Schizophretard Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Here's a review in some kind of forum: http://www.dmrozek.w...2600%29-5568499 What is Worming War I? Never heard of a homebrew with that name. I've heard of Worm War I by 20th Century Fox: The only part of that review that makes any sense is "after a few minutes" because that is obviously how long they played it. When they said,""aggressive" seaweed" it was obvious to me that they haven't made it to maximum difficulty. At maximum difficulty if you sneeze before you pause you are dead. I would call that aggressive seaweed. Instead of being called a review it should be called a first impression. Worm War I? Okay, Worm War I does increase in difficulty by more blocks showing up on the screen but it plays differently. In Worm War I they scroll down the screen, there are no combo points because they are all worth 5 points, you can only shot one at a time, you can only shoot them vertically, you don't get stuck in them, and they aren't the main targets but only obstacles. I don't understand why more blocks showing up to increases difficulty is a failed concept anyway. Worm War I rocks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schizophretard Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I think there is a hidden business floating around... any time you release any kind of BIN for 2600 you get tons of nerds shouting out "put me in the list"... isnt't that wondeful? Yes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I think there is a hidden business floating around... any time you release any kind of BIN for 2600 you get tons of nerds shouting out "put me in the list"... isnt't that wondeful? Yes. Agreed. Put me in the list for a cart! Oh wait. I already said that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 I don't know if it will be approved, but I replied to The Mad Blogger. Here's what I said in case it doesn't get posted: You seem to be confused. As you can see in the link below, there is a homebrew game called and a commercial game by 20th Century Fox called , but both games are nothing like Seaweed Assault: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/189490-seaweed-assault-is-finally-finished-atari-2600-game/page__st__50__p__2409391?do=findComment&comment=2409391 Even if you weren't confused and you were living in an alternate timeline where a homebrew called Worming War I exists and the game is similar to Seaweed Assault, since when does the concept for an Atari 2600 game have to be wildly different from all others? For example, many games released for the Atari 2600 are variants of Space Invaders or Pac-Man or Breakout or Berzerk or . . . 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockfistus Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 I like it. Shootin' seaweed is quite fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animan Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 Video Game Critic did a review: http://videogamecritic.net/2600ss.htm#Seaweed_Assault Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted November 25, 2011 Author Share Posted November 25, 2011 Video Game Critic did a review: http://videogamecrit...Seaweed_Assault Thanks for posting a link. D stands for Dandy, right? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cebus Capucinis Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Video Game Critic did a review: http://videogamecrit...Seaweed_Assault Thanks for posting a link. D stands for Dandy, right? Yep! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Video Game Critic did a review: http://videogamecrit...Seaweed_Assault Thanks for posting a link. D stands for Dandy, right? Yep! I thought D stands for Dynamite? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ntavio Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Nice game RT. Downloaded it on the Harmony. Put me down for a CIB should you decide to go forth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schizophretard Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 Video Game Critic did a review: http://videogamecrit...Seaweed_Assault At the bottom right of the review it says,"Our high score: 1,402". That makes no sense. That is like giving a review before you got done going through a tutorial. It also says,"Seaweed Assault needs a difficulty select in the worst way. I got tired of biding my time while waiting for the challenge to kick in." If his high score is only 1,402 then he isn't even good enough to handle the challenge of maximum difficulty. If RT would have added the ability to select maximum difficulty then the Video Game Critic would be complaining about the challenge being too hard. If someone sucks at a game they shouldn't give it a D-. They should give themselves that grade. If he wants a challenge then I challenge him to beat my high score of 75,594 points and then do the review again. If he can't get there then he should give the game an A+ for whooping his ass. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schizophretard Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 Video Game Critic did a review: http://videogamecrit...Seaweed_Assault Thanks for posting a link. D stands for Dandy, right? No, D stands for Dumbass giving a D- to an A+ game. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted November 26, 2011 Author Share Posted November 26, 2011 Video Game Critic did a review: http://videogamecrit...Seaweed_Assault At the bottom right of the review it says,"Our high score: 1,402". That makes no sense. That is like giving a review before you got done going through a tutorial. It also says,"Seaweed Assault needs a difficulty select in the worst way. I got tired of biding my time while waiting for the challenge to kick in." If his high score is only 1,402 then he isn't even good enough to handle the challenge of maximum difficulty. If RT would have added the ability to select maximum difficulty then the Video Game Critic would be complaining about the challenge being too hard. If someone sucks at a game they shouldn't give it a D-. They should give themselves that grade. If he wants a challenge then I challenge him to beat my high score of 75,594 points and then do the review again. If he can't get there then he should give the game an A+ for whooping his ass. When I asked him if he could review it (although it wasn't on cartridge yet), he said that he was busy, but he'd try since he has a Harmony cart. I guess we're lucky he found time to review it. It just sucks that it seems like he played it for 5 minutes and spent about 3 seconds glancing over the online manual. But a bad review is better than no review. At least it's in the list on his web site and more people might see it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animan Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 (edited) “Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple." -Charles Babbage Ok, that quote is kind of taken out of context, but it makes my point. He also ended the review on a high note, and it seems to suggest he'll try your next game. Edited November 26, 2011 by Animan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NML32 Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 Not sure if anyone has seen the review done by RGCD. http://www.rgcd.co.uk/2011/11/seaweed-assault-atari-2600.