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(Insert stupid Blog name here) - Homebreviews - part 12


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Continuing with the latest batch of reviews. This time: Puzzle Games!

 

AStar

4/5

 

AStar is a puzzle game with a unique play mechanic. The object of the game is to move a yellow pie-shaped character (Bob) around a maze, and collect various items. What makes it unique, is that you can only move in straight lines, and can't stop until you run into something. To help you navigate the maze, you can switch over to another character - a yellow square (Alan) - that moves the same way. Using the two characters to block and guide each other, and with careful planning, you can learn to navigate the mazes and collect all of the items. The real trick is collecting them within a limited number of moves. Exceed that amount, and you can still finish the maze, but it's not counted as a successful solution.

 

The graphics in AStar are first-rate, with great-looking sprites, colorful mazes and a nice fade-out effect between levels. The music is excellent, and the rest of the sound effects are also well done. AStar has a unique feature I haven't seen on any other 2600 game - an "undo" switch. Toggling the left difficulty switch lets you undo the last move you made. This is a brilliant and most-welcomed addition, and it doesn't have any negative impact on the game, since it can only undo the last thing you did. You can't use it to cheat by backing up multiple moves, but it's great for stepping back to fix an accidental move, and in this game - every move counts.

 

AStar supports the AtariVox, which will keep track of the mazes you've successfully solved. One feature I would have liked to have seen was more continuity between mazes during a game. So that if you beat the required number of moves, any leftover moves would carry-over to the next maze, or if you exceeded the number of moves in one maze, you'd be penalized in the next by having less moves to start with.

 

AStar is a great puzzle game, with enough different mazes to keep you playing for quite some time. Even when you learn to finish a maze, solving it in the fewest moves possible becomes the true challenge of the game. It may be frustrating for some players, since the minimum number of moves can be unforgiving, but if you like puzzle games, reach for AStar.

 

 

Jammed

3/5

 

Jammed is a sliding puzzle game in which you try to steal a car trapped in a parking lot by moving other cars out of the way. You can only move the cars forwards and backwards, and there's only one way out of the lot. Can you escape with the car of your dreams in the required number of moves? Or will you find yourself hopelessly trapped and end up having to take the bus home?

 

Well, you don't really have to take the bus home if you lose. The game simply moves onto the next puzzle. In fact, Jammed simply moves onto the next puzzle if you win, too. There's no running total to tell you how many puzzles you've successfully solved, or how many you've failed at. There are an impressive 600 puzzle variations in Jammed, ranging from ones even a novice puzzler can handle, to some requiring dozens of moves to solve. Despite the sheer number of variations, they're all based on the same basic puzzle. The lot never changes size or shape, and there are no additional challenges like immovable obstacles or different exit locations to help bring more variety to the gameplay.

 

Although the player's car looks very nice, the rest of the cars are simple white blocks. Still, the graphics are sufficient, although some additional color would have been welcomed - perhaps making each maze or difficulty level a different color. The option to choose the player's car color would also have been a nice feature. There's very little sound in the game, except for a couple of short tunes at the end of each puzzle. I kept wanting to hear the sound of cars banging into each other, or the throaty roar of an engine as I made my escape.

 

Jammed is a very good puzzle game, and there are plenty of variations to keep even the most diehard puzzle aficionados occupied. But with no way to track your progress, and 600 variations, it can become frustrating to remember which ones you've solved, and which you haven't, or even how many you had solved during a single game, and how many you didn't. Nonetheless, Jammed is very successful at being what most puzzle games are - an enjoyable diversion. If you like puzzle games, it's well worth having. And at $18, it's a downright steal.

 

 

 

Up next... transplants!

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...;showentry=3280

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