Matt McFarland  - Score: 9.00

Smark's Lair is a game where you play the role as a dragon whose goal is to eliminate those pesky humans.  The humans have mages, archers, and even a Dragon Slayer (who is very very hard to kill) - I enjoyed playing this game.  Let me rewrite that... I ENJOY playing this game!!  The title screen is mehh, the high score screen is mehh, the loading screen is mehh.  The game is AHHHH but a good AHHH!!

The graphics are ace, the sound is ace, the gameplay is ace, this game is ace!  Everything involved with this game is amazing to find out of a short, 2 month competition.

In this game, you can pick up the humans and toss them at each other, you can eat them for health, spit fire balls at them or breathe napalm all over the place!  I would love to see this game continue in production!  I think this is near shareware material as the polish is... well.. its polished very well!

Music and Sound: 10.0

Graphics: 9.0

Originality: 9.0

Personal Score: 9.0

Sean Doherty  - Score: 7.00

In Smark's Lair, you play the role of a dragon trying to destroy the Humans (including their Dragon Slayer).  The Humans have a wide variety of enimies for you to fest on, including a Dragon Slayer.  Generally, speaking the game is seem like a lot of fun.  However, I found it very difficult as a result of the small amount of screen visibility while trying to destroy the Humans.

Overall, I like the concept but it is just too hard.

Music and Sound: 9.0

Graphics: 8.0

Originality: 9.0

Personal Score: 7.0

Matt McFarland  - Score: 10.00

Sovereign's Slave is a horizontal scrolling shooter (with a cool bonus game that isnt) where you control a red dragon who has a golden collar.   Use the arrow keys (I wish it was WASD btw) to move the dragon around the screen, and use the mouse to aim.  The control scheme is pretty good though, and you just hold the left mouse button to spit fireballs at the humans.  The humans come in on flying machines, they have traps, and they have a "war cart" that they use as a miniboss.

The game design is very well thought out, and put together.  The graphics are great and it's style is polished to perfection.  You can expect a lot of variety out of this game, and that is something that I believe takes some planning and some effort when designing levels.  The challenge starts soft, and gradually increases, which is something that I feel a lot of games out there lack, and is defenitely at top quality.

The sound, music, and interactivity is pretty much anything you would expect from a commercial game.  I recommend everyone download this game and give it a try.  The bonus level where you have to collect all the spheres is in a pseudo-3D mini-game, and it is also very cool.

What gives this game its staying power is its variety thus providing excellent gameplay.  Everything with the sounds to the graphics all mesh in perfectly, which makes this a solid production.  The only sound effect I dont like are the explosion sounds, because they sound crackly and a bit too loud.  I was also slightly dissapointed with the fact that you cant kill sheep with the uber powerful dragon beam, and it seems like it doesnt hurt the war-carts.  I also didnt like the fact that you couldnt destroy the floating mines, but that was definately intentional to give you some obstacles.

Matt's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 8.0

Graphics: 9.0

Originality 7.0

Personal Score: 10.0

Sean Doherty  - Score: 7.00

Sovereign's Slave is a horizontal scrolling shooter where you control a red Dragon.   Basically, the control the Dragon's movement with the arrow keys while targeting your enimies with the Mouse.  Personally, I didn't like controlling the Dragon's movement with the arrow keys because it forced me to put my left hand accross my body.  That said, the game is fairly well put together and has a nice variety of enemy units with there own attack patterns.

The following are some observations while playing the game:

- the game is pretty much unplayable in anything other than full screen because if you click outside the game window it disapears.

- there seems to be an issue with collision detection; a number of times, I got stuck against the side of the screen an had to move toward the edge of the screen in order to get free.

- I couldn't understand the mines with the chains; I died there a bunch of times even though I didn't think I was touching anything.

- since the red Dragon is the main character in the game, it could use a few more frames of animation.

Sean's Personal Breakdown

Music and Sound: 6.0

Graphics: 7.0

Originality: 5.0

Personal Score: 7.0

Matt McFarland  - Score: 6.00

Hiryu is an interesting title which, according to the author, means "flying dragon" in japanese.  Basically you take control of a baby green dragon, and his quest to shoot fireballs at all kinds of interesting looking baddies and collect fruit and icecream along the way.