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 Get your limited edition here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/190743-seaweed-assault-limited-edition-pre-order-thread/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schizophretard Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 Video Game Critic did a review: http://videogamecrit...Seaweed_Assault At the bottom right of the review it says,"Our high score: 1,402". That makes no sense. That is like giving a review before you got done going through a tutorial. It also says,"Seaweed Assault needs a difficulty select in the worst way. I got tired of biding my time while waiting for the challenge to kick in." If his high score is only 1,402 then he isn't even good enough to handle the challenge of maximum difficulty. If RT would have added the ability to select maximum difficulty then the Video Game Critic would be complaining about the challenge being too hard. If someone sucks at a game they shouldn't give it a D-. They should give themselves that grade. If he wants a challenge then I challenge him to beat my high score of 75,594 points and then do the review again. If he can't get there then he should give the game an A+ for whooping his ass. When I asked him if he could review it (although it wasn't on cartridge yet), he said that he was busy, but he'd try since he has a Harmony cart. I guess we're lucky he found time to review it. It just sucks that it seems like he played it for 5 minutes and spent about 3 seconds glancing over the online manual. But a bad review is better than no review. At least it's in the list on his web site and more people might see it. You have a point but it still doesn't seem fair. His review reminds me of when I try to show my wife an awesome movie. Her attention span is so short that if she doesn't like it in five minutes she'll leave the room, start texting, fall asleep, or just day dream. Later on if I bring up the movie she will give me her review,"It sucked!" That kind of thing drives me nuts. People should give things a chance before giving their review. If I was reviewing Atari games I would read the manuals, play the games, and study them. I would know the games fully and then give a review. Doing otherwise would be like writing a movie review based on a trailer. If he says you seem to know what you are doing then he should believe you have good reasons not to include a difficulty select. You do have good reasons. I remember exploring them with you. You didn't want to do anything with the difficulty switches because four switchers have the difficulty switches hidden in the back and most people don't first read the manual before playing a game(like The Video Game Critic) ,so they think the way the game is when they first play it is the default settings. After you explained that to me it made perfect sense. Every time someone plays it for the first time they are playing the exact same game as everyone else. You also didn't want to have the select switch choose a difficulty level for similar reasons. You wanted everyone to start at the same difficulty level so that it was a fair game when competing for high scores. You didn't want someone to select easy and get 100,000 points while someone played on hard and only got 10,000 points. You wanted everyone to start on easy and work their way up to hard. That is fair and it doesn't even take that long to get to maximum difficulty. If the Video Game Critic wasn't waiting around to slowly let the screen fill up with seaweed to add a challenge but instead blasted them as fast as he could it wouldn't take him too long to get to the challenge he was looking for. I haven't timed myself but it probably takes me around 15 minutes to a half an hour to reach maximum difficulty. If you think of the reproduction rates as levels then that isn't long at all. That is beating a game in less than an hour and then just playing the last level over and over to beat your high score. The challenge is insane up there. The screen pretty much stays full of seaweed. By the time I work my way up to the top of the screen the bottom of the screen is full of seaweed again. It is so intense that I sweat. If there wasn't a pause feature my hand would probably break off and I'll have a heart attack. It is a challenge. We went through all this stuff and tested for hours, days, and weeks. If I added up every point I earned during that I probably rolled the score. We explored almost everything. I have something like four or five pages full of different versions of the game on my Harmony Cart and this version is the best one. We had to deal with bugs, interference, timing, balance issues, keeping things fair... and now it is wonderful. It is fun, challenging and fair. Everyone starts out on the same difficulty, people can use the best pause feature I have ever seen on an Atari game to take a break, and left-handed players can choose the left-handed controller configuration. It is perfect. The Video Game Critic should either redo the review or clarify that he didn't fully learn the game because his complaints have either already been answered in the manual or have already been tested out and failed. Out of everything we looked into that had to do with difficulty select the only one that would be fair is the Dig Dug continue where if when someone starts a new game with the fire button they start on the last reproduction rate they were on and if someone starts a new game with the reset button it goes back to the first reproduction rate. But if you included that he would still have to read the manual to know it is there and if he is giving you a D- it would probably just raise it to a D. To get a C- you would probably have to learn assembly language, time travel, make Seaweed Assault for Activision, come back, and tell him that the game may contain monkeys and that chicks dig it. He gave Activision's Checkers a better grade. He gave it a D which I also disagree with because it pulls off checkers pretty well. But Seaweed Assault is definitely better than checkers. A D- is ridiculous. