First of all, I have to admit that I don't understand what is going on. There is clearly a storyline of some kind to this game, but between the broken English, and the flat out missing chunks that its pretty much incomprehensible. It almost feels like the designer was so sure they understood the plot, that they neglected to fill anyone else in. The game itself, seems to revolve around protecting a 'village' made of cardboard boxes on a blueprint map. Again, I am sure it is somehow symbolic, but the pieces aren't all there.
The balls don't clump together naturally, and if there is even a one pixel space, a ball of the same type won't disappear with the rest. This problem also goes the other way - balls in front completely overlapping and hiding balls at the back. For a 2D clicking game, this is not exactly helpful behavior.
Would the ability to start over, midway through a level have been too much to ask for? Apparently so. Pause is available, but not restart. Still, some points have to be awarded for the "Magic Roundabout" characters, and the drug-inspired animations of yesteryear. I suppose it is fitting then, that like the old animation, this game feels like it was put together by someone who was on a high. Dramatic musical combined with slow gameplay, and obscure placement. vibrant graphics combined with a dull interface. Certainly an exercise in opposites.
This was irritating, but not so much as the bosses. Whilst you have a varying number of powerup guns, your basic laser has a long reach. Slightly longer than the screen itself in fact. So much so, that after dying to the first end of level boss a couple of times, I was able to stand on a mailbox just off of where the screen locks for the boss, and shoot repeatedly offscreen to the right with the basic gun. Half a minute later, green goop came onscreen from the right - the boss had just died. The second boss was even worse, as he shot one bullet every two seconds, and your basic laser could shoot them out of the air! After the second level, which had enemies of the exact same type and in the same places as the first (and was set in London, England, but with US flags flying everywhere) the game ended. That was it, you saved the USA, which consists of New York (where the white house is apparently) and London.
Ok, where to start on this hideous mess of a game? It has been sloppily coded, and glaring bugs are everywhere. Well to begin with, it doesn't understand what a game is. Standard side-scrolling shooter with patriotic flag checkpoints every so often. Funny thing is, if you die, your next 'game' starts where the previous one left off, like a continue, but one where you are presented with the entire 'new game' animation sequence every single time.
I found this enjoyable, right up until my complete lack of reflexes let me down... Still, I found the concept engaging, and the 'soul' of a game is definitely present. One of those that doesn't require complex graphics, and the simplicity of them is a great aid when you have made a mistake and have to go round the look again, dodging dozens of clones. It is one of those that demands tight bounding boxes, and precision collision detection. Thankfully this game has both in plentiful measure.
The greatest problem I see with this game is that in quite a few of the levels, its possible to solve it without using all the mirrors, but the game won't accept the solution. So, you end up having to dismantle fully solved puzzles to find the one solution the developer apparently wishes.
Wonderful. Even though I was hopeless at it, it is strangely moreish. Smooth, simple graphics get the effect across so easily. A nice touch on the customisation - although I doubt I will be sampling the wave of blood again any time soon. What I really loved was how every time I thought I was getting a handle on things, it introduced a new feature out of the blue. All so logical, and a few made me laugh aloud. The way these are spaced out means you have no chance to run into them all at once, and give real incentive to improving performance, just to see what the next boon or obstacle is.
It is wonderful to see this sort of moral 'edutainment' making it's way to Kong. Hopefully challenging a few preconceptions about the role a game can play, whilst it does it. I found the atmospheric style eerie and haunting, really playing to the emotions. The blatant prejudice ringing all too true. That said, I found the game elements a bit lacking. Puzzles are not really puzzles when you are led by the hand on what to do. Still, I understand why the designer did that. Just enough interaction to let the message sink in deep; not enough interaction to blunt what it was trying to say.
Slightly buggy. I muted it as I was listening to a podcast at the same time, and when it is muted, the game loses timing somewhat. Plus, even when muted, as soon as you win, all sounds come back. These two problems definitely impair the experience slightly - particularly as some elements such as the jade knight, are timing based.
This was wonderful, although my opinion might be a tad biased as the loading screen was a faithful reproduction of loading on the C64 back in the 80s. The game itself, was a pure puzzler, and felt like it had the balance between timing and problem solving just right. To me it being a demo is not an issue, as it offers a considerable amount of content for the demo, equivalent to an episode of the old Apogee games. Definitely worth the money.
That was disappointing. For me, the very first level where I had to think about things before doing them, was level 14. Prior to that, (and indeed after that) the game continues to give you exactly the number of pieces needed to make the shortest route possible to the goal, and no more. No wrong pieces, no extra pieces. Precious few scenarios where the answer isn't staring you in the face. Heck, it took until level 12 where we moved away from the same scenario as level 1, just with the ball starting in different positions. Please, add an actual difficulty curve, or market this at a preschool audience. One or the other.
I enjoyed it up until levels 19 and 20. Both had a strong timing aspect to them, which required split second timing and deft handiwork to complete. I do not particularly enjoy those, or do well at them, so may well be a personal thing. However, they did seem out of place with the overall theme. Other than that, my only issue really would be the short length.
It feels a little loose on the controls to me - there is no real sense of cutting through water, and well the complete lack of any attempt to even pretend at realism does grate a little. I'm old school, I like a game to feel meaty, not airy and puffy like this one does. Its a bit I suppose like driving a car with a steering wheel made of air, in that there is nothing in this game to really grip hold of. I played three levels through, and after that gave up. It just does not feel /fun/.
No instructions, which is a bad thing. No clue what to do, it does not list your score on the HUD, does not have a HUD. The collision bounding box is horrible, and if it has a point, after ten minutes of play, I have no idea what it is.
Azngamer, the developer of this, was not an intellectual, and clearly does not have even a first degree. The Oxford dictionary is the de-facto standard for academia, and half the dictionary, is not present in this game. It annoys me too, as most of the words I use frequently, it just does not know. Hopefully, by the time the developer gets round to making the second, they will include a better lexicon.
 "Village Heroes")
 "Bubble Blast 3")
 "Doogal Find the Numbers")
 "Obama Alien Defense")
 "One Step Back")
 "Labyrex")
 "the Flood Runner 2")
 "Loondon")
 "Chibi Knight"){kind=icon}
 "VVVVVV Demo")
 "Isoball 2")
 "WereBox")
 "Submarine Vs Aliens")
 "Sketcher"){kind=icon}
 "Cop chase 1.1")
 "Flood Fill")
 "Clockwords: Prelude")
 "Vanessa Hudgens Makeover")
 "Helicopter Survival")