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By Tim, February 2, 2010 3:41 am

Goblyn Stomp – Action & Adventure – 80 Points – Download

Developed by Trevor Boone, Goblyn Stomper is a simple play-till-you-lose game with a lot of charm behind it. As Mr. Chap Scaliwag, you’ve been tasked with clearing the streets of a never-ending swarm of Goblyns with a taste for your ankles in the most gentlemanly way possible. For starters, you’re only capable of a care-free jump onto their squishy noggins, but as the Goblyn bloodsplatters pile up you gain access to super stomps, remote mines, and your trusty spinning cane to help knock down the Goblyn hordes. You’ll need all of those abilities too, as although the Goblyn numbers are few to start out with, they soon after start swarming in from nearly every side of the screen.

Chap’s animation of happily jumping in the air never fails to amuse me. The soundtrack to the game is great as well, composed of ragtime-style piano tunes made specially for the game. Sometimes the higher tempo portions of the music feel just right as fresh swarms of Goblyns emerge from the left and the right. The controls are very responsive and it is easy to manuver Chap around in the air as you position yourself to deliver a blow from above. As the Goblyns pile up, though, you’ll find yourself having to weigh the risks and gains. Do you go for a super stomp on a pile of 7 just sitting around, knowing that missing just one of them will leave you vulnerable, or do you instead drop some mines and hope they’ll come your way? While most of the weapons are useful for particular situations, you’ll find yourself using your standard jumps the most often as the safe spots upon the ground dry up.

Aside from the game itself, its only other feature is a high score board (no online leaderboards, sadly), but after putting in a hard effort it’s satisfying to see Chap standing upon a 50-foot tower of Goblyn carcasses. At the low cost of 80 points, Goblyn Stomper allows you to indulge in some ol’ timey ultraviolence at a price that matches those classic times.

Goblyn Stomper allows you to indulge in some ol' timey ultraviolence at a price that matches those classic times.

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By Tim, January 17, 2010 4:11 am

Sidehill Gouger – Puzzle & Trivia – 80 Points – Download

Sidehill Gouger is Canned Games’ puzzle offering to XBLIG. As a young boy visiting his grandpa’s fishing hole, you must navigate your way through a series of grass-filled mazes to discover and knock-out the Sidehill Gouger before safely heading on your way. The game plays similar to minesweeper; as you walk through the mazes, you uncover things such as blood spots that hint at the Gouger’s location or rock piles that mark a nearby hole waiting for you to fall through it. Using these clues, you can approximate the hiding spot of the Gouger before beaning it with your slingshot.

While the game’s graphics, done in a hand-drawn style, and laid-back soundtrack are charming, it also falls into the same trap as minesweeper in that it is rather easy to get unlucky. Even when you’ve found a clue to a trap or Gouger location, it’s possible to accidentally step into the trap itself since the clues can appear on any square adjacent to the hostile one. Once you reach the stages that introduce curved paths, it becomes even more confusing as not only do they force you to go a certain square unless you double back, but clues don’t appear on them, making some of your searches less than informative. Also, your slingshot only travels one square across, so you’ll have to be certain of the clues on all sides before taking aim.

The game includes some re-playability by giving a “par time” to shoot for stage, but again there is some element of luck as to whether or not you’ll complete a stage that quickly. Each set of stages also includes a set of trophies to collect for completing certain objectives. Sidehill Gouger will lull you in with its storybook-like presentation, but players will need to exercise patience more than once to get through it.

Great presentation but ultimately frustrating.

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By Tim, January 11, 2010 2:20 am

Molly the Were-Zompire – Role Playing – 80 Points – Download

Molly the Were-Zompire is an interactive fiction (IF) game created under the wife-and-husband pen name R.W. Boyd. Molly is actually their second IF work for XBLIG, the first being Epiphany in Spaaace. While an IF sounds like something strange and unusual, the format is identical to choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA) books. Interactive fiction works have been popular among independent games for some time, so ideally making one for XBLIG should give players, or readers as the case may be, a chance to see what these are all about.

