(Insert stupid Blog name here)

Thanks for the kind words; never thought of this:

perhaps it would have been better to move from Toyshop Trouble straight into the mini-game

That is a good idea, though I think John resented the minigame a little towards the end there.

Minor typo:

You'd better be fast - buy accuracy counts too!

Thanks for the kind words; never thought of this:

perhaps it would have been better to move from Toyshop Trouble straight into the mini-game

That is a good idea, though I think John resented the minigame a little towards the end there.

 

Well, space was tight and you were over your quota.

 

That's not the real problem with the mini-game, though: many people who reached the minigame, if it was activated by clearing December 24, wouldn't be able to do anything with it once they got there.

As it is, once you've gotten past December 24th, there's not a lot of incentive to keep playing - there are no more goals to achieve, and nothing new to see.

 

Well, the January levels get challenging around January 6 or so. In retrospect, I should have tried to squeeze in the code to allow "practice mode" to work in January. That's probably my one regret in the game. Were it not for that, one could refine one's skills on the January levels until one got good enough to clear them until one reached the ultimate limits of skill.

 

The game doesn't simply "hit a brick wall". To be sure, there are some hard limits as to how far one may progress, but I would be surprised if anyone had the skill to reach them.

 

I wonder if I should do an MGC release, and if so, if I should add a "January practice" option?

Minor typo:

You'd better be fast - buy accuracy counts too!

Thanks! Spell-checkers don't catch stupidity.

Thanks for the kind words; never thought of this:

perhaps it would have been better to move from Toyshop Trouble straight into the mini-game

That is a good idea, though I think John resented the minigame a little towards the end there.

 

Well, space was tight and you were over your quota.

Ouch! Fair enough, though. 1K is a really hard limit.

 

That's not the real problem with the mini-game, though: many people who reached the minigame, if it was activated by clearing December 24, wouldn't be able to do anything with it once they got there.

Oh. Good point.

 

That's not the real problem with the mini-game, though: many people who reached the mini-game, if it was activated by clearing December 24, wouldn't be able to do anything with it once they got there.

I guess I should have elaborated a little, but the review was already getting too long. Anyway, my idea would be that the game would appear to end on Dec 24th with some congratulatory message, unless the player had figured out how to trigger the Easter Egg. Then the game would continue, adding to their current score. Perhaps a little less obscure of a clue could have been revealed at that point. Maybe the final toy could have been something like this:

 

 

Well, the January levels get challenging around January 6 or so. In retrospect, I should have tried to squeeze in the code to allow "practice mode" to work in January. That's probably my one regret in the game. Were it not for that, one could refine one's skills on the January levels until one got good enough to clear them until one reached the ultimate limits of skill.

My point doesn't have anything to do with being able to practice or not. The story of the game ends at December 24th, and I think the game should have ended at that point too (or moved into the mini-game, where dates are irrelevant).

 

As soon as dates were used to define the levels in the game, I always felt the game should end with the successful completion of the job as defined by the story. Having the elf going back to work in January, and working harder than he was during the pre-Christmas crunch, really doesn't make any sense from a story point-of-view, and it makes the current "ending" of the game feel incomplete, rather than being a successful completion of the story.

 

Since December 24th is the goal of the story, it should be the goal of the game, as well. Other than the two suggestions above (outright ending it on Dec. 24th or moving into the mini-game), there were a couple of other ways to do this. 1) Have the game pick up again after Christmas in December of the following year. Give people the chance to get through the game a second time, at the harder difficulty. 2) Back up the starting date into November, so the absolute hardest levels end up at December 24th, then end the game after clearing that date. The problem here, however, is that few would ever actually see the end of the game.

 

Story may not have been the most important consideration in the overall design of the game, but if you're going to base a game off of a story, it needs to support that story through to its conclusion. Especially when there is an absolute date by which the goal of the game must be completed. Just having the game dwindle off into January feels very unsatisfying to me.

Just having the game dwindle off into January feels very unsatisfying to me.

Yes, it doesn't match the story well.

 

But maybe they have to produce all the replacement toys then?

Excellent reviews again. Personally I'd swap the ratings for QB and Reindeer Rescue, but one can't go wrong with any of the three anyway

Excellent reviews again. Personally I'd swap the ratings for QB and Reindeer Rescue, but one can't go wrong with any of the three anyway

Actually, I gave the original Qb 5/5. I downgraded the Holiday version because in the end, it was just a graphics hack. Had something been done to improve on the original (sound, for instance) I would've given it 5/5. It was certainly a huge improvement over the previous year's Holiday cart (which I don't have), so I'm not trying to knock it. But it just didn't offer anything beyond the original game for those that already had it.

 

And I'm way too biased to be reviewing Reindeer Rescue. But since I've reviewed every other game I've gotten, regardless of whether I worked on them or not, I figured I should review this one, too.

And I'm way too biased to be reviewing Reindeer Rescue. But since I've reviewed every other game I've gotten, regardless of whether I worked on them or not, I figured I should review this one, too.

No problem as long as you mention it. When reviewing games where I participated I wouldn't be objective too.

 

BTW: Great reviews, but I didn't expect anything different.

Excellent reviews again. Personally I'd swap the ratings for QB and Reindeer Rescue, but one can't go wrong with any of the three anyway

 

Actually I was going to say that about Reindeer Rescue and Toyshop Trouble. For my money, TT throws you right into the action that ramps up nicely and gradually. It's classic arcade-style action that takes very little to explain but there's always something to look forward to with new toys and such. It may not have an end but honestly I'm not that good at it. I'll be happy if I can get to Dec. 24th.

 

Reindeer Rescue, on the other hand, isn't immediately obvious what you have to do. Even after reading the manual, I had no idea there where multiple levels with new graphics. And it seems the key to RR is figuring out patterns of where to go and where to avoid. More of a trial-and-error game than anything. And for me trial-and-error usually means die a lot and get frustrated a lot.