siravarice
New member
For some reason recently I have been in a retro games mood and because I'm now bored. Thought I would tell you a little bit about some of the games I've been playing, sort of like a review, although I don't think I'm allowed to post a review as I'm not on the review team?
Anyway, lets get to it.
Multiwinia
First off, my old favourite that a lot of you might have played in the form of Darwinia. Multiwinia is basically an evolution of that game. The story is written around the Multiwinia people, the booklet inside the disc case has a tiny timeline basically outlining what has happened since Darwinia, culminating in the creation of the Multiwinians. The story line is cute and doesn't detract from the old school nature of the game, and ties in nicely with Darwinia.
Cue images of said game:
The basic menu is easy to navigate and the massive buttons make it easy to choose which gametpye to play.
A quick pic of the booklet, the style is nicely played throughout and it's THE only booklet I have ever read from front to back.
The gameplay is just so much fun it's really hard to compare it to anything. Basically the aim of the game is to beat the enemy using your spawned Multiwinians and the crate drops that you get over the map. Overall my favourite gametype was King of the Hill, in which there are areas of the map that you have to get your Multiwinians in and hold for as long as possible. In the all you have is around a thousand Multiwinians fighting it out over spaces on the map, with lasers flying everywhere, crates being hunted for extra support and spawn points being stolen.
The graphics are simply brilliant. Because it has been designed to look rubbish, it actually looks really pretty. The use of polygons gives the game a different kind of edge to a lot of other games and it's nice to see that when it comes down to it, companies can still produce something based on great gameplay instead of amazing graphics.
There are plenty of maps, for different amounts of players for each gametype. All looking like they were warped from the 80's and all feeling genuine and well thought through. I couldn't remember of any bugs in the game, apart from Winians getting stuck on the sides of mountains if you tell them to walk there, but that's your own fault really!
The controls couldn't be simpler, move with WSAD and move troops by clicking with the RMB. LMB will create officers that basically act as waypoints for the other Winians so that all your spawned Winians will instantly move towards a point of interest. Simple. Effective. Beautiful.
The multiplayer is exactly the same in all respects, apart from the gameplay. Playing against other players makes all games a lot harder, and there is no real advantage from being a veteran or an newbie. In fact it is probably one of the most balanced multiplayers I have played for a while.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Audiosurf
Audiosurf was something I had looked at for a while before I eventually shelled out for it, and I'm very glad I did. If you love music as much as I do, and arcade games as well, then this is a must buy. It looks gorgeous and plays even better.
The aim of the game is to collect all the coloured tiles that pop up on the track and miss the grey ones. Collecting lots and filling all the bard gives you a multiplier and missing the blocks gives you a bonus too. This game is primarily singleplayer, but it has a feeling of multiplayer as your scores are uploaded instantly to the net and you can view your score compared to others, or as in my case, nobody has played the song you did, and you get an award for "owning" the song with the highest score.
As you can see the game is very pretty, largely based around bright colours, but also around the in game equalizer that calculates the track before you play. It uses certain frequencies (for the bass drum usually) and make a track, with bumps showing a bass drum hit, and uphill, flat sections showing little noise. The louder and more frequencies there are in a certain part of a song, the more downhill it will be, with more blocks to collect and dodge.
The menu is simple enough, with the obvious gametypes, and difficulty settings, creating more blocks to miss, jump over or collect. The harder the difficulty the larger the score can be.
When opening up a new game, it will have the installed music that came with the game or new content to play. Along with that your own music folder will be there, so you can play an awesome game while using your favourite music.
Different colour styles can be applied, but the default one seemed the best to me. Sounds can be changed or turned off. There is a multiplayer section (which I forgot about) That has two people playing the same song, and however has the highest score at the end wins, but this feature doesn't get used much.
Overall another great game to waste money of and wile away the hours with, especially if you love music.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
SUPER LASER RACER!
Officially my new favourite game. It's is so simple that anyone could play this, even my nan. It's purely a top down racer with laser type cars that can fire or lay missiles, bombs, lasers, plasme, cannons and mines.
