Matt McFarland

Trouble in Cloudland is a cute shoot em up that includes great control features.  It is the first game I've played where you automatically shoot in the direction you move.  Because you have easy control via the mouse, this works very well.  It also brings in a "hit and run" type gameplay where you move toward the enemy just to shoot then move away so you don't crash into them. 

I really enjoyed the game-play and found the whole presentation complete.  The game features everything you'd expect from a complete shareware game.  From a nice title screen to even a fancy "goodbye" screen they technically didn't miss a beat.

I was slightly disappointed though by the menu control as I accidentally quit a few times and was confused at the game-over screen.  A mouse cursor would have been a better idea.  The powerups also didn't last long enough for me.  All in all, I found this one enjoyable and would love to see it turn into a full-fledged indie game.

Graphics: 87

Sound: 91

Innovation: 78

Overall: 84

Tim W

Trouble in Cloudland is an arena shooter with great graphics but an awkward control scheme. Use the mouse to move your character around, and stars will be fired in the same direction. Players accustomed to dual analog controls may be slightly disoriented with this method.

There's no mouse sensitivity option as well, so expect a tough fight if you're stuck with an old mouse. Scores high in all other areas.

Graphics: 80

Sound: 80

Innovation: 75

Overall: 75

Charlie

I really like the graphics in this one, really stylish and well presented, although it would have been nice to see some more variety in the enemy designs. Can’t really fault the audio either, it fits the game nicely.

Where it falls down for me is the controls, it’s counter intuitive to have to move toward the enemies kamikaze style. Perhaps it would have been better if you could hold down a mouse button and shoot without moving, or at least some more control methods.

Power-ups are fairly plentiful, and are generally helpful although perhaps a little short-lived.

All in all, this is a pretty enjoyable and very pretty game, let down by some awkward controls.

Graphics 85

Sound 80

Innovation  50

Overall 65

Matt McFarland

Marvellous Twilight is an interesting shoter that reminds me personally a lot of the sega genesis.  The startup screen allows for different video, although the old text-based technology I wasn't too fond of.

The game itself is pretty fun, you'll need to use the magic ball to stay alive as I later found out  when struggling with so many bullets on the screen.  I found the game's music good but theres a part that plays too many times and goes against what I'm used to un music theory.  The game itself doesn't have a pause button,and when you hit escape you end it. 

Overall, Marvellous Twilight is an interesting game with an arcade feel.  The retro graphics really do make ya feel like you're playing an old game.  The frantic bullets and bubble mechanic also make it pretty interesting, and the game play itself is indeed solid.  I wish that I could pause and escape didn't quit, and I also would like to see customization within the game instead of outside it.  With some sound improvements and some more accessibility this game could be most excellent!

Graphics: 67

Sound: 56

Innovation: 61

Overall: 72

Tim W

Adigun A. Polack and Relsoft sounds like an All-Star Coding Team, with probably more planning and development work put into Marvellous Twilight than any other entries. A good horizontal shooter engine, the amazing Bullet-Hell Designer, colorful sprites, and a even a rare two-player mode. Now that's an impressive effort.

All is not well, unfortunately. Difficulty setting is rather unbalanced, default controls are awkward and keyboard configuration menu is notably absent. More often than not, sprites practically disappear behind streams of bullets with patterns designed to make sure that collision do work this time. (just a joke, no offense AAP!)

AAP can sprite like no one else can, evident from the background objects (especially the pillars with suits from playing cards engraved on them - nice!), both princess and boss designs - though it's hard to tell what half of the enemies are supposed to be. I'm not too fond of Mode 7 effects in horizontal shooters either; give me old-school parallax scrolling anytime!

I expect good things to come from Aura Flow in the near future. What can I say, it does feel like playing an authentic arcade cabinet game at times (minus the actual coin slot). Keep it up!

Graphics: 75

Sound: 75

Innovation: 65

Overall: 75

Charlie

Marvellous Twilight shows a lot of potential. There is a really great arcade feel to it that you don’t tend to find too often. The graphics are pretty good, with some nice pixel art going on, smooth movement and great bullet patterns. The underlying engine should be congratulated too, there is one hell of a lot of stuff going on and the frame rate doesn’t stutter one bit.

