Alwa's Awakening: A 60 Second Review
For the first time ever Matt from The Gamers Lounge hosts a 60 video review. This time it's Alwa's Awakening for the PC. Lets see if he thinks it's worth your time and money.
Check Matt's first ever 60 second video review. this is for Alwa's Awakening on PC. Available now!
Full Mojo Rampage Review
Full Mojo Rampage is a rogue-like game that takes place within the confines of the Voodoo reality. In this realm only the most powerful rites and powers can provide a safeguard against evil. Dying is not the end. Check out Matt's review.
Full Mojo Rampage
I was fortunate enough to snag a copy of this fun little game. It is a top down arcade style game, where you run around and destroy various nasty beings using your magic powered by your Loa, or Voodoo deity. The music and art style are fun, and the randomly generated levels mean you have to focus on skill rather than map memorization. You also get some fun items to use and equip, and wacky wands to use.
My experience with FMR was on the shorter side, but enough to where I knew the game was rock solid. The developers clearly knew what they were doing. When I first started the game, I was expected to be spammed either with a long chain of logos, or to be dropped into a bland menu. Neither happened. Instead, a witty little cinematic comes on that accomplishes two things. First, it sets the tone of the game. The art style and tone is clear. The music is fun, yet creepy. Second, the cinematic serves as a sort of tutorial. Where it never explicitly tells you how to play the game in the intro, it shows you what to expect. You see big and small enemies in a hoard chasing you. You run around, find and use an item by destroying a mausoleum, and then turn the tables from the power-up. From that, you see you can destroy some environment pieces, what to expect from enemies (weak and strong types, and mobs), and that there will be some items to give interesting perks. Getting into the game, I played several rounds, and then died. I was expecting to return to the mission select screen, but found myself on the main menu. When I tried to reenter, I found a new game with new levels, but my same character progression. I don't know if that was something they meant to do or if I botched/missed something, but still a great touch. Don't die, or you die-die.
Overall, great game. Go out, pick it up, and play it. It is a fun game you can spend a fair amount of time playing.
Score a 4 out of 5
Full Mojo Rampage is is available now on Xbox One and Steam. thanks to the publisher from supplying a code for review.
Party Hard Review
In Party Hard, you play as someone who is tired of the neighbors having loud parties. Rather than calling the police, you decide it’s a better to kill everyone by using a knife and the environment. Sound fun? Well it is!
Score: 4 out of 5
Party Hard is a pretty great game. It has tight controls, an interesting style, and a story line that will amuse (if you have the same sense of humor as myself). The whole premise is that the player is insane, and wants to “party hard” by killing everyone at parties without getting caught. This is communicated through cut scenes you unlock by completing the levels. Overall, I would give this game 4 out of 5. Good job Pinokl Games.
As I said, the game has tight controls. You can move, interact with traps and shortcuts, and stab people. Some people even have special moves you can get. You move at a decent speed, but if you need a quick boost you can sprint. This means you have to plan your moves out, because the enemies can often move faster than you. You can also interact with certain elements in the environment to produce lethal effects, like rigging a gas oven to explode. There are also trap downs to travel through to evade police (that get boarded up if they see you using it) and windows to hop through to give you exits. All of this lends to level designs that are fun to explore and varied enough to keep you engaged through the different stages.
Like the level designs, the art style itself is also pretty good. It is pixelated, so it gives you enough colors to clearly see what everything is, but not enough detail to make you think it is one of those games that didn’t hire an artist and only went with the default Unity assets. The music makes the game feel like a classic arcade game, and so does the stage select screen… and the fact it has stages. In between those stages are cut-scenes that deliver the story.
I was confused about the story delivery. It is right on that line where I couldn’t tell if it is serious or parody. Going with the tone and the rest of the game, however, I’m airing on the side of parody. It is the story of a cop that really wants to catch the bad guy, and has a bad case of “I’m a loose cannon. Fear me”! This adds to the campiness of the game, which makes it even better.
If you like a simple game you can pick up for 20 minutes or for hours that has an arcade feel to it that you can also compete against your friends (pass the controller, fastest time!), then get this game. If you want to play the original demo, you can go to their website and try it (http://tinybuild.com/partyhard, bottom of the page). The full game is more polished, but it will get you an idea. The game is available on PC, Xbox One (where I played it), and on the PS4.