Archive for the ‘Platform’ Category

Jasper’s Journey Review

Action, Adventure, Arcade, Platform, Puzzle | Posted by Zeke
Jul 06 2010

Jasper's Journey 2


Everyone knows cats are needed for evil witches’ brews so it should not have been a great surprise when Orlando, Jasper’s favorite pet, is snatched by a wicked hag on a lovely, sunny afternoon. Jasper may not be your typical hero type, and he may not be the smartest, swiftest or the bravest person in his small hamlet, but he is loyal to his friends and must go on a treacherous journey fighting and avoiding monsters of all sorts to save poor Orlando’s hide in Mac game Jasper’s Journey.

This is an old time scrolling platform play that everyone can enjoy. If you are new to this type of arcade play, use the easy mode until you get the hang of it. There are 3 modes for all levels of expertise. Initially the game is easy going and no problem accessing hidden areas for fruits, coins, stars, gems, golden orbs and shields. The game progresses quickly and your skill will be put to the test with the many high jumps you must make in order to get all your supplies, keys and treasures.

The blocks at first are also easy to handle especially the spikes where all you need to do is time the jump. The gnome-like guards can be shot down with ease using the X key and speed through the stone throwing birds overhead. After a couple of levels, it does get harder and more challenging. You will find that you must keep going back to search for all your objects. Nothing is too good for Orlando. Jasper is risking his life for him over and over again. There are also locked and secret areas you must explore. This is part of the enjoyment of platform games like Mario and Sonic.

The play is the fundamental platform maneuvers with the arrow keys managing your movements, Z is for jumping and X is for shooting. The fruits will give you energy and you’ll need it since shooting will drain your energy. Garner all the golden orbs, shields and treasures to keep going in the game. The gold can be used in the inns to buy supplies like fruit and shields. Remember saving a game will cost you 10 gold pieces and there are 6 different potions to help you.

Jasper’s Journey is full of items and objects to get in all the high or underground places. Mastering the jumps will advance your play by many folds because all the great and necessary things are usually placed way up high. The level ends when you reach the blue dragon. The purple dragon will take you to the island for more items.

Jasper’s Journey is a retro, side scrolling platform fun play similar to Bud Redhead. This type of game has loyal arcade followers who enjoy platform games. Even the music is retro and familiar with nice background graphics to enhance your play. Take a stroll back to the arcade era and help Jasper fend off the monsters and big bosses to save Orlando from the evil crone.

Features of Jasper’s Journey:
-Hidden Treasure Chambers and Secret Levels
-Battle Monsters
-Flying Potions
-Magic Butterfly

Rating: ★★★★☆

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The Tuttles: Madcap Misadventures Review

Action, Platform | Posted by musicaltrack
Jun 29 2010

tuttles

The Tuttles: Madcap Misadventures begins with the Tuttle family embarking on a family vacation to the Alamo. Join Barry Tuttle (voiced by Bob Saget), his wife Barbara (Jamie Lee Curtis), his daughter Jess (Ashley Tisdale), and his son Zach (Dominic Scott Kay) and their “smart” car Vance (voiced by the great William Shatner) as they attempt to make it to Texas in their flying automobile. Unfortunately not everything goes as planned and the family is sidetracked with zany side-stories. With an allstar cast like this, who needs a good game (Just joking)?

After flying around in the family minivan, the Tuttles run out of gas and have to crash land in the desert. This is where Barry has to leave his family and look for more gas to restart the car. The game takes on a platform approach, similar to Donkey Kong, where the goal is to collect all the necessary items and then make it to the exit. The controls are very basic, you can walk, jump and attack. These can be carried out on either the arrow keys or the mouse. I thought the mouse feature was pretty cool, but definitely felt more comfortable using the traditional arrows.

I looked into this game, because it seems like it is pretty big with movie and TV stars’ voices, and I found that it has ties to the Starlight Foundation. So when you buy this game, part of the purchase price goes right back to the charity, bettering both your gaming experience and the general community. Having celebrities like Bob Saget, Ashley Tisdale and William Shatner create an interesting experience that many people will like. The game additionally won many awards and can be played by the whole family for hours and hours of fun.