When it comes to actually playing it however, there is just too much happening to see what’s going on. Most of the time I couldn’t actually see what I was attempting to shoot at as enemies disappear behind solid curtains of bullets. The difficulty is a bit of a mixed bunch as well, when the player can move around the whole of the screen I found myself dying real quickly, but in the tunnel sections I found myself dying far less, as I just fired one big bubble after another so the enemies bullets couldn’t hit me.

In a future update it would be nice to see an option for me to change the control, as my hands felt pretty cramped with the default controls, and perhaps making player and enemy sprite smaller so that the screen doesn’t fill up so quick.

All in all, a good attempt.

Graphics 80

Sound 60

Innovation 50

Overall 70

Matt McFarland

Air Brawler is an addictive game with pretty good AI.  The concept is interesting, and it's based on the fact that every ship is equal.  Your speeds are all the same, and the only thing you guys can do is wipe out each others' shields (which are also equal) and be the last one standing.  When you start there's a swarm of them, which is pretty intense!

The interesting concept mixed with easy controls allows for players to formulate many strategies, however the game is so random that you never know what you'll run into when you hit start. 

The game lacks sound effects and a pause button, and at times it ran pretty slow on my computer.  After losing you can hop right back into another game, and I like that very much.  Only problem is sometimes I skipped the gameover part all together and jumped to the main menu which caused slight confusion. I can say that despite these minor flaws, I found the game an enjoyable experience.

Graphics: 65

Sound: 33

Innovation: 84

Overall: 82

Tim W

Pixel Outlaw is not a man easily taken down by a hard disk crash. Unfortunately the same can't be said about your ship in Air Brawler. Always in perpetual motion, you can manage the ship's speed and direction by using the arrow keys. Collecting green gems doesn't increase health, which is a feature that might have made the game a lot more accessible to beginners.

Still, it's good to see Ryan continue to impress with each new project.

Graphics: 70

Sound: 25

Innovation: 80

Overall: 70

Charlie

Think a Quake death match, only viewed top down and you’ll have a good idea of how Air Brawler plays. Graphically, it’s quite sparse, using a triangle for your player ship, with a nice looking tail that fade away as you move along. I really liked the music, it’s got a good beat and suits the frantic pace of the game, it’s just a shame that there aren’t any sound effects to go with it.

Game play wise, while I think that the constantly moving mechanic works pretty well and I like the satisfaction I get when I chase down an enemy, without having some way of replenishing your health I don’t think this game could be more than just a five minute excursion. I hope the developer can add something to address the longevity issue, because I’d like to spend some more time with this game.

Graphics 50

Sounds 65

Innovation 75

Overall 65

Matt McFarland

Helios is an interesting game with a cool control set up.   Not sure if that was on purpose or not, but I felt that the game wasn't running at a proper speed.  The game lacks configuration options as well, but the original control setup (mouse+keyboard) I found perfect.  Soundwise the game needs work, but perhaps all these issues will be addressed in the future.

Graphics: 78

Sound: 67

Innovation: 71

Overall: 68

Tim W

Short and sweet. That's Helios: Duality Matrix. Both keyboard and mouse are used to control the ship in this arena shooter with scrolling backgrounds. Two problems - sound effects are barely audible (no configuration options either), and the gameplay length is an issue. A good effort nonetheless.

Graphics: 65

Sound: 45

Innovation: 60

Overall: 65

Charlie

I really enjoyed this one. I loved how the control scheme allowed for new ideas to be added to the vertical shooter genre, like bosses at the bottom of the screen. Other things to be liked are the explosions (which reminded me slightly of Battle Garegga, a personal favourite) and weapon effects for the different weapons and missiles etc..

I liked the sound effects, even though they are a bit on the quiet side, but wished for a bit more variety in the music department, as I didn’t think that the main tune really suited the game.

