Power Off! (review)

[supercat]

Here's my proposed review for Power Off! I know some people like the game, so maybe there's something I'm missing. I figured I'd post here before I submit it to the store, so if I'm off-base someone can help me out. I'm inclined to give the game 2 or 3 stars out of 5.

 

POWER OFF! review

 

Power Off! is a game which might best be described as a variation on Fast Eddie. A game of solid platforms and varied ladders where the only obstacles are enemies which move left and right along predictable paths.

 

Unlike Fast Eddie, the game does not allow the player to jump; this is offset by the fact that rather than placing items and ladders randomly (which would often yield unsolvable levels) the game places them in fixed positions for each level; also, unlike Fast Eddie, the player must grab two items from each level. The positions are chosen to make the levels difficult, but possible.

 

The enemies in this game are quite tall--tall enough that there is no safe space on the ladders between levels. It is thus necessary to ensure, before starting to climb a ladder, that there will be time to get away from the other end before a robot arrives. Otherwise, zap!

 

Well, actually, otherwise, silence. While the running and climbing sound effects are okay, and there's an end-of-level sound effect, the only other sounds are annoying metronomic braaap braaap braaap noises which have no relation to any of the action on screen. Different levels have different metronomic noises, but the overall effect is more annoying than immersive.

 

The graphics in this game aren't horrible, but nor are they anything to write home about. Each screen has a different color and shape of robot, and different platforms on the screen have different shades. Each robot, however, is a solid color and shade; the robots on the top level have a luminosity of zero; it may be necessary to adjust the television set to ensure their visibility.

 

The game is not without interest. Some of the levels do require some thought as well as careful execution. Although the robots generally move left to right independent of the player's position and actions, starting in round three each robot will speed up when the player picks up the second item on his platform. There is no warning of this, a fact which will most likely cause a cheap death when the player first discovers it.

 

My biggest complaint with the game is that there are only three lives per game, and the player must slog through all the earlier levels to get, at most, three chances to practice a later one. This really gets tiresome. I've reached level four, but I don't feel much desire to repeatedly work my way through the first three levels in order to try to clear it. If there were some sort of continue or practice feature I'd take advantage of those, but without such abilities the game quickly becomes tiresome.

[Foxsolo2000]

I agree with everything you said. its not a game that possesses great replay value for the frustration level is just too high

[Thomas Jentzsch]

My biggest complaint with the game is that there are only three lives per game, and the player must slog through all the earlier levels to get, at most, three chances to practice a later one. This really gets tiresome. I've reached level four, but I don't feel much desire to repeatedly work my way through the first three levels in order to try to clear it. If there were some sort of continue or practice feature I'd take advantage of those, but without such abilities the game quickly becomes tiresome.

The opposite can be true as well. Games like River Raid (or for me Cosmic Ark) have become classics by doing the same. IMO it increases replay value, if you have to play harder and harder to discover what is coming next. With continue or too much practice a game quickly looses its mystery.

 

But that's probably just a matter of personal preferences.

[joeybastard]

Well Supercat, you're entitled to your opinion of course but I disagree wholeheartedly.

 

Power Off! is one of the best modern VCS games in my opinion. The design of the robots and your character animation is very cool. I actually like the sound scheme being minimal in this game. I think the footsteps and "heartbeat"(at least that's what I call it) make it very atmospheric to the task at hand. I think tons of extraneous noise would be distracting and take away from the puzzle solving aspects of the game.

 

The levels can get pretty difficult requiring very exact timing and a careful path. That's what makes this game so interesting. I don't think the Fast Eddie comparison is good because while games objective is similar, the method for reaching the objective is very different. Fast Eddie requires little to no puzzle skills because you can jump over the bad guys. You can basically take any path and complete the level. Power Off requires you to take the CORRECT path or die. They really are different games because of that. One is kind of an arcade platformer and one is a strategy puzzle with action elements. I find Fast Eddie to get dull after a while. Power Off! makes me keep hitting the reset switch to try and get further. The replaying of early levels is very common in that sort of game so I don't find that to be a detriment. At this point, I can zoom right thru to level 7 where I've been stuck for a while but I almost have it down.

 

Again, I'm not saying your wrong, because everybody likes something different, but I wanted to throw in a different perspective on it.

[+Nathan Strum]

Power Off! is one of the best modern VCS games in my opinion.

Have you submitted your review of it to the store?

[joeybastard]

Power Off! is one of the best modern VCS games in my opinion.

Have you submitted your review of it to the store?

 

Yup, I always review homebrews when I get them. I got Power Off! last year. I'm the reviews that list Joseph Kollar as the author.

 

In fact except Toyshop Trouble I did reviews for the games I got this year already too I'll get to Toyshop Trouble probably tomorrow.

[+Nathan Strum]

Gotcha. Didn't recognize you without the "bastard" moniker.