You collect different powerups that change the way you breathe fire.  By default, you're just shooting fireballs at a rapid place.  You can collect other powerups that cause you to breathe a stream of fire, and also a spread shot that covers more area.

The game isn't very forgiving, as if you're hit, thats it, you lose your powerup.  That doesnt bother me though, as it seems to go in good with exactly how you are meant to play this game.

The design itself is pretty solid, and I couldn't find any bugs except my monitor doesnt like the full screen mode.  This game challenges you to memorize the level, and to be CAREFUL.  I realy enjoy the suspense it gives, because you want to pay attention to whats going on around you, and I truely believe that is because of excellent game design.

I have never played a game where I'm a baby dragon who collects ice cream and fruit, along with scrolling along a screen shooting everything in its path.  I really like this game, but it's too hard at first and that requires a higher learning curve.

I would like to see this came continued, but I'd like to see level 1 be a bit easier, and maybe some more eye candy in the background.  The graphics are great and the game design is solid.  My biggest gripe is the sound effects.  The music is Ace, but the sound effects hurt my ears.  The dragon sounds like a baby bird when it gets hit, and when it dies it sounds like tiny daggers are rapidly stabbing my ear drums.  With a sound effect overhaul, the whole sound scheme would be most excellent.

Matt's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 4.0

Graphics: 7.0

Originality  8.0

Personal Score: 6.0

Sean Doherty  - Score: 7.50

Hiryu seems like a cross between your standard horizontal shooting game and Pac Man; or maybe Dig Dug.  There are not mazes or tunnels  but the game is very retro and when you distroy an enemy it is transformed into fruit that you can collects.  The game has a lot of power-up; some are not so good.  I really injoyed the Retro style of this game.

Sean's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 6.0

Graphics: 8.0

Originality  6.0

Personal Score: 7.5

Matt McFarland  - Score: 6.00

Born of Fire uses 3D graphics in a 2D way.  The game consist of flying a red dragon who is fighting what appears to be demonic forces of doom.  I loved the intro with the guy sleeping at his computer dreaming about it, I thought that was a nice touch!   In the game, you control a red dragon with your mouse, and use the left mouse button to shoot these blue balls of minor destruction.

The mountain graphics and the clouds are pretty nice, and the HUD looks sharp! The enemies and the player character dont look like they're really in there, but rather they're on top of everything.  They also look too "crispy" - its a funny word, but I guess their textures are too big and were scaled down by a lot when placed on them.  I could be entirely wrong though, because I dont know much about 3D art at all.  The movement patterns arent smooth, but that isnt necessarily a bad thing!  The music totally rocks, and I'd love to get my hands on the soundtrack!

The game also has some neat features where you can breathe some very destructive fire for a short time, and also you can summon a mini-dragon after collecting 10 blue gems.  I was dissapointed though, when I collected 20 gems and tried to summon two mini-dragons. I would like to see more of them honestly.

The game has some bosses, levels, and does have somewhat of a way of beckoning me to play it more.  My biggest gripe is the fact that I have to constantly click the left mouse button, my index finger doesnt really like it!

Matt's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 9.0

Graphics: 7.0

Originality  6.0

Personal Score: 6.0

Sean Doherty  - Score: 6.00

Born of Fire is a vertical shooting scrolling game were you control a Red Dragan.  You are attach by all kinds of interesting emimies from other dragons, to skulls, to throwing stars, and of course the Black Dragon at the end of the game.  Overall, the graphics are a bit of mixture; I wasn't that found of the static models in the game.  However, the scrolling 3D landscapes, the title screen, and the flames fired by your Red Dragon are outstanding.  The music is also a bit of a mixture for me; the heavy metel Music is well done but I don't think it goes with the game.

Overall, this game has a lot of potential.

Sean's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 7.0

Graphics: 8.0

Originality  6.0

Personal Score: 6.0

Matt McFarland  - Score: 5.50

Dragon Dancer is a pretty fun game with a fast pace, and a lot of oldschool effects.  Everything about this game really makes me feel like I'm playing at the Arcade, with the exception of the fear of death.  In this game, you can control 3 different colored dragons, which each have different firing effects.  The level takes your tragon across many enemies and they arent afraid to shoot at ya!  The tail of your dragon whips around as you move about, and I can imagine it'll be great at blocking bullets, but for now, there is no need.