The menu is simple, with nice background graphics of little racers. There is no multiplayer on this game, but when some of the AI is so hard to beat, it doesn't really matter.
The maps are simple, and there is an easy to use track editor that comes with the game too.
There isn't much that can be said about the visuals for this game really, apart from the fact that they are amazing. To unlock new cars you have to do tournaments, each on easy, normal and hard. On each trach there is a green area that can be driven through that replenishes your shield, just incase you got shot loads and hit the wall a lot, it saved me from losing a race quite a few times.
There are three gametypes. Race, Eliminator and Survival. Race is pretty simple, just race with all the features and beat the other players. Eliminator kills whoever is in last at the end of each lap, and Survival doesn't give you any shield recharge areas, so once you use up all your shield, you die and are out of the race.
Another great retro game, and one that I will be playing for years to come.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Finally we have GEOMETRY WARS: RETRO EVOLVED
When I said Super Laser Racer was simple, this casually walked up and said, with lit cigarette in mouth, "you ain't seen nuthin' yet" The controls for this game consist of the arrow keys and the WSAD keys. And that is it.
The menu is, well, pretty obvious. No multiplayer, only single player, but the ridiculous difficulty of this game means that you will be there for hours trying to beat the next highest score, or your own scores.
In the game you are a small white ship that can shoot in all directions using the mouse (not a good idea) or the directional keys (much better control). All you have to do is shoot the appearing shapes and not get hit, otherwise you die. When you run out of your lives, the game ends.
You can nuke the enemies, but only three times, unless you pick up another bomb along the way.
That's it basically, just look at the rendering goodness and shiny lights!
Rating : 7.5 out of 10
Hope this helps if you are deciding to look for some cool little games to play. I will no doubt have plenty more where that came from too. If you want some games recommended then PM me and I will suggest a load for you to try out.
So, how was my first review? Considering I've never done one before and basically had no idea what I was doing!
Anyway, lets get to it.
Multiwinia
First off, my old favourite that a lot of you might have played in the form of Darwinia. Multiwinia is basically an evolution of that game. The story is written around the Multiwinia people, the booklet inside the disc case has a tiny timeline basically outlining what has happened since Darwinia, culminating in the creation of the Multiwinians. The story line is cute and doesn't detract from the old school nature of the game, and ties in nicely with Darwinia.
Cue images of said game:
The basic menu is easy to navigate and the massive buttons make it easy to choose which gametpye to play.
A quick pic of the booklet, the style is nicely played throughout and it's THE only booklet I have ever read from front to back.
The gameplay is just so much fun it's really hard to compare it to anything. Basically the aim of the game is to beat the enemy using your spawned Multiwinians and the crate drops that you get over the map. Overall my favourite gametype was King of the Hill, in which there are areas of the map that you have to get your Multiwinians in and hold for as long as possible. In the all you have is around a thousand Multiwinians fighting it out over spaces on the map, with lasers flying everywhere, crates being hunted for extra support and spawn points being stolen.
The graphics are simply brilliant. Because it has been designed to look rubbish, it actually looks really pretty. The use of polygons gives the game a different kind of edge to a lot of other games and it's nice to see that when it comes down to it, companies can still produce something based on great gameplay instead of amazing graphics.
There are plenty of maps, for different amounts of players for each gametype. All looking like they were warped from the 80's and all feeling genuine and well thought through. I couldn't remember of any bugs in the game, apart from Winians getting stuck on the sides of mountains if you tell them to walk there, but that's your own fault really!
The controls couldn't be simpler, move with WSAD and move troops by clicking with the RMB. LMB will create officers that basically act as waypoints for the other Winians so that all your spawned Winians will instantly move towards a point of interest. Simple. Effective. Beautiful.