My one criticism is that it just isn’t long enough, by the time you reach the second boss your just getting into the swing of things so it’s a little disappointing that the game ends here. I hope that the developer sees fit to continue developing this game, and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

Graphics 70

Sounds 60

Innovation 80

Overall 80

Matt McFarland

FlyOut is an interesting title that has a great retro feel to it.  The graphics are simplistic, but they all fit together well giving it a nice presentation. 

The point of the game is to fly upwards (little guys wave you on) through a deep cavern system filled with a nice variety of baddies bent on keeping ya down in that cave for good.  As you go along, your team-mates can be seen waving you on, and they throw off powerups for you to catch.  Health can be collected along the way for destroying loose rocks. 

The trick to this game is to be careful not to destroy your powerups and to also mind your ship as it flies backward when you shoot. 

Overall I think a lot of work was put into this game giving its variety of enemies and a functional menu system.  I'm glad you can use CTRL or Z to shoot (the more options for shooting the better in my book!) but I couldn't figure out how to pause the game so pausing might have been overlooked. I was impressed with the different enemy types but found that the level itself is quite long, and should have been broken up into more levels.  However, the challenge gradually increases at a good pace with new enemies being introduced as you go along. 

Graphics : 70

Sound: 54

Innovation: 77

Overall: 79

Tim W

FlyOut (originally entitled Tunnel Vision) is an entry that I really wanted to like. Pilot a ship upwards, blow up enemies bent on halting your progress, and avoid getting trapped by the misshapen tunnel walls and ceilings.

Truth is, mastering the control scheme can be quite a challenge. The ship moves erratically, requires some time to accelerate towards any direction and never remains stationary. Collecting tiny health packs and power-ups without crashing into anything is extremely difficult after surpassing a certain height. Of course, it's reasonable to say that to acquire the good stuff, a certain amount of risk should be taken. But allowing items to be blown away by your own weapons? (cries)

Let me wipe my tears. (sniffle) Having your progress saved after a certain height doesn't hurt either - a bit of assistance for beginners can be a great boon. Impressive effort, even with the minor nitpicks.

Graphics: 70

Sound: 65

Innovation: 90

Overall: 75

Charlie

Flyout could have been so much better. It’s a great concept for a game, escaping from the tunnel whilst avoiding the various enemies and the obstacles provided by the tunnel itself, but unfortunately it’s let down by a few pretty minor things.

The controls are too floaty, and while I appreciate that it adds a simulation of real physics to the ship it makes it nearly impossible to control accurately, meaning that health and ship upgrade bonuses are too difficult to get, coupled with the fact that you can shoot these items makes it even more frustrating. Also it means that you have no real precision over small movements, the result of which is that it gets frustrating whilst trying to dodge bullets/enemies when you have a confined space to move in. This becomes increasingly more of a problem as you get further along the tunnel.

Hopefully though, these things can be fixed. I’d have liked to have seen larger power-ups and more precise controls, and the further development of the tunnel concept.

Graphics 30

Sounds 30

Innovation 65

Overall 60

Matt McFarland

I really loved the animations in this game, everything runs very smooth and the game I foudn to be quite enjoyable.  The game comes across very challenging, but in reality its easy to pickup and fun to play with.  The secondary weapon was a definately a nice touch.  It's a shame the game is missing many essentials that would make it a "full game"

Graphics: 76

Sounds: 0

Innovation: 73

Overall: 71

Tim W

Reversed is perhaps one of the best unfinished works in this competition, with power-ups resembling the ones found in Cho Ren Sha 68K which can be collected to upgrade your firepower or increase the multiplier count.

Unfortunately it scores a zero in the sound department, which is rather disappointing because it definitely ranks quite high in other areas. Having the ship evolve into different configurations based on the type of weapon upgrades acquired is a nice touch as well.

Graphics: 80

Sound: 0

Innovation: 70

Overall: 80

Charlie

The graphics in this entry reminded me of the Kenta Cho games that I like, and the movements for enemies is fantastically smooth although it would have been nice for them to have been a little more colourful. I usually really like the game play in this sort of game, edge of seat bullet dodging etc., however I found it hard to get into the ‘zone’ with it, which is a shame. Its also a shame the author of this game didn’t have time to add any sound to this game.

Graphics 65

Sounds 0

Innovation 60

Overall 60