Where the game lacks is that there isnt any way to die yet.  You're pretty much an invincible dragon going across the land very quickly, capable of destroying everything in its path.

The cool aspects are the chaining mechanism, the TATE mode, and the different dragons.  

All in all, Id really like to see the continuation of the game!   cant give a good Gameplay score, because you simply can't die!

Matt's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 7.0

Graphics: 7.0

Originality  5.0

Personal Score: 5.5

Sean Doherty  - Score: 5.00

Dragon Dancer is a top down scrolling game that is completely action packed.  For some reason, the collision detection appears to be be turned off in this game; which is a good think because I'm guessing it would be pretty much impossible at the cuurent levsl.  Overall, the game seems like it is a MAME game for the arcade?

Sean's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 7.0

Graphics: 6.0

Originality  5.0

Personal Score: 5.0

Matt McFarland  - Score: 7.00

Dragon Forever is a vector based game where you play the role of a dragon that's in the mood to cook an entire castle, but the dragon doesnt have all day so you better do it quick!  The control scheme was pretty easy for me, although I'd rather see him use the WASD format for controlling the dragon.  By now, you might already know that this is a mouse+keyboard game.

So basically, you hold the left mouse button to breath a stream of fire, and the right mouse button to unhinge those jaws and blast a "shotgun-style" breath of of wide-yet-not-as-strong fire.

The game completely lacks sound at all, but there's plenty of visualization on the screen to keep you enticed.  I found the game to be VERY original, and quite fun, but it seems that each level is the same and your main challenge is timing.  As each level passes, you get less and less time to burn the castle down, and once you run out of time, its game over.

I'd like to see this game continued with maybe some powerups, and perhaps different castles and OF COURSE some sound!!!

Matt's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 0.0

Graphics: 6.0

Originality  10.0

Personal Score: 7.0

Sean Doherty  - Score: 6.00

Dragon Forever is a vector based game where a bunch of you seem to be trying to destroy the spawning blocks befire the time runs out.  At first glance, it pretty much reminds me of tempest.   I think, this is pretty much all you would get from this game without reading the readme file.

Observations:

- The game lacks sounds and music.

- When the game starts, you are presented with a menu but there doesn't seem to be any way to do anything excpt start the game using the left mouse button.

- When the game ends, you are challenged to find the key to return you to the main menu.

- The readme file is a test files at is opened by notepad, but it is a rich test file?

This is a good start, but this game requires a lot of polish (and some hand holding) to be complete.

Sean's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 0.0

Graphics: 6.0

Originality  8.0

Personal Score: 6.0

Matt McFarland  - Score: 6.00

Visible Entity is a gallery shooter filled with different enemy tpes, and enemy movement patterns.  The graphics have a cartoony look and feel to them, with a simple touch.  As you fly along, you mash the spacebar key spit fireballs.  Everything you hit almost is one hit, with the exception of a few extra enemies that aren't as common as the "one-hitters".

The powerup system reminds me of 1943, as they're timed.  It's a pretty fun game for a while, but because theirs no sound all I could hear was "clank - clank - clank - clank" of my spacebar as I smashed and mashed to take down the enemies.

The game seems too easy in my humble opinion, and after a while it begins to feel a bit repetitive.  I feel that this game has amazing potential if the level design is tweaked more with more variety and more clever movement patterns.

The control scheme is pretty solid, and although the graphics are amateurish, they all mesh well together so it gives the game a nice look.

Matt's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 0.0

Graphics: 6.0

Originality  4.0

Personal Score: 6.0

Sean Doherty  - Score: 4.00

Visible Entity is a good start for a prototype, but it is a long way away from a finished game.  The game itself is pretty much a standard shooter where you control a dragon.  There are lots of different enemies to blast, but in honesty it didn't fell all that fun with the lack of sound.  I'm sure with better graphics, sound, and a lot of polish the author could make this an interesting shooter.

Sean's Score Breakdown

Music and Sound: 0.0

Graphics: 4.0

Originality  4.0

Personal Score: 4.0