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vs. Squall
The great racing game of Gargan and Troy.
RedMaverickZero
Download: 22B
V.S.
Squall
Play Time: 0 hours and 17 minutes
Review # 3 for Squall The great racing game of Gargan and Troy.
Them's Fightin' Words
    Gargan and Troy was one of the many games entered in the 48 hour contest. It ended up coming in 2nd to The Fox and the Eight Six. It's a fairly simple game, comprised of fairly simple story using connected minigames to advance the plot. The end result is a short, fun, but otherwise forgettable experience.
Graphics
    The graphics are fairly standard for the OHR. Far better than anything I could do, but not nearly as good as some of the graphics we've seen done on the engine. A couple of elements, however, are fairly impressive. First off, there's a lot of variety in the different maptiles. It feels a little more real than some of the other maps I've seen, because of the details. There are bird houses, different kinds of flowers, colored fairies, mushrooms, different animals, rivers, trees and more within in same screen. Another impressive thing about it are the character animations. This is the most thoroughly animated game I've seen in a while. Some characters have up to 4 frame animations, during cutscenes, characters throw their arms up, or change facial expressions or something else. It all comes together to form something very cool looking.  
Storyline
    The storyline is a very simple one. A rabbit, Troy, is hanging out in the forest when a big troll, Gargan, captures him. As the troll is preparing the stew to cook him in, Troy manages to excape from the cage. Gargan chases Troy around the house until he (being a fairly stupid troll) runs into a wall. At this point, a group of hunters come to the troll's house and capture him. Then Troy goes out to rescue him.

The plot is simple, cute, and perfect for this type of game, but it has one weird plot hole. Why does Troy try to save Gargan? I simply can't understand Troy's behavior, and this disconnects me from him mentally, damaging the credibility of the character. As for Gargan, he's the simple, stupid troll character that basically writes itself. There's not much too him at all, mentally, and this makes him a character the player doesn't really feel the need to rescue.

The end result of these two character problems is a quest that you don't really care to go on. Whether or not Troy saves Gargan in the end was unimportant to me, and I felt I might as well quit them game after the mini games were over.

So, in the end, the storyline has some good effort put into it, but not enough for it to be a good reason to play. The reason to play should be...
 
Gameplay
    ...the minigames. The game is nothing if it weren't for the simple pleasure of playing the minigames. Some are truly mini, while others (one in particular) offer gameplay never before done in the OHR. Games include simple ones such as pressing left and right as quickly as possible in order to break out of a cage to an almost Simon-like game, but with fairies and musical notes that kill you (hey, why not?), to the crowning acheivement of the game, a truly fun chase game that is just hard enough.

The part of the game that I like the most, is how there's no part that I actually don't like. Not to say that I love every part, but I never felt like I was doing the player's chores, which is an absolute first for me with OHR games. All the minigames have something good about them, and they're all in close proximity which will manage to keep your interest to the very end.

The racing mini game is the most talked about. Some people claim that it's way too hard, but I beat it in my 2nd try. It's really hard to set a good difficulty level so it's not too easy so people can breeze through it, but it's not too hard so people get frusterated. I think Gargan and Troy does this wonderfully. While anyone can beat the game in under 25 minutes, the racing game will make you earn it. All in all, there's nothing I would change, aside from making it longer with more minigames, but keep in mind that this was made in 48 hours.
 
  Battle
    There are no battles, thank God.  
  Map Design
    Maps were fairly linear, but were designed pretty well. Some exploration will reveal surprizes, but you can get from point A to point B very easily as well.  
  Balance
    X  
Music
    The music helped with the atmosphere during the maps, it helped with the mood during cutscenes, it helped with the action during the racing game. I don't know about you, but that's all I ask out of my music. I'm sure there's a way of doing it better, but consider my expectations met.  
Enjoyment
    It's a fun game. Period. I, personally, am very demanding to games to hold my attention and keep me entertained, and this is one of the few games that manage to do that all the way to the end, even if it's just 20 minutes to the end. The racing game seems to cause frusteration, but I found it perfectly balanced and a great deal of fun.  
Final Blows
    A great deal of fun from RMZ and *Worthy*. A pity it lost the 48 hour contest, but it did lack the complexities of The Fox and the Eight Six. Still, this is the sort of game you take notes on. It held my interest and kept me entertained all the way through, which is quite an achievement. The graphics could have been better, the the story could have been better, the music could have been better, some of the mini games could have been better, but what we have here is a very simple game, that, very simply, rocks.
I can't decide if this is really clever or really stupid.

I can't decide if this is really clever or really stupid.
Final Scores
Graphics: 7.5/10.0
Average graphics, good variety, great animations.
Storyline: 4/10.0
Simple and flawed.
Gameplay: 9/10.0
Fantastic fun.
Music: 6/10.0
Everything anyone can ask for.
Enjoyment: 9/10.0
20 minutes flew by. Never boring, even after the first playthrough.
Overall Grade: B
Final Thoughts
    A fantastic, albiet simple game. *Worthy* flexes his plotscripting muscles and RMZ shows genuine effort throughout the whole game. Definatly worth your time.  


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