SmirkyTrick's Review:
Sole Gunner: Mini (Demo),
The Gentleman,
& Heli vs. Tower
First things first, I believe you people may have noticed a small change. Nope, that’s not a long title for a game. That’s 3 games in one review. That’s actually the change I’m talking about. Starting today, I will be reviewing 3 games instead of one. Ever heard of killing 2 birds with 1 stone, well this is like 3 headshots with one bullet. You read right, now I can recommend or warn you (or both) about 3 games. No need to thank me. I get all the pleasure from the job. Now onto the review!
Sole Gunner: Mini (Demo)
For game #1 we have Sole Gunner: Mini, a somewhat of a sequel to Sole Gunner. Do you love Gunstar Heroes or Contra or both? Then you will love Sole Gunner: Mini. This is a love letter to everyone who loved 2D shooters. Everything about this game is smooth and excellent. I’m having a difficult time believing this is a DEMO and not a finished product. Yeah, it’s that good! This game is actually somewhat of a sequel to a game simply called Sole Gunner. But instead of a 2, we have Mini. That’s a little weird. Still, nitpick aside I loved this game. It made me feel like I was playing Contra or Gunstar Heroes. I played the original game, and let me say. This game is a huge improvement in the controls department.
Controls
Like I said the controls are WAY better than the original. They’re smooth, they’re simple, and overall they work. You press A to jump and S to shoot. From time to time you may get mixed up but fortunately there is an option that you can swap them to where A is to shoot and S is jump; and according to the developers, there are plans for another control setup in the full version of the game. You can also shoot in every direction, although you can’t shoot diagonally up or down without moving. But this is a minor nitpick. Everything is just perfect.
Graphics
They graphics are definitely trying to achieve or stand out with the whole retro look. It made in the same retro style that you would see in an old GameBoy device. And it works well with this kind of game. What a better way to represent a classic style of gameplay with a… well, a classic style. There’s these brilliant shade of dark green, light green, and white and they’re all put in the right place for this game. The last game also had this retro style, but it was in color, but for some odd reason I think this GameBoy style is the better graphic. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because of the sprite size, or maybe it’s the 90’s kid in me. Overall, this style just works better for me. I also like the design for the guns. You have the Spray Gun, the Missile Launcher, the flamethrower, lasers, and my personal favorite, the boomerang.
Difficulty
Like everything else with this game the difficulty is also perfectly balanced. Well… Almost perfectly balanced. The enemies are classical and original enemies also well designed I do say, although some of the enemies remind me of the enemies from the Megaman franchise. Even the Bosses are well designed, as well as being fast paced and having their own strategy. Oh yeah, there’s a lot of boss battles here, they’re spaced out not too far apart, but not too close together. It’s perfectly spaced. Every now and then you will be killed by an enemy or a boss so they’re not too easy either. I do however have this one complaint, you only have one life. JUST ONE LIFE!? Why? That’s right, if you die just once, you go back to the title screen and have start all over. But if that’s my only major complaint about this game, then I have extremely high hope for this game whenever it’s finished.
I am still having a difficult time believing that this game isn’t finished. It designed so well, there’s little to nothing wrong with it. And if this is a DEMO, then just imagine how good it’s gonna be when it’s finished. I know I’m saying that a lot, but this is really an impressive DEMO. I recommend….NO!.... I DEMAND EVERYONE THAT IS READING THIS REVIEW TO TRY OUT THE DEMO. IF YOU’RE GOOGLE-ING IT IT’S CALLED SOLE GUNNER: MINI (DEMO)! OR IF YOUR’E TOO LAZY TO USE GOOGLE, HERE IS THE LINK:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/621184
I KNOW I ALREADY POST IT ABOVE BUT TRUST ME IT’S THAT GOOD! If you love a classic shooter game, TRY IT! If you love the hardcore stuff, TRY IT! If you love the GameBoy, TRY IT!!!! If you just love video games in general, TRY IT GOD DAMN YOU! TRY IT!!! TRY IT!!! TRY IT!!!
I am still having a difficult time believing that this game isn’t finished. It designed so well, there’s little to nothing wrong with it. And if this is a DEMO, then just imagine how good it’s gonna be when it’s finished. I know I’m saying that a lot, but this is really an impressive DEMO. I recommend….NO!.... I DEMAND EVERYONE THAT IS READING THIS REVIEW TO TRY OUT THE DEMO. IF YOU’RE GOOGLE-ING IT IT’S CALLED SOLE GUNNER: MINI (DEMO)! OR IF YOUR’E TOO LAZY TO USE GOOGLE, HERE IS THE LINK:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/621184
I KNOW I ALREADY POST IT ABOVE BUT TRUST ME IT’S THAT GOOD! If you love a classic shooter game, TRY IT! If you love the hardcore stuff, TRY IT! If you love the GameBoy, TRY IT!!!! If you just love video games in general, TRY IT GOD DAMN YOU! TRY IT!!! TRY IT!!! TRY IT!!!
The Gentleman
For game #2 it's.... Doo-doo-doo… I’m a… Doo-doo-doo… I’m a… Doo-doo-doo… I’m a MOTHER FATHER GENTLEMAN!........ Oh my god that was a terrible intro. No, this game has nothing to do with PSY or any of his songs. Instead this game is a puzzle platformer. You get 50 very interesting yet difficult levels to play. All of them involving quick thinking, perfect timing, adjusting, and the humorous rules of a gentleman. So, is this puzzle platformer as good as Braid or Portