RPG Maker Review: Clock of Atonement

When I saw daigo‘s Clock of Atonement on the featured page on RPGmaker.net, I immediately downloaded it to play at a more convenient time. Needless to say, it turned out I could’ve played this game any time.

The game itself is made in RPG Maker 2000 but through some method I have no idea of, it was packaged as a locked program. The screen resolution is also different to normal RPG Maker games with an approximate resolution of 480 x 480 which works in the game’s favour as it takes the shape of a book rather than a Windows application. The graphics are simple, nice and look polished and the animations are great.

DS Review: Picross 3D

After the charade of digging my brains trying to remember games I was playing about a year back, I return to normality. At the moment I’m playing a super addictive puzzle game on the DS going by the name, Picross 3D. A sequel of some sort to the original Picross DS which I couldn’t get to grips with and gave up on, it’s successor had a different effect on me.

The game has a very in-depth tutorial to familiarise myself with the new concept of a 3D cube in which you chip away at smaller cubes to reveal an object. It’s spilt into different levels which makes it more useful from a referential point of view and not to mention the excellent examples that follow each demonstration. I’m sure you can just ignore the text and work things out from the simple and easy-to-follow diagrams and build on what you know of Picross 3D already.

After the tutorials are done, I jumped into the first level of Easy Mode which was surprisingly easy and moved onto Level 2 within the hour. This was definitely much easier than the original but it was called Easy Mode for a reason. The latter puzzles proved to be more challenging and the 5-strike rule evoked by the game and not to mention the time limit soon become more threatening. Things are made more difficult by the fact that you might accidentally break blocks thanks to the precision required when you’re twisting and turning the large cube around but this is negated if you learn to align the cube straight on before you hold that ‘X’ button and smash away. Of course, with a strict time limit imposed it’s harder to do but it’s just something you’ll have to bear with until you can move the cube around with more accuracy.

The game developer, HAL Laboratory Inc. have created over 350 puzzles to solve and I’m about two-thirds of the way there. I’m just about to get to the Hard Mode in a couple of levels but in the many hours I have spent on this game I haven’t seen any Nintendo-referenced objects except for maybe one at the beginning which kind of disappoints me because apparently the original Picross had them towards the end of the game. Somehow I doubt there will be any and I have to say that the puzzles feel repetitive.

To counteract that feeling, there’s the My Puzzles mode where you can create your own puzzles (my first and only creation was the triforce from Zelda) and share them with others online (friendcodes only!) and also compete online with the weekly contest. These are quite good as you can download a pack every week and see the awesome work of others around the world. Only downer is that there is no competitive versus mode like it’s predecessor (I think there was anyway).

Picross 3D has provided me with a lot of addictive fun and I am expecting to finish the game sometime before April. The game exhausts your mental state pretty quickly especially you’re like me and you play your DS before you drift off to sleep. Come to think of it, it’s not exactly the ideal game to play late at night but it’s a great game and one worth having in any DS owner’s collection. I think I may go back to Picross DS and give it another chance in the future but for the moment being, it’s back to Normal Mode – Level 9 – D on Picross 3D.

Overall verdict: excellent

A quick update: I finally finished all 369 puzzles completed with 3-stars! Phew.

DS Review: Soul Bubbles

Hiding among the many DS games in my local games shop there was this little gem of a game. Okay, not really, Soul Bubbles was nowhere to be seen in any of the stores in my area except a Toys ‘R’ Us store about 25 miles away from home but it must’ve been an in-store exclusive only thing as internet shops listed this game.

I decided to play this for the sole reason of innovation and originality, something that’s been lost somewhere in the abundance of pony simulators and other non-games out there.

Moving on, the game loads up in a strange fashion. Not with a CGI-heavy intro like those current Final Fantasy DS games but with a laughable disclaimer.

There aren’t that many games based around that on the DS but this game does include a wise old man i.e. sage so I wonder…

The first few levels help you ease into the game explaining the simple yet smooth controls the game uses. I used the four ABXY buttons for cutting, blowing etc and the main touch screen to draw those neat little bubbles to trap those poor little souls.

The game has it’s own style which I find very pleasing to the eye. The bubble physics is great and the general look of the levels make playing this game a dream. Yeah it’s 2D but that isn’t an issue as the bonus levels prove.

This game was beaten in less than a week’s playing time and I consider my skills being pretty average. I decided to in order to get more out of the game, that it’s worth playing a couple of levels a week as I didn’t find the story, if there was one, to be that inspiring.

To be fair though this game is primarily a puzzle game and it doesn’t really need a story as the levels themselves dictate a truly immense backdrop. Every kind of environment from a jungle to a desert are featured here, the last one being my favourite. It’s also the most challenging as I struggled to collect all the calabash (hidden item) there.

Cut the tongue to set the souls free

Soul Bubbles plays like the game the DS was built for. Unfortunately it’s had very little coverage so if you find it at a cheap price I fully recommend the purchase as it’s something that rarely appears on the DS and it’s fun at the same time too!

Overall verdict: good