Personally, I thought this was a good game. The actors voices were a nice touch, but their lines were somewhat limited. When I would jump, they would repeat annoying noises that at times became a nuisance. Other than that, I had no other complaints as the game played very smoothly and the graphics were nice. The story line was funny without trying too hard and with 40 levels of fun, there is plenty of replayablility. I would give The Tuttles: Madcap Misadventures four out of five stars.

Features of The Tuttles: Madcap Misadventures:
- 40 levels of side scrolling action
- Celebrity voice overs
- Multiple characters
- Part of the Purchase donated to Starlight Foundation

Rating: ★★★★☆

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Qwak Review

Action, Adventure, Arcade, Platform, Puzzle, Shooter | Posted by musicaltrack
Apr 30 2010

qwak
download Qwakbuy Qwak

Qwak is an awesome platform/puzzle action Mac game for all those old time arcade players and anyone who wants to have a good time. With myriad of upgrades, extras and baddies to beat, you can’t go wrong with playing 70 levels in 6 different worlds.

The object of Qwak is to collect gold keys to exit to the next level. Easy, huh? No way. Before you leave one level, you must collect fruits (either stationary or raining down from the top of the screen), gems, flowers (10 will get you an extra life), and more. At the end of the level the fruits convert to eggs, and you use them to shoot baddies. There are grey and purple potions and keys. The black keys open treasure chests and the gold keys open the exit gate.

There are a lot of baddies who can topple your duck over and send him to his demise. Qwak! Not only do you need to avoid the enemies, you need to make sure the duck does not get hit by a spike ball; both small and humongous. You have to time the bubbles to elevate you to higher platforms and at the same time avoiding all the bad things dropping down on your duck.

In addition to all that there are secret sections where you have to figure out how to enter this site. You may need to pull levers, collect the right keys to go through gates and in the right order. Good luck.

If all that is not enough, you can play as one player or 2. In the 2 player mode, this is the one I like, you play along side your buddy or against him and throw the eggs at him and let the baddies deal with him. Bye, bye friend.

Qwak, with its bright and cheery graphics and fun sounds, is a challenging, entertaining platform/puzzle play. You have to have quick reaction and nimble fingers in order to get through the many levels in this fast-paced Mac game, but it’s all worth it when you save the duck! Qwak!

Features of Qwak:
-70 Action-packed Levels
-6 Different Worlds
-Single Player or 2 Player Modes

Rating: ★★★★☆

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Bob Came in Pieces Review

Action, Adventure, Platform, Puzzle | Posted by Zeke
Apr 20 2010


The title itself makes you smile and the play will have you working for hours in this fun, new physics based puzzle game about outer space. Bob Came in Pieces is a side scrolling platform game that takes you through many puzzles before you reach your goal.

The story is simple but cute and just engaging enough to get you started in this game of puzzles. Bob is more than your typical 9 to 5 employee at the galactic call center. He is an alien green octopod who enjoys everything about his job. He’s your Spongebob Squarepants of space. Every day he travels the usually safe intergalaxy route from his home to the office, but on this fateful day his reliable Hyperdrive 2000 is hit by a huge meteor and plummets him towards the nearest planet. With no space depot or inhabitants to help him fix his ride that broke into many pieces leaving just the body of the ship, Bob must find all the parts and fix his vehicle himself. Bob travels through different environments of this earth-like planet, transporting himself through portal after portal gathering all the parts. Bob must solve puzzles to continue on his journey and rebuild his spaceship at ship builders (marked with 2 crossed wrenches). What is left of Bob’s ship will take you to places unknown on this little planet to find hinges, extenders and what-have-you to make a whimsical, but efficient, unit for returning to the job he loves most.

The play is to navigate what’s left of Bob’s spaceship looking for the missing parts. There are up to 5 pieces of your ship in each location. Each part of the ship helps solve new puzzles, so you need to track down as many pieces as possible. You get to a rebuild station to put these parts you find back on the ship. Some of the pieces will push, pull, or hook to enable you through the many environments such as the steamy jungles, cold icy or cavernous areas so familiar to many platform games.

