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Seargent Squeak Build 4
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| First Impression |
Since the advent of DirectQB, a lot of platform games have begun being written, because QBASIC now has the capabilities to accept the advanced user input needed for platform games, and also has the speed to draw the beautiful backgrounds and characters that are needed to make a good platform game. This is a demo of a platform game that looks very promising. (It reminds me a lot of Peanut Patrol, just with a little blue mouse instead of a big ugly peanut.
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| What It's Like |
Walk and jump around, collecting coins in a green, sunny two dimensional world filled with monsters who just walk back and forth. Ever heard of Super Mario Bros.? Well, this game takes the coins idea from it, with the same spinning pattern as the NES game. You can also get life restorers. The enemies are fairly easy to avoid, but you can't kill them! Some of them shoot bullets at you, others just walk back and forth. You can also fall on to the spikes at the bottom of pits, which cause you to be impaled and die instantly. You can't beat the level; you just play until you die. If this game had levels (and a purpose), it would be one hell of a game. I guess we have to wait for the finished copy...
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| Other things you should know |
This game has a beautiful opening movie that says 'powered by direct QB', but there is no title screen. The controls are the arrow keys, left and right to move, and up to jump. Um... the text file looks spiffy. Also, Marcade is the main beta tester, so the game has to be good. :) One more thing -- in the 'credits' at the bottom of the screen, it thanks most of the main QB programmers in the QB community, and tells some details about the game while you play. This is a nice feature.
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| The rating |
| Graphics |
They could be better, but they work well. The enemy graphics are what pulls the score down, and the character pulls the score up. Everything else is about average for a (good) QB game. I like all of the animations a lot too.
**** |
| Sound |
No Sound.
N/A |
| Flexibility/Features |
This game doesn't have much yet, but the engine is very nice and fast. The user input is superb, and things like coins and power ups make the game more exciting, but you have to face it -- this is still just your standard platform game. Don't worry, though, there are a bunch of features hidden throughout the engine, like how you can't jump through walls over your head, or the little animation that plays when you die (that looks a lot like the Mario Bros. dying sequence.)
**** |
| Gameplay/Control |
Jump around, collecting coins and power ups while you avoid baddies. How original. :) The character is kind of original, and the enemies are too, but this game won't be anything really new or exciting. The game control is top notch. You can move your character while he is jumping, and everything is done the instant you press the corresponding key.
**** |
| Overall Impression |
It's a demo with not much to do, but it's fun to fool around with for a while. If you want a good example of what a QB platform game should look like, download this!
**** |
| Total |
16/20 * 5 =
80% |