The multiplayer is exactly the same in all respects, apart from the gameplay. Playing against other players makes all games a lot harder, and there is no real advantage from being a veteran or an newbie. In fact it is probably one of the most balanced multiplayers I have played for a while.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Audiosurf
Audiosurf was something I had looked at for a while before I eventually shelled out for it, and I'm very glad I did. If you love music as much as I do, and arcade games as well, then this is a must buy. It looks gorgeous and plays even better.
The aim of the game is to collect all the coloured tiles that pop up on the track and miss the grey ones. Collecting lots and filling all the bard gives you a multiplier and missing the blocks gives you a bonus too. This game is primarily singleplayer, but it has a feeling of multiplayer as your scores are uploaded instantly to the net and you can view your score compared to others, or as in my case, nobody has played the song you did, and you get an award for "owning" the song with the highest score.
As you can see the game is very pretty, largely based around bright colours, but also around the in game equalizer that calculates the track before you play. It uses certain frequencies (for the bass drum usually) and make a track, with bumps showing a bass drum hit, and uphill, flat sections showing little noise. The louder and more frequencies there are in a certain part of a song, the more downhill it will be, with more blocks to collect and dodge.
The menu is simple enough, with the obvious gametypes, and difficulty settings, creating more blocks to miss, jump over or collect. The harder the difficulty the larger the score can be.
When opening up a new game, it will have the installed music that came with the game or new content to play. Along with that your own music folder will be there, so you can play an awesome game while using your favourite music.
Different colour styles can be applied, but the default one seemed the best to me. Sounds can be changed or turned off. There is a multiplayer section (which I forgot about) That has two people playing the same song, and however has the highest score at the end wins, but this feature doesn't get used much.
Overall another great game to waste money of and wile away the hours with, especially if you love music.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
SUPER LASER RACER!
Officially my new favourite game. It's is so simple that anyone could play this, even my nan. It's purely a top down racer with laser type cars that can fire or lay missiles, bombs, lasers, plasme, cannons and mines.
The menu is simple, with nice background graphics of little racers. There is no multiplayer on this game, but when some of the AI is so hard to beat, it doesn't really matter.
The maps are simple, and there is an easy to use track editor that comes with the game too.
There isn't much that can be said about the visuals for this game really, apart from the fact that they are amazing. To unlock new cars you have to do tournaments, each on easy, normal and hard. On each trach there is a green area that can be driven through that replenishes your shield, just incase you got shot loads and hit the wall a lot, it saved me from losing a race quite a few times.
There are three gametypes. Race, Eliminator and Survival. Race is pretty simple, just race with all the features and beat the other players. Eliminator kills whoever is in last at the end of each lap, and Survival doesn't give you any shield recharge areas, so once you use up all your shield, you die and are out of the race.
Another great retro game, and one that I will be playing for years to come.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Finally we have GEOMETRY WARS: RETRO EVOLVED
When I said Super Laser Racer was simple, this casually walked up and said, with lit cigarette in mouth, "you ain't seen nuthin' yet" The controls for this game consist of the arrow keys and the WSAD keys. And that is it.
The menu is, well, pretty obvious. No multiplayer, only single player, but the ridiculous difficulty of this game means that you will be there for hours trying to beat the next highest score, or your own scores.
In the game you are a small white ship that can shoot in all directions using the mouse (not a good idea) or the directional keys (much better control). All you have to do is shoot the appearing shapes and not get hit, otherwise you die. When you run out of your lives, the game ends.
You can nuke the enemies, but only three times, unless you pick up another bomb along the way.
That's it basically, just look at the rendering goodness and shiny lights!
Rating : 7.5 out of 10
Hope this helps if you are deciding to look for some cool little games to play. I will no doubt have plenty more where that came from too. If you want some games recommended then PM me and I will suggest a load for you to try out.
So, how was my first review? Considering I've never done one before and basically had no idea what I was doing!
I played Geometry wars before (its a hidden game in Project Gotham Racng 3 lol) and its amazing!! Me and my mates spent about a week ignoring the racing and playing that instead just trying to get the high score, seriously addictive!
