Craigen (Game Review)

Feels like forever since I reviewed a game, but really it was only three big posts in a row that weren't games (Paddlefox, APC Rock, Submitting to the Marketplace) but before that I would do a game review between every programming/hardware post. Well, now the games are piling up in Thulfram Towers and yet there are hot things going on with the Rock and I'm almost ready to update my ZTE Open! But that's not what today is about. Today is the telling of the great tale of brave Craigen, noble warrior of Poland and Enclave Games!

Craigen is a barbarian hero who must cross the Dragon Pass and defeat orcs. Why? Well, here's the story of Craigen, starting at a local inn (in medieval Poland?)

You don't want to skip past his tale. And his need for ale.

Barbarians need their ale, that's for sure!

Those pesky orcs have done it again! Something must be done. And Craigen is the one to do it.

And so begins the game. I love it when someone makes a story for a game, even as simple as this one is. And the art is really fun. The artists at Enclave have a really good sense of the absurd. In case you don't remember, Enclave are the people who brought you Captain Rogers.

From the far future to the distant past, Enclave has it covered. Where will their next game take place?

One of the things that I really like about Enclave is that they are really thinking about what works on a phone. What is touch? What happens when there is no keyboard or mouse?  In Captain Rogers, you did everything with one finger (more than one gets awkward on a phone).

Here are the Captain Rogers instructions:

One finger. Tap to go up, release to go down. I had trouble adapting to this, but at the same time, I admire the innovation and think there's something great in the making with phone games and Enclave is leading the charge.

With our barbarian hero Craigen, the instructions are a little different, but again, very innovative.

Tap on the left to jump and tap on the right to slash with your sword. Simple, clean, and fast. Of course, you have to get used to this, but that's the point of innovation. This is a "runner" type game. You run from the left to the right and you must keep going. But watch out for ditches!

Here's Craigen, about ready to jump over a ditch.

If he misses and falls in the ditch, it's Game Over.

But it's not just jumping, you can (and must kill). You'll run into all kinds of monsters, like this guy. Slash before he gets you. Hurry!

This game is tough! In the shot above, Craigen has to jump up and then slash the skeleton fast!

One nice thing about this game is that there is a button on the right to turn off the cool music, and a button on the left to Pause.

You'll want to pause to take a breath and plan your next action, because there are a lot of ditches and monsters.

I've been playing a lot of early and middle Mario games and this game reminds me of them in a good way. You have to plan your next moves and react fast. There's lots of challenge and this is something you can play again and again, trying to get to the ale. I haven't made it there yet, but I'll keep trying.

This is just a perfectly fun game and I want to see more from Enclave.

Cost: Free
Genre: Runner
Score: 5 (out of 5)
Tested on: Geeksphone Peak (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace

Jumping Marcelo (Game Review)

This is a cool game done by cool people. There, my review is done, you can go home now.

Actually this game really is flawless and beyond what I would expect. But it's not exactly a surprise, because this game is from Double Duck, who already has done something cool with Age of Barbarians. Marcello is a jumping monkey, but he jumps in a fascinating way. And the graphics and all the navigation is just flawless and fun.

Even the opening is fun. When you start out, the first thing you see is the Double Duck logo, very nice:

Having a classy logo helps, and what could be better than a rubber duck riding on a real duck?

Next you see a banana!

A monkey is holding a banana. But the camera pulls back and ...

There is the moon, in the shape of the banana. What is the monkey thinking?

He's looking up a the moon and thinking bananas. This sets a feeling like a movie. You now have some identification with the monkey and you are wondering what the monkey is going to do. The screen says Tap to Play.

The next screen gives you several choices. You can mute the sound, get Help with the game, or go to the store. Or Play!

Here's what the Help screen looks like:

It tells you everything you need to know. Climb up by tapping.  And there's that moon again. I think the monkey wants to go there. Maybe he thinks it is a banana! My last post made a sly reference to the bunny in the moon, and now we have banana in the moon (or rather, the banana is the moon).'

Let's play!

The play is very simple, but works. You tap on the screen and the monkey jumps to the other side of the screen. The screen is constantly scrolling down, forcing the monkey to keep climbing. As he climbs, he can grab bananas.

And those bananas aren't just good to eat. You can spend them in the store. The store lets you buy things with .... bananas. You'll gather them as you climb up. Here's what you can buy:

You can buy a helmet, which give you extra protection. You can buy the ability to get double the bananas. The lightning bolt gives you extra speed, and the jet pack gives you the ability to start the game at a higher elevation (1000 meters). The point of the game is to see how high you can climb, and the higher you climb, the more you'll see.

So you can jump from side to side, but watch out for snakes, tree limbs, and who knows what!

The monkey is about to hit a bee hive. If he hits anything, he'll fall down and you start over again. But of course, no monkeys were hurt during the making of this game, because Marcelo grabs a limb on the way down and saves himself. He's back at the start screen and can play again.

By the way, if you look at the screen while you're climbing, you'll see a Pause button at the lower right. Tap that and you go to this screen:

This shows you your current score, the best score, and the number of bananas you've gotten this round. You can resume the game where you left it, retry the climb again, or quit the game.

Everything is neatly laid out, very clear, and let's you focus on the game. I really like the play of jumping from side to side, trying to catch bananas, avoiding snakes, bees, tree limbs, etc., on the way up, in Marcelo's mad climb to get the big banana of the moon. There's even some cool stuff on the way, where you can grab a helmet and temporarily be allowed to smash into an enemy instead of dying.

Way to go, Double Duck. This is a fun game, and original game (as far as I can tell), and lots of fun. It plays very well on the Firefox OS ZTE Open and I love it.

Cost: Free

Genre: Endless Climber
Score: 6 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace

Rooftops (Game Review)

Rooftops is very similar to a game called Canabalt which appeared in 2009 and was open-sourced in 2010. Originally a Flash game, I remember playing it and getting bored fast.

Unlike games that were inspired by Canabalt (like Temple Run), Rooftops isn't much different than the original Canabalt, and actually, seems to have a controls problem with Firefox OS.

Here's the basic idea. You run and jump. You start out running from left to right and you can't stop. Ever. You just run. The fun is that if you tap on the screen, your character jumps.

Simple enough, except that there seems to be too much delay from when I tap and when I jump. I've tried this several times, and it just isn't smooth. Maybe it would be different for you.

I would run for a few seconds and I'm supposed to jump to the next building, but I don't jump soon enough and I fall to a horrible death. When I do fall, I am asked to put in a nickname and submit my score. If I don't want to, I have no option except press the home button.

If I submit my score, I get this:

Not very good, but there isn't much incentive to try again. When I hit OK, I get the start screen again:

My stats after a few games aren't good:

Maybe if I had more patience, I might keep trying, but there isn't even any known incentive. The art is dull (so was the art in 2009) and the statistics mentions items, but I don't know what they are.

It would have been nice if the first minute or so was easier and you could get used to the controls. The other games I've played on the ZTE Open with Firefox OS didn't seem to have control problems, but I can't be sure. 

The game is by Rémi Vansteelandt and maybe I'll just leave it by saying the game didn't work for me but 883,636 people did better than me, so maybe it is just me! But when there are better "endless runner" games like Jetpack Joyride or Robot Unicorn Attack, not to mention a new Rayman runner, I would have been more encouraging if there was something original here. It looks just like Canabalt!

I'm bummed out when a game isn't good on Firefox OS, but due to the lack of originality, no learning mode, and possible control failure, I have to rank this 2 out of 5. It does work and you may enjoy it, but I didn't.

Cost: Free

Genre: Arcade
Score: 2 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace