Short reviews, back to basics edition

[indigozeal]

Most reviews of Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows concentrate on what's missing: how John Romero was once attached to the project but was ousted; how his two original characters (a Lancer and a hand-to-hand fighter known as the Tragedian) got cut; how the online multiplayer feature around which this PS2 title was built no longer functions. What is present, though, isn't bad: at the baseline, you've got an effective 3-D conversion of the Gauntlet formula that feels like the classic game (enemy generators, rampaging hordes, considerable emphasis on Needing Food Badly) yet with enough gameplay development (combos & unlockable combat moves; rudimentary stat management; an actual story) to pass for a modern-ish title yet not weigh down the ever-forward impulse on which Gauntlet thrives. There are a few ill-considered decisions, like that boss my fragile elf was forced to beat by running in circles for ten minutes, and some more enemy variety and maybe alternate level exits would have been nice. But the environments - a twilit pirate village with persimmon lamps reminiscent of Baten Kaitos's Nekton; formations of standing stones dotting rolling hills against a sunrise - are more intriguing than they needed to be, and the redesigns of the traditional Gauntlet classes make some striking choices (a robust, muscular wizard; an elf drawn from the LotR movies' Elrond). And there are other interesting aspects, like the Incan touches in the ancient fantasy empire in which the story takes place, or how the designers resolved the quandary of wanting a sexy valkyrie yet not wanting to be sexist by giving none of the characters adequate clothing (in the cutscenes, at least). Perhaps this really wasn't meaty enough to merit $50 when new, but at current prices, it's a quite nice hack-'n'-slash.




A child's pop-up book in game form, Windosill is a neat, short (~2 hours) exploratory game with bright, basic colors & shapes and lots of busybox activities that reward friendly curiosity. The aesthetic exudes a Sesame Street cubism, the atmosphere recalls the best of the "all the world's a toychest" attitude of titles like The Manhole, and the discoveries are satisfying and imaginative. The title's big sticking point is its final screen, a 30-panel game of Memory where each element must be hit in exactly the right order with precise timing. This would've been doable if Windosill had a functioning save system, but this is another one of those games that inexplicably uses Flash cookies, so those not down with Macromedia's data-collection policies are out of luck. Still, bail at the last screen, look up the ending on YouTube, and you've a nice little evening experience.




Can we name a single title where wall-jumping has enriched the gameplay experience? You Have to Win the Game is another one of those Super Meat Boy super-hard-platformer affairs, this time in a spiffy ZX Spectrum shell. The game looks bright & cheerful in its four-color cyan-magenta glory, and it charms with convincingly retro details like each screen having its own name. As per the genre, death is constant but cheap, with saves on nearly every screen and instantaneous respawns, and the design is remarkably thoughtful, in a diabolical way: each pit is placed exactly where you will fall after a failed jump. YHtWtG does successfully balance its frustrations with the sense of accomplishment it gives for much of its length, and to its credit, it seemed like I played, and enjoyed, the game for much longer than the 2-3 hours I actually did. Eventually, though, the repetition takes its toll: you'll finally get by that impossible jump it took you 50 deaths to squeak through...only to learn that (thanks to the placement of locations on the game's Metroidvania map) you have to do it again. Then again. Then again. Then you have to learn to jump all over those goddamn walls. It's to the title's credit that I hung in there till the 80% complete-mark, but after a while: enough is enough.
(Also: The game's ultimate solution is reliant on its audience knowing what rot-13 is, which is not exactly a fair prospect in this day & age.)
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