GODPEY
[>----------------------------------------------------------------------------<]
After spending many hours on ChuChu Rocket trying to finish the game to the max,
you perhaps thought you'd have some rest ? No way !
From the game-makers Reservoir Gods, here's a new puzzle game for your Atari :
GodPey.
This game is adapted from GunPey on WonderSwam, a japanese portable game system.
[Principle]
Quite simple, you've got a grid with five collumns and ten rows.
Some line-shapes appears in some cells of the lower row and the whole grid
scroll up after a short while, making the elements reach the top progressively.
You got a cursor which take over two vetical cells and you can move it over the
whole grid.
Using this cursor, you can switch two cells and then move an element up or down.
When you've got some elements in each collumn, you can assemble these in a
lines-chain to join each vertical border of the grid. Then these will disapear
of the screen, giving you points.
Perhaps that the conceptors of this game were looking at their company's up'n
down revenues graphics to think of this concept !!! ;D
The more elements you join, the more points you'll get (what, you can't believe
that it's an unmodified screenshot ?! ;).
Notice that you can also make the grid scroll up by yourself by pressing down
when the cursor is at the bottom of the screen, great to accumulate elements
faster for making complex chains.
If the whole screen is cleared you get additionnal points.
[Basics]
You've got nine levels to reach, based on experience points won by simply making
chains again and again. The number of experience points needed to reach a new
level is quite exponential.
Each level is repesented by a vegetable-(hat) deposed on your character
-(animal)'s head (pure RG concept ;).
Reaching a new level can unlock : a new game mode, a new character, the jukebox
section, the credits/greetings sequence ... and perhaps more stuff ?
There are six differents game modes and two players can face each other in any
of these expecting the practice and story mode.
You can select the number of rounds when playing with a friend (and even when
playing against a friend ;), via the option menu.
So the game modes are :
- Practice : It doesn't matter if any element reach the top.
You will simply never loose (expecting when exiting the game by pressing F10).
This mode is great to train making complex chains faster.
- Normal : Only the basic principle of the game is applied in this mode. It
seems that the scrolling of the grid get faster and faster during the playtime
but it's quite hard to notice (i only noticed it every 5 minutes or something
like that).
In two players mode, you got to chain 6 or more elements to offer unwanted stuff
to your opponent.
It's my favorite mode, in both single and two players mode, because you can
enjoy the basic principle of the game for hours.
- Stage : You've got a certain number of elements to clear. When this number is
reached, you'll enter a new stage.
In two players mode, you simply got to finish before your enemy.
- Time : You've got to clear a maximum of elements before the timer reach zero.
In two players mode, the one who got the highest score at the end of the round
wins.
- Puzzle : No scrolling in this mode, you've got elements powdered over the
playfield and you got to assemble all these in a single chain.
In two players mode, the winner is the first to finish the chain.
- Story : This mode is a mix of the four previous modes against a computerized
enemy, expecting for puzzle sessions (there, the opponent is more the puzzle
master who look upon you trying to resolve it : "Ahahah, you'll never beat it !
You'll never defeat meeee !" [demoniac voice activated] ;).
It's ormamented with a scenario which explain you the reason of the vegetable
thingy. Each opponent is in fact one the gangstahs from the vegetable grabbers
clan. Then you'd better keep your stuff closer and as these transgenic
vegetables fit perfect on your head, it seems to be the best hideout for it. ;)
This mode is a great addition (not present on WonderSwam version) and is quite
long.
But it miss a progression save option in my opinion.
A little advice, you'd better gain some experience in puzzle mode before going
for it.
[Realisation]
Like every puzzle game of this kind, the gameplay is quite fast and then the
controls are optimized so you won't loose time when moving the cursor (expecting
if you got loosy controlers like the SEGA Master-System pads i'm using on my ST
;).
Also as the grid is moving row by row, this game got no smooth scrolling and no
smooth sprites moving, so it doesn't slow down the game either (easy task for Mr
Pink, after the coding of ChuChu ;).
The artificial intelligence is quite entertaining (especially in story mode),
also there are several levels of difficulty which modify its speed.
But it seems that the computer player only change the place of some elements on
the screen without trying to clearly make some lines, because it can even loose
on difficulty level 8 against a really un-experienced human player.
Real fun is always playing against a human opponent anyway ! :)
Your scores and experience are saved to disk and you can send the GODPEY.SAV
file to RG to figure in the international GodPey hiscore table (but beware there
are really some insomniac players !!! :).
Point your favorite browser to: www.reservoir-gods.com
The gfxs are ok, it does the job nicely but nothing more, expecting the title
screens which are really colorfull !
Big shame that the menu and in-game screens aren't as colored as these. Also
these don't got any little ornament or even just no background texture (big part
of screen is empty, especially in solo mode).
As you can choose your character before playing (when you've unlocked
additionnal ones), these are animated at the bottom of the screen (several set
expressions).
On RG's homepage, it's written that there are 32 colors on screen but i can't
notice where, really.
Anyway, comparing to the WonderSwam version, i can tell you that RG's version is
ten times nicer.
The story mode features lots of additionnal gfxs involving several locations
(which are using the upper half of the screen) and characters, the style makes
me remember of the Dizzy series.
It has certainly been a big task to realize all these interlude screens.
The SidSound music fits perfect to the game, it's upbeat and got some really
nice parts.
All tunes got the same style, which is quite similar to RG ChuChu's soundtrack.
I like the principle of the SID voice lead which is sounding during the title
screens and is then mixed to the menu theme, nice trick. ;)
There are some digital sound effects but the volume is too low (at least on STe)
to clearly hear these when music is activated (anyway, i wonder who made the
loose scream :).
[Conclusion]
Puzzle games are my favorite kind, because as long as you like the concept,
you'll never be bored of it.
Also these don't require big ressources and don't cheat you like some loosy
games with astonishing graphics do (who needs 3D acceleration anyway ? ;).
There are lots of games of this kind on arcade and home-gaming systems,
comparing to the few number you can find on computers and especially on ST.
RG simply had a great idea to convert puzzle games to ST for these various
reasons.
I never heard of GunPey before playing this conversion.
After a few times of practice, i really loved the concept and played it for a
full hour directly instead of just trying it (which was my first purpose this
time :).
The week after i let my PlayStation and PC games away for playing it.
It's really a great game and with two players mode, you can get hours of fun.
Definitly a must have for you ST/Falcon, it can easily figure in the top ten ST
puzzle games.
After the great ChuChu Rocket conversion, RG can tick their success board one
more time.
I hope that they'll continue with some others puzzle games adaptations (mhh, my
favorites ones are Magical Drop, Puyo Puyo and Denki Blocks, eheh ! ;).
Now, you know what to do during your free time. :)
[>-------------------------------------------------------) 26/06/02 Dma-Sc (--<]
|
