Re: Scrolling Battles Ultimate! Concept demo
So I downloaded this, and I gave it a try. I tried to be as open minded as possible, keeping in mined that this is a concept demo. Do keep in mined, I have not played scrolling battles pro, but played ultimit back when he was still working on it as mtg studios I believe it was.
So understand that i'm going to try to be as balanced as I can.
The short summery for though's who haven't picked the game up but have red the posts are the same as brad's.
If you disregard the new changes of some new sounds, the changing of the level system and movement system, you couldn't really count this as a new game but as a remake of the original ultimit.
Though I tried to approach this game with as much an open mined as I could and tried to find something to look for to like in it, frankly their's not that much to look at.
I'll list the very few things I found to like.
The way pits are handled, though their are way too menny in the fi
rst level I enjoyed. I found that if you don't run and you just try to approach then jump over, you get fryed. If you take a running jump, you'll be able to make it over.
If these wernt bunched so close together and not used so frequently throughout the layder half of the only level in the demo, these actually might provide some fun little level traps and could be used for storyline elements.
Enemy movements. I rather like the initial concept of the enemies being able to jump, the problem though is them jumping over and into pits is that its nothing new. This was if i'm not mistaken in scrolling battles already. I found it rather annoying when enemies repeatedly jumpt up and down in front of you. This didn't add difficulty, it only made it frustrating because you can't jump up to hit them, nore do they even so much as move when you land.
The number of enemies also makes it rather annoying if your working from a story concept. If this were a re
gular beatemup stile game the number of enemies would be fine, but part of blending storyline and gameplay together is making sure nothing gets too repettitive or overly done in the story.
I bring this specific point up because if given a bit more time before enemies start popping out, in specific sections, you could really use the jumping over tiles system to increase the game difficulty instead of being frustrating.
Say for exampple, your inside a building, and their's a trap in the middle of the room. The fighting could then be increased in difficulty because not only do you need to avoid the trap, you also need to keep track of the enemies jumping around and moving. I realize that's a bad exampple and maybe someone can explain it better than me.
I've held off on reviewing the story given that this is a concept demo, but I will say one thing. Do keep in mined I enjoy writing and would do it a lot more if I could think of any ideas, so this is my pers
onal opinion only and i'm ready for contradictions or aposing viewpoints, whatever you prefer to call them.
The problem with the games storyline is not the tts cutseens or any of that. I've used tts in my more recent projects with cutseens to grate effect.
The problem is how the story opens and how it is advertized in the readme.
I've listened to the only cutseen their was, and i'm rather curious. Why did the main character abruptly after finishing the news suddenly decide that he'd go outside and confront some random building, besides the reward of 500000 dollars. Why did he not show any reaction to seeing a few guys popping up and attempting to shoot him directly in the face? And what besides again, the reward, made him continue on after dealing with said guys? Is he just that greedy for money? Is he curious? Their's a buntch of questions.
This point here is also a personal opinion, but i'm rather curious why, if said building
needed to be hidden a way, their was A no enemies garding the door, B why it was left unlocked, and C why the guards were spred out so thin and protection wasn't in itself at the actual entrance.
If this bit was explained and the building was that top secret, then it might be sort of understandable placing enemies where they are now and placing enemies at the entrance as well.
The reason I bring up this point about the story is its importent to note these when your doing storyline, speshily if like the readme says, you say it'll bring people hours of entertainment. If you want it to bring people hours and by hours I mean more than 2 or 3 hours of entertainment, their's a lot more your gonna have to do than providing cutseens every level, making super long levels, and spawning a buntch of enemies.
Since this post is getting really long and I didn't realize I had waisted a while writing it, i'll rap it up with the following.
In short, scro
lling battles doesn't suffer from being a side scroller, or the language its programmed in if anyone thinks that, or any of that. What it suffers from is a rather rushed period of development and over done mecanics that have been used countless times in previous games, and it seems to be that storylines may not be what's right for scrolling battles either. If you've played ultimit or pro, i'd highly suggest not downloading. I don't see ultimit as the end of side scrollers. But it is a clear sign that in order to be published as an entirely new game, things need to be changed up drasticly.
_______________________________________________ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