The tricky part of this game is you must be careful where you place each piece on the ship. The round spaceship has 8 connectors where you can place your pieces. How your ship is weighted with these pieces is important. If you do not balance the parts, you may be flying sideways or even crashing. The different pieces perform many functions and each function is assigned a key on your keyboard by you so if you want to use your space bar for the pull feature, it will help you maneuver your craft a little more easily. There are 3 different thruster at a time and you must remember to balance out each one to travel smoothly. They also can burn through objects like bushes. Another useful maneuver is to speed through barriers like the ice. You’ll need gadgets to jockey around rocks. In the beginning, like other games, there are a lot of experimenting and trying out before you can get everything in sync, but weighing the devices so they are balanced will avoid gravity from pulling your ship down. You steer your ship to the portal or exit in each level as in most scrolling platform games.
Sometimes the game can be a little repetitive, but with being able to customize your own funky ship, it keeps you motivated to complete the tasks. Anytime your ship design is bad, you will get stuck or fly crooked, but if you hit enter, it will get you back to the last ship builder to reconfigure your vehicle. If you are really, really stuck, use the help button represented by a question mark on the upper right hand side of the screen.

Overall Bob Came in Pieces is one awesome and original game with great cartoon graphics and very interesting backgrounds. It’s different from any other platform game I played, and it’s refreshing to know that there are people out there thinking up great new Mac games. It is fun to play, enjoyable to look at the artwork and good listening to the music. Some of the puzzles are challenging but not impossible and Bob can’t die so you can keep going on the journey. There’s nothing like it out there, but the closest thing I could think of is that it is a cross between Bud Redhead, Mario and Crystal Cave Classic. There are a lot of puzzles to keep your mind active and in shape. It does take some thinking to put together the ship and to get by blocks created by obstacles. What more do you need in a game with a great title like Bob Came in Pieces?

Features of Bob Came in Pieces:
-14 Stages
-Medals
-Physics Based Puzzles

Rating: ★★★★☆

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Snowy Bear Review

Action, Adventure, Platform | Posted by musicaltrack
Feb 09 2010

snowy-bear

Snowy the bear is the coolest little guy ever.  Your goal in this classic arcade platform Mac game is to get him back home safely from the myriads of monsters attacking him from all sides.  Is that too much to ask?

There are 3 modes to choose from in this challenging game of many levels.  The Kid’s mode will give you 100 (!) lives with fewer monsters.  Normal has 10 lives and double the monsters, and Hard is crazy with lots and lots of monsters and 10 lives.  You must bring your game face for this mode in order to beat it. 

This is your typical platform game where the monsters can come at you from all directions and all sizes, including the bosses.  You use your control key and arrow keys to throw snowballs and maneuver around.  I had trouble using the control button and arrows so I went into options and changed the control button to the space bar by clicking directly on control and changing it to any key.  I chose the space bar since it’s centrally located and it’s bigger than the other keys.  I use a MacBook Pro with Mac OS X, version 10.5.6.  If you do not change this key, your screen will disappear.  That was my only mishap I had with playing this Mac game.

The play is to move Snowy facing the enemies and clicking either your control or space bar to throw snowballs until the monster is completely covered and then kicking him out the game board.  Be careful though the snowball may come back and take Snowy down losing a life.

This game is fast and you must move even faster to either avoid the bad guys or by throwing the snowballs.  This action, shooter arcade play is more than awesome, it’s a challenging, strategic game with an upbeat music and happy character like Snowy.  What more do you need for an exciting and electrifying play?  Beat those monsters and get Snowy home.

I would definitely recommend this game to all the quick moving, coordinated (with practice) platform gamers who may enjoy a fun story about a fearless polar bear.  Also kids and inexperienced gamers can learn from the 100 lives you have to practice this awesome game.  The colors are so bright and intense and the artwork is imaginative.  I didn’t know you could do so much with platforms.  Don’t let the cuteness factor put you off.  Snowy is one tough bear.   

 

Features of Snowy the Bear’s Adventure:

-Tons of Snowballs and Levels

-Great Adventure

-4 Worlds

 

Rating: ★★★★☆

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