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emehr Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 Yeah I read the VGC review and I thought it was terrible. It's like he's going more for yuks than actually critically exploring the game. Many of his reviews are notorious for failing to justify his grade. Instead, he opts to tear the game down using humor or showing his lack of understanding the game. Normally I enjoy reading reviews on his website but you can really tell when he gives a game a fair shake and when he's just slapping something together. Maybe I should start a blog where I review the reviewers (Who reviews the reviewers?). I give this review an "F". Let's see why... "Touching a block of seaweed harms you (for reasons unknown)" - Since when in the history of games does there need to be reason for something to harm you? In Berzerk, the walls harm you. In Pitfall, a sitting log harms you. VGC's reviews are known for being short and succinct. They are a paragraph long, maybe two. There's no room for unnecessary wordage. This wordage "for reasons unknown" is unnecessary and fails at justifying his grade. It should go without saying that a game with the title "Seaweed Assault" implies that the seaweed is deadly. No further explanation should be required for the purpose of the review. Adding "for reasons unknown" is simply a way for the reviewer to make the game seem inferior or nonsensical thus "justifying" the near-failing grade. "Since when do submarines have flippers?" "while shooting green blocks (seaweed)" "a jellyfish thing that looks like a crown" - Using humor to tear down the graphics of the game to help justify the grade is another method commonly used by this reviewer. Atari games are famous for using blocks and graphics that can be mistaken for something else. Go check out his other reviews of "A" and "B" games and see if he uses this level of criticism. 'Adventure' doesn't count. Too easy. Although, if you read the review for that he doesn't say that the bridge looks more like square-brackets than a bridge. Criticizing the flippers tells me he didn't even read the instruction manual posted on RT's website. "Our high score: 1,402" - I beat his score on my first try and I haven't played half the games he has (or maybe I have?). On a second try any player with moderate skill could double their score now that they know the intricacies of the game. Is he telling us that he reviewed the game without playing it with any depth? How can I take his other reviews seriously and base my purchasing decisions on his scores if he's not exploring these games to their full extent? Anybody with a website can play a game for seven minutes, write a paragraph, and give a score. Summary I would urge anybody to disregard the VGC's "review" of the game and try it for themselves any way they can (Stella, Cuttle, Harmony, etc). Even if they play it for five minutes, they will be putting in at least the same effort as the VGC. Not to mention that he misspelled your middle name, RT. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jifremok Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 (edited) My only beef with this game is that it starts slowly. It's not often that I keep coming back to a game these days (especially if it's just a ROM) so, if anything, my problem with the starting difficulty might just be testament to how much I like the game overall, after that first couple thousand points or so. Edited November 27, 2011 by Jifremok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 For those who speak German: http://www.game-demo.de/game-tutorials/seaweed-assault-atari-2600-homebrew-review/ He likes it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 For those who speak German: http://www.game-demo...omebrew-review/ He likes it! Yep, not bad at all and it's an older version of the ROM too. Thanks for posting that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandmountainslim Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 I like the game. I also like The Video Game Critic. Not a bad game at all and fun to play. My only complaint is it reminds me somewhat of Yar's Revenge ....that would be a COMPLIMENT coming from anyone else but I don't like Yar's Revenge. Can't put my finger on WHY this game reminds me of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 I like the game. I also like The Video Game Critic. Not a bad game at all and fun to play. My only complaint is it reminds me somewhat of Yars' Revenge ....that would be a COMPLIMENT coming from anyone else but I don't like Yars' Revenge. Can't put my finger on WHY this game reminds me of it. Similarities that come to mind: You can move and shoot in 8 directions. Certain objects know where you are and come after you. You can shoot playfield pixels. You're generally on the move the whole time you are playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 I think the lesson from Video Game Critic is not to try to learn how to play in a hurry. That was my experience too. When I ran the game the first time, I was in left-handed mode and found the controls pretty confusing and frustrating. Even when I read the manual, I had to peruse it a few times to even understand what LH and RH meant. Glad to see people are enjoying this game. I'll give it another try when I have the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 When I asked him if he could review it (although it wasn't on cartridge yet), he said that he was busy, but he'd try since he has a Harmony cart. I guess we're lucky he found time to review it. It just sucks that it seems like he played it for 5 minutes and spent about 3 seconds glancing over the online manual. But a bad review is better than no review. At least it's in the list on his web site and more people might see it. It's great that this game is getting attention, even if it's occasionally bad attention... Awesome job with the game RT! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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