As the title indicates, players are put in the shoes of Molly Desper, a graduate student. Through extraordinary circumstances, she is turned into a Were-Zompire (Werewolf + zombie + vampire) and goes on a series of adventures at the player’s whim. The controls are simple enough. The A button is used to proceed through pages. Occasionally, a decision will come up and is chosen using X, Y or A. Some choices can lead to new branches of the story while others bring the story to an end, usually negatively. A handy feature built into the game is the ability to warp back to the previous set of choices by pressing left trigger or B. For curious players, it helps immensely with exploring each choice rather than going all the way back to the beginning once a game over is reached.

In terms of the game’s writing, it follows the traditional COYA style of referring to you in the second person (i.e. “You are…”). The humor, however, is at times hit and miss. Much of it relies heavily on breaking the 4th wall and reminding the player they’re playing a game, or the developer injecting themselves into the script to give them a personal message. The overall story is straightforward and does occasionally surprise you with your decisions, but is nothing groundbreaking

On a plus side, the game’s presentation is simple and uncluttered. The text is largely-printed and crisp, and the simple texture backgrounds don’t distract from the text. The music is a continuous piano lounge tune that, while calming, could drag on if you intend to read every inch of the game in one sitting. Luckily, the game supports playing your own music while reading.

For the price of a used book, Molly the Were-Zompire offers a simple and quick escape for CYOA fans, but the overabundance of 4th wall humor and cheesy story might make it more suitable for juvenile tastes.

Molly the Were-Zompire offers a simple and quick escape for CYOA fans, but the overabundance of 4th wall humor and cheesy story might make it more suitable for juvenile tastes.

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By Tim, January 6, 2010 3:23 am

Balloon Blocks – Puzzle & Trivia – 240 Points – Download

Balloon Blocks is a puzzle game created by Creative Cog Games that, at its core, takes its inspiration from other classic puzzle games such as Tetris and Columns. Shapes comprised of 2-4 colored blocks fall into a bin. By matching up identically colored blocks, they’re cleared from the playfield, with bonuses obtained by clearing larger numbers of blocks at once or clearing one color right after the other. Unlike the rigid block-dropping of previous games, Balloon Blocks puts its own twist on the formula by giving each of the blocks bouncy and free-floating physics.

Falling blocks bounce off of ones already in place and can freely rotate 360 degress in the air until they reach the bottom or hit another block, which after a short moment freeze in place. Taking advantage of the bouncy physics, blocks aren’t cleared through lines but instead “tapping” 3 or more of the same blocks against one another. Aiding the player in addition is an “Unfreeze Meter” that slowly replenishes during gameplay and refills faster by completing combos. When the meter is full and activated, all the frozen blocks fall to the bottom of the playfield, usually setting off large numbers of combos and serving as the main point-maker in Balloon Blocks.

While Balloon Blocks has its own uniqueness, it’s not without a learning curve. It’ll take most players a couple games to get used to how the blocks bounce off one another, and the free rotation in-air means new players will tend to over-correct with their block orientations. Balloon Blocks features standard puzzle game modes such as normal mode (play until you lose), clear mode (clear a set of pre-arranged blocks from the playfield), and survival (stay alive for a set period of time). The game’s graphics are simple and pastel, but clearly show all the elements during gameplay. The game’s background music is alright and unobtrusive but being unable to custom select tracks for each stage makes them a bit stale over repeated plays.

Overall, Balloon Blocks offers a fresh spin in the falling-blocks puzzle genre, but it’s gelatin-like physics may not be to every puzzle fan’s liking. Definitely give the trial a go before bouncing into the thick of things.

Balloon Blocks offers a fresh spin in the falling-blocks puzzle genre, but it's gelatin-like physics may not be to every puzzle fan’s liking.