Game Master
Well, just last night I was fortunate enough to hear that a dear friend of mine has gotten the ULTIMATE job… for someone in their twenties who likes video games, that is. He is a video game designer for a small game company called Mind Control Software. And let me tell you that this company definitely lives up to it’s name. I had some things I was planning to do today, but let’s just say that they’re optional. So I went and checked out the company website and, sure enough, they are a fun game company. I had something to do today that was actually quite important in terms of my career future and I’d almost forgotten to do it because I was in the middle of testing one of their games. I kid you not, this is definite mind control. And since I’ve signed on as a beta tester for their upcoming titles, I get to post my review about them here.
ARRRRRR!
First off, I should tell you that up until this point, they have specialized in low budget games that are meant for bored office workers on their breaks, such as myself. They aren’t exactly Nintendo or Sega, but soon they might find themselves producing titles Next Gen consoles. Their next project is said to be a $2.5 million dollar project, so you never know.
Arrrr, matey! This be a piratey game where multiple players on one computer pillage char, enflame and ignite, drink up me hearties, yo ho with little cartoon ships with health meters over them. Steall some booty, store some booty, the whole deal. The problem is, I downloaded the game, I installed the game, I discovered there was no single player option in campaign mode, so the only “Arrrrrr!” you hear from me is in frustration. I could skirmish though with the many wonderful game options they had there like “Sinking Frenzy,” “Hunter” and “Booty Call”… I mean “Booty Ball.”
In this game, you drag the cursor around behind your ship to control the wind and move the sail. Shoot at other ships that come by, blow them up and collect their booty once they sink. Somehow, the little booty coin floats and you just go over and pick it up. I’ll buy that, though, for a video game. Entertaining for a little while, but there’s one thing I really don’t get. This game is meant for four players with four mice hooked up to the same computer. The controls are difficult enough, but can you imagine moving a mouse around with three other guys at the same desk shoving their mice around, constantly colliding into each other? Sounds to me like a real pain. I give this game a grade of “It’s alright.”
Bubble Symphony
This is the first game I played because I thought it was going to be a copy of “Bubble Symphony,” One of the many “Bubble Bobble” sequels that popped up in the arcade. Since it’s not, they may want to change the title to avoid lawsuits or confusion. I’ll have to include that in my report. In this strategy game, you are a queen bubble waging war with your bubble army on another bubble army that DOESN’T move at all but is still quite powerful. Given this sum up, a better game title might be “Sud Symphony” or “Sud Stratagy.” Or if you want to make the game sound more masculine, try “Sud DOMINATION.” Now you’re talking. On the other hand, the soundtrack, which is properly synched with the action of the game, is very pretty and orchestral and may conflict with the masculine title.
As you battle, you must make use of the power-ups that pop up on the board. A shield will repair your bubble warrior and any other that might be nearby. Doesn’t exactly make sense, but it’s very useful. An arrowhead will give your warriors five long distance shots, which is good because the only other way to attack is to get within short range and the bubbles automatically shoot plasma or something. Word to the wise: abuse this power-up. And lastly, an orange thing shaped like a molecule will grow you a new bubble. I don’t need to say it: use it.
In the least, this is a great bubble game. “Bubble Bobble” will always have a bigger place in my heart just because it has those cute little dino characters that sprout hearts at you every time you decide to continue, then continue to “bubblesize” evil robots, but this game is better than even chess, although the queen in this case doesn’t have half the abilities.
Gem River
Perhaps the most difficult game as of yet. For some reason, these beautiful emeralds are going over this waterfall and you have to stop them by selecting a bunch of them that are the same color and therefore making them disappear. Why one would want to make emeralds vanish is beyond my guess, but I’m sure there’s a reason for it, other than just being pretty. Not really, but it sure is pretty. So the idea of the game is simple, run your cursor over the emeralds to select them, select a bunch as they crash together and you got’em. The more you bag per combination, the better. Also, there the multicolored emerald, which allows you to select emeralds of one color, then continue to select emeralds of another color for larger combinations. And there’s a diamond that will freeze time temporarily so that you can select more emeralds before they fall down the PIT OF DOOM!...Or wherever they fall to. The game started out nice and simple, but After a few levels, gets very fast. There’s probably no end to this game and there’s no point trying to get to it, but it’s a good time waster. And with the soundtrack done in the same vein as “Bubble Symphony,” that helps.
Magic Word Garden
This game brings me back to the good ole days of grade school. Remember those games where you got scored on what kind of spelling abilities you had? This is one of those games and I think it will definitely be able to help little kids study their spelling. The player is given seven letters and they are to make as many different words with this letter combination as possible. You can only do words that are three letters long or more. The more you spell with one letter combination the more points you get. And the sore is nicely illustrated visually with a garden. Every time you score, you grow flowers and stuff in the garden via magically appearing rain clouds and a nearby water fountain. If you misspell words, you get rocks and bees. The game also includes a few words that are short yet beyond the spelling level of the average first or second grader that will be playing this game at school. Just don’t type any swear words in or words describing certain body parts because those definitely don’t work. Been there, done that.
Stomping Grounds
This game is the one my friend has been working on. It’s an RPG strategy game in which you control a herd of animals in Africa and must take over the Pride lands as the prophecy was foretold by a baboon that this would happen. Therefore, it MUST come true! The strategy is in what kind of herd you have and how you use them. Your herd has stronger and weaker animals, from the elephant to the gazelle. Fight battles with these characters and use them wisely in each one, otherwise they will perish for roughly two battles. Your goal is to get as much food, emblems and strong animals as you can, then whoop booty across African jungle. Upgrade your characters with food and they will become more powerful. Eventually, I worked my way up to having a vulture that was strong enough to take on a rhino. Remember though, this is only a video game. How a vulture would be good enough to kill a rhino in the real world is anyone’s guess. All in all, though, this game is quite entertaining and excellent.
And there you have it, folks. This is what we can expect from one of the next great game companies from now on. And even more. I can’t wait.
ARRRRRR!
First off, I should tell you that up until this point, they have specialized in low budget games that are meant for bored office workers on their breaks, such as myself. They aren’t exactly Nintendo or Sega, but soon they might find themselves producing titles Next Gen consoles. Their next project is said to be a $2.5 million dollar project, so you never know.
Arrrr, matey! This be a piratey game where multiple players on one computer pillage char, enflame and ignite, drink up me hearties, yo ho with little cartoon ships with health meters over them. Steall some booty, store some booty, the whole deal. The problem is, I downloaded the game, I installed the game, I discovered there was no single player option in campaign mode, so the only “Arrrrrr!” you hear from me is in frustration. I could skirmish though with the many wonderful game options they had there like “Sinking Frenzy,” “Hunter” and “Booty Call”… I mean “Booty Ball.”
In this game, you drag the cursor around behind your ship to control the wind and move the sail. Shoot at other ships that come by, blow them up and collect their booty once they sink. Somehow, the little booty coin floats and you just go over and pick it up. I’ll buy that, though, for a video game. Entertaining for a little while, but there’s one thing I really don’t get. This game is meant for four players with four mice hooked up to the same computer. The controls are difficult enough, but can you imagine moving a mouse around with three other guys at the same desk shoving their mice around, constantly colliding into each other? Sounds to me like a real pain. I give this game a grade of “It’s alright.”
Bubble Symphony
This is the first game I played because I thought it was going to be a copy of “Bubble Symphony,” One of the many “Bubble Bobble” sequels that popped up in the arcade. Since it’s not, they may want to change the title to avoid lawsuits or confusion. I’ll have to include that in my report. In this strategy game, you are a queen bubble waging war with your bubble army on another bubble army that DOESN’T move at all but is still quite powerful. Given this sum up, a better game title might be “Sud Symphony” or “Sud Stratagy.” Or if you want to make the game sound more masculine, try “Sud DOMINATION.” Now you’re talking. On the other hand, the soundtrack, which is properly synched with the action of the game, is very pretty and orchestral and may conflict with the masculine title.
As you battle, you must make use of the power-ups that pop up on the board. A shield will repair your bubble warrior and any other that might be nearby. Doesn’t exactly make sense, but it’s very useful. An arrowhead will give your warriors five long distance shots, which is good because the only other way to attack is to get within short range and the bubbles automatically shoot plasma or something. Word to the wise: abuse this power-up. And lastly, an orange thing shaped like a molecule will grow you a new bubble. I don’t need to say it: use it.
In the least, this is a great bubble game. “Bubble Bobble” will always have a bigger place in my heart just because it has those cute little dino characters that sprout hearts at you every time you decide to continue, then continue to “bubblesize” evil robots, but this game is better than even chess, although the queen in this case doesn’t have half the abilities.
Gem River
Perhaps the most difficult game as of yet. For some reason, these beautiful emeralds are going over this waterfall and you have to stop them by selecting a bunch of them that are the same color and therefore making them disappear. Why one would want to make emeralds vanish is beyond my guess, but I’m sure there’s a reason for it, other than just being pretty. Not really, but it sure is pretty. So the idea of the game is simple, run your cursor over the emeralds to select them, select a bunch as they crash together and you got’em. The more you bag per combination, the better. Also, there the multicolored emerald, which allows you to select emeralds of one color, then continue to select emeralds of another color for larger combinations. And there’s a diamond that will freeze time temporarily so that you can select more emeralds before they fall down the PIT OF DOOM!...Or wherever they fall to. The game started out nice and simple, but After a few levels, gets very fast. There’s probably no end to this game and there’s no point trying to get to it, but it’s a good time waster. And with the soundtrack done in the same vein as “Bubble Symphony,” that helps.
Magic Word Garden
This game brings me back to the good ole days of grade school. Remember those games where you got scored on what kind of spelling abilities you had? This is one of those games and I think it will definitely be able to help little kids study their spelling. The player is given seven letters and they are to make as many different words with this letter combination as possible. You can only do words that are three letters long or more. The more you spell with one letter combination the more points you get. And the sore is nicely illustrated visually with a garden. Every time you score, you grow flowers and stuff in the garden via magically appearing rain clouds and a nearby water fountain. If you misspell words, you get rocks and bees. The game also includes a few words that are short yet beyond the spelling level of the average first or second grader that will be playing this game at school. Just don’t type any swear words in or words describing certain body parts because those definitely don’t work. Been there, done that.
Stomping Grounds
This game is the one my friend has been working on. It’s an RPG strategy game in which you control a herd of animals in Africa and must take over the Pride lands as the prophecy was foretold by a baboon that this would happen. Therefore, it MUST come true! The strategy is in what kind of herd you have and how you use them. Your herd has stronger and weaker animals, from the elephant to the gazelle. Fight battles with these characters and use them wisely in each one, otherwise they will perish for roughly two battles. Your goal is to get as much food, emblems and strong animals as you can, then whoop booty across African jungle. Upgrade your characters with food and they will become more powerful. Eventually, I worked my way up to having a vulture that was strong enough to take on a rhino. Remember though, this is only a video game. How a vulture would be good enough to kill a rhino in the real world is anyone’s guess. All in all, though, this game is quite entertaining and excellent.
And there you have it, folks. This is what we can expect from one of the next great game companies from now on. And even more. I can’t wait.
posted by Jaimetud at 5:38 PM
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