Post by Zenks Renway on Dec 6, 2009 16:42:52 GMT
This'll be a new bunch of reviews by me, and of course on downloadable PC games that cost jack all. So let's start things off with something good.
Cave Story, you say? Well.. that IS a brilliant game, but something less well-known, I meant to say. Aha, Akuji the Demon!
Lookie here, another slick Japanese platformer in the "Metroidvania" category! (go look that term up)
Plot: Simple. The evil demon Akuji is a threat to the world, but is taken out by a hero. The hero gets married and becomes King, but not before sealing Akuji's powers within 9 orbs, reducing him from a thing of evil to a thing of cuteness, and banishing Akuji to a labrynth the hero built under his castle. Akuji seeks revenge and sets out to regain his powers and set things straight with the hero. Slightly average, but scores extra points due to role-reversal and the tongue-in-cheek presentation.
Gameplay: The game is a standard platformer and plays in the style of Metroid- you play as Akuji and must explore and get new abilities to reach new areas. Akuji starts out with just walking and jumping, but eventually you'll be able to dash, shoot fire, wall-jump and even turn into a bat, among others. There's demon coins you'll find throughout the game, the more you get, the higher your maximum amount of hearts gets. Like Ghosts 'n Goblins or the NES Castlevania titles, you have no control over where you can land your jumps, but the superb level design takes this to account. Also you're sent flying when hit, like in Megaman, but rarely you'll get knocked into a pit and die. Plus there's many save-points throughout the game. Disappointingly, there's only a couple of bosses, bar the hero himself, and they're piss-easy, even on higher difficulties. There's also puzzles, but most of them are self-explanatory and also easy, though the one right before the final boss will annoy those who don't bother downloading a translation patch for the game.
Graphics: What can I say? They're simply cute and fit the style of gameplay. Levels are kind of meh, but the enemy and boss designs are quite unique to say the least.
Sound: Oh noes, not much music variety! There's only 2 tunes you'll hear throughout most of the game, other than bosses and when you get a new ability. These 2 tunes are pretty good, but annoy you when you've spent half-an-hour trying to find the location of the next ability.
Appeal: The game can be bested in an hour or less, but there's higher difficulties to conquer. Plus there's cards hidden throughout the game that unlock gallery pictures. Can you get 'em all?
Plot: 8/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Appeal: 5/10
Overall- 74%
Akuji is in short a great platformer that falls short of legendary status due to its cruelly short length. Download link, cos this game is freeware: www.acid-play.com/download/akuji-the-demon/
Download translation patch here: www.romhacking.net/trans/717/
D3drm.dll- required to make the game work. Place it in the folder the game is in: www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files_new.php/dllfiles/D/d3drm.dll/5.1.2600.0/download.html
Cave Story, you say? Well.. that IS a brilliant game, but something less well-known, I meant to say. Aha, Akuji the Demon!
Lookie here, another slick Japanese platformer in the "Metroidvania" category! (go look that term up)
Plot: Simple. The evil demon Akuji is a threat to the world, but is taken out by a hero. The hero gets married and becomes King, but not before sealing Akuji's powers within 9 orbs, reducing him from a thing of evil to a thing of cuteness, and banishing Akuji to a labrynth the hero built under his castle. Akuji seeks revenge and sets out to regain his powers and set things straight with the hero. Slightly average, but scores extra points due to role-reversal and the tongue-in-cheek presentation.
Gameplay: The game is a standard platformer and plays in the style of Metroid- you play as Akuji and must explore and get new abilities to reach new areas. Akuji starts out with just walking and jumping, but eventually you'll be able to dash, shoot fire, wall-jump and even turn into a bat, among others. There's demon coins you'll find throughout the game, the more you get, the higher your maximum amount of hearts gets. Like Ghosts 'n Goblins or the NES Castlevania titles, you have no control over where you can land your jumps, but the superb level design takes this to account. Also you're sent flying when hit, like in Megaman, but rarely you'll get knocked into a pit and die. Plus there's many save-points throughout the game. Disappointingly, there's only a couple of bosses, bar the hero himself, and they're piss-easy, even on higher difficulties. There's also puzzles, but most of them are self-explanatory and also easy, though the one right before the final boss will annoy those who don't bother downloading a translation patch for the game.
Graphics: What can I say? They're simply cute and fit the style of gameplay. Levels are kind of meh, but the enemy and boss designs are quite unique to say the least.
Sound: Oh noes, not much music variety! There's only 2 tunes you'll hear throughout most of the game, other than bosses and when you get a new ability. These 2 tunes are pretty good, but annoy you when you've spent half-an-hour trying to find the location of the next ability.
Appeal: The game can be bested in an hour or less, but there's higher difficulties to conquer. Plus there's cards hidden throughout the game that unlock gallery pictures. Can you get 'em all?
Plot: 8/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Appeal: 5/10
Overall- 74%
Akuji is in short a great platformer that falls short of legendary status due to its cruelly short length. Download link, cos this game is freeware: www.acid-play.com/download/akuji-the-demon/
Download translation patch here: www.romhacking.net/trans/717/
D3drm.dll- required to make the game work. Place it in the folder the game is in: www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files_new.php/dllfiles/D/d3drm.dll/5.1.2600.0/download.html
