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Less releases than usual this month. Halloween
contest had a lower than anticipated turnout... school is (lawfully) stealing
our time away, I suppose.
Game of the Month for this month is Arfenhouse
3. Really good game.
Next month we may have some 12-hour contest entries
here. See the general message board for info on that contest.
Standards in
Difficulty Ratings
none - no difficulty, no battles, no challenge
at all. Example:
Mario Paint
low - you probably won't die no matter
how badly you play. Examples:
Final Fantasy 7, Chrono Cross
medium - you won't die unless you are
new to rpgs. Examples:
Final Fantasy 4j, Final Fantasy 5j
high - you'll probably die several times.
Examples: Revelations Persona, 7th Saga, Gauntlet (NES)
Standards in
Grading
When I give an overall grade, I take into account
a game's main qualities 1) how fun the game was, 2) how much work and talent
has gone into it, 3) how original and interesting the game was, 4) lack
of annoying but persistent distractions, 5) how much game there is. A grade
can be considered to by my perception of its level of quality, the group
I mentally categorize a game when I think about it. There is an intential
bell curve distribution, most games (about 79% of them) will be C and D,
less games (about 18%) will be B and E, and only very rare games (less
than 3%) are A or F. No games have gotton and S grade yet, which I reserve
for titles which are 'A' quality, and complete games.
Letter grade examples (for reference of comparison):
S - none so far
A - Wingedmene: Part One, Lolsidothaldremobine,
Origin
B - Ends of the Earth, Ends of the
Earth 2, Paladus
C - Paranoia Star (first demo), Rinoath,
Penumbra
D - Bahamut's Breath, The Virus and
the Pizza, Joke
E - SWaC, Zelda: The Chronicle Destiny,
Magnus
F - Ashs.rpg, DBZ: Small Super Saiyan,
Blockman
Games and Game
Demos Released in September 2000
Key: Demos have grey
backgrounds, full games have green
backgrounds, and games of less than 10 minutes of game time have orange
backgrounds, and contest-games have blue
backgrounds.
Arfenhouse!!!1
3!!!!!!!
If you've played the first two in the series,
and expect something similar, you may be surprised. This game will exceed
your expectations. One of the best aspects is that famous moments from
other video games are re-enacted in new ways. You have to have played FF4j,
FF7, Zelda1, Zelda3, etc., to get all the references. I'll say no more
as to not ruin the experience for you... but you do not want to miss this
game.
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Name: Arfenhouse!!!1 3!!!!!!!
Author: Misteroo
Genre: Arfenhouse
Difficulty: medium - high
Grade: B
Release date: 11/04/00
Length: about 1 hour
Size: 8,002 KB
Download: Ohr Otaku
(+)An unbelievable
funny game with a lot of work put into it. Included .wav files with voice
acting. Zelda and FF4j references.
(-)Is this
the end of the Arfenhouse series? I don't see how this game could possibly
be topped. |
!!! |
Scary
Game
The basic idea is to get as much candy as
you can, playing each mini-game once. After that, you go back home and
add up your total, and recieve a ranking score. I'm mad at this game for
stealing my idea of having eight tones using keys 1-8 (which I had already
implemented for the next update of Wingedmene). But other than that, the
variety of puzzles in this game is amazing.Then you play the game again
and try to get a better score. A crane game. A Vicks, Wedge, Piette (from
Chrono Trigger) inspired mini-game, etc... play this game if only to see
what can be done with creative use of plotscripting.
Name: Scary Game
Author: Moogle1 and...
Genre: Puzzle, Halloween.
Difficulty: low-high
Grade: C
Release date: 10/31/00
Demo Length: about 30 minutes
Size: 982 KB
Download: Ohr-Otaku
(+)Concept,
plotscripting mini-games, originality.
(-)No one
game has very much depth or strategy involved. |
One of the mini-games. |
Forgotten
A game with a nice concept, but no gameplay. If
you remember Pray (by J'sang'spar), this game is a bit similar. I would
like to play this game again once it has some more gametime to it... right
now there isn't much to do besides watch the intro.
Name: Forgotten
Author: Kormt Sereg
Genre: Horror
Difficulty: N/A
Grade: D
Release date: 10/31/00
Demo Length: 10 minutes
Size: 919 KB
Download: Ohr-Otaku
(+) Theme,
atmosphere, music, what story there is.
(-) Not long
enough at all. |
I like to use chalk-on-black look occasionally too. |
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