your team and try again with!

The music is mellow and delightful. Like, really! It reminds me of Donkey Kong Country music. Not in terms of scope, but in the way it just settles so easily into the background and I find myself humming it and just in general enjoying.

The game does have one fatal flaw though...It's slow. Very slow. And I don't mean just your kids' speed, but the aliens and everything. You don't really gain that much candy in a wave all the time unless you hammer obtained candy into the "Candy" stat to increase candy drops (Did I mention candy?) so you can't upgrade very quickly, and the aliens just slowly mosey along, each early wave at least introducing a new one. I got through to late wave 3 or wave 4 before I lost all my health and gained one rank up, one new kid. Then on the second attempt I didn't get quite that far, and didn't unlock anything! And I just did not want to give it another go. Maybe if you unlocked a new kid each time just becaues, or if the game simply played faster to better hold my interest it'd have been a fun Halloween-themed game, but as it stands... It's just kind of sour.

I do recommend that you all give it a shot, if you want something to play related to this day, but I don't really expect anyone to stick with it for long. ^.^;

First Taste - Captain America and the Avengers (Game Gear)

Heylo, everyone!

So the Avengers are pretty popular right now, huh? I rather liked the movie myself, too. :3 This game, though.. The music is okay, but it's not nearly the delightful tunes of the Game Gear that I'd heard before! It was just kinda more...there. Which I guess is still better than some of the other games I've touched on here.

The visuals aren't really all that great. I mean, it's a tiny Game Gear screen, so what're you gonna do? But even still.. When I reached the first boss, I had no idea who he was. He had yellow and green on him and he threw energy bolts...But to be fair, that could be a loooooot of people in superhero stuff... >.>;

The worst part I think is just the let down of the gameplay, really. It didn't feel super responsive all the time. Like, far as I can tell if you hold Down, and then attack, you'll shoot/throw a projectile. But it didn't always work, and I wasn't given any indication as to why it might not work. The hit detection was really wonky too. Like, that boss I mentioned? It doesn't seem like I can punch him at all. And so when I can't seem to punch him, and half the time my ground-projectile isn't working...And there's a certain stop point in the jump where you can no longer jump kick... I died quickly.

It wasn't a pleasant experience. I'd almost say it's just sour, but knowing the game also exists on the SNES and Genesis and is probably better there... Yeah, it was just kinda bitter.