[G.Whiz]

My biggest complaint with the game is that there are only three lives per game, and the player must slog through all the earlier levels to get, at most, three chances to practice a later one. This really gets tiresome. I've reached level four, but I don't feel much desire to repeatedly work my way through the first three levels in order to try to clear it. If there were some sort of continue or practice feature I'd take advantage of those, but without such abilities the game quickly becomes tiresome.

The opposite can be true as well. Games like River Raid (or for me Cosmic Ark) have become classics by doing the same. IMO it increases replay value, if you have to play harder and harder to discover what is coming next. With continue or too much practice a game quickly looses its mystery.

 

But that's probably just a matter of personal preferences.

River Raid is certainly a classic and one of my favourites, though I must admit that I stopped playing it was for this very reason. You spend half an hour going through the same maze again and again -- and 30 seconds getting destroyed at the same spot. It's a combination of boredom and frustration.

 

Would it be that hard to program River Raid so you could start somewhere down the river? I know it has that whole "random" thing for generating the river, but I would think there must be some way...

 

~G

[supercat]

Power Off! is one of the best modern VCS games in my opinion. The design of the robots and your character animation is very cool. I actually like the sound scheme being minimal in this game. I think the footsteps and "heartbeat"(at least that's what I call it) make it very atmospheric to the task at hand. I think tons of extraneous noise would be distracting and take away from the puzzle solving aspects of the game.

 

A sound to indicate that you've picked up a power bar would be distracting? I know there have been a number of times I've run up to a power bar and reversed just before grabbing it; a sound to indicate when to reverse would seem much more useful than distracting.

 

It would also be useful to have a brief blip every time a robot reversed. A different pitch for each platform, with the volume dependent upon the platform's distance to your own (e.g. volume 8 for the current platform, 4 for the platforms above/below, 2 for all others). Such sounds would not only provide more audio interest and atmosphere than a mere "gronk gronk", but would also help give the player a sense of the game's rhythm.

 

Also, even the minimalist sound scheme is marred by the fact that pushing sideways on a ladder will produce a climbing noise even though the player isn't moving. Since I use diagonals to enter/exit ladders, getting the climbing noise when I'm not climbing (because the stick is too far sideways) can be decidedly unhelpful.

 

The levels can get pretty difficult requiring very exact timing and a careful path. That's what makes this game so interesting. I don't think the Fast Eddie comparison is good because while games objective is similar, the method for reaching the objective is very different. Fast Eddie requires little to no puzzle skills because you can jump over the bad guys. You can basically take any path and complete the level.

 

True, the game is different from Fast Eddie, and I think I accurately describe that. On the other hand, I can think of no other game from the classic era which is more like Power Off!

 

Power Off! makes me keep hitting the reset switch to try and get further. The replaying of early levels is very common in that sort of game so I don't find that to be a detriment. At this point, I can zoom right thru to level 7 where I've been stuck for a while but I almost have it down.

 

If I'm careful, I can get through the first two levels pretty consistently without losing a life, and usually the third as well, but it's more drudgery than fun. The higher the level, the worse the drudgery-to-fun ratio is going to get.

 

Again, I'm not saying your wrong, because everybody likes something different, but I wanted to throw in a different perspective on it.

 

Fair enough. I recognize that Power Off! has considerable potential as a game, and I would rather like it were it not for the amount of forced drudgery necessary to play it.

[supercat]

River Raid is certainly a classic and one of my favourites, though I must admit that I stopped playing it was for this very reason. You spend half an hour going through the same maze again and again -- and 30 seconds getting destroyed at the same spot. It's a combination of boredom and frustration.

 

Would it be that hard to program River Raid so you could start somewhere down the river? I know it has that whole "random" thing for generating the river, but I would think there must be some way...

 

Some games allow continues, but IMHO that's generally pretty weak. If continues are limited, the player should simply have that many more lives. If continues are not limited, why have lives at all? And continues that are allowed only up to a certain point in the game are just annoying unless there's really nothing new to see after the no-more-continues spot.

 

The approach used in Tempest and Millipede is my favorite. Allow a player to continue from a spot two checkpoints before the last one reached. With this approach, a player cannot advance without getting good, but a player will only have to replay repeatedly one checkpint's worth before the last consistently-cleared one.

[joeybastard]

Not that anybody cares but I submitted my review of Toyshop Trouble as I mentioned I would earlier in the thread.

[Cybergoth]

If continues are not limited, why have lives at all?

 

The next life will respawn you close to where you died, the continue at the beginning of the level.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Would it be that hard to program River Raid so you could start somewhere down the river? I know it has that whole "random" thing for generating the river, but I would think there must be some way...

No problem, just change the random number generator seed ($14, $a8) at offset $dc9/a. Any hex editor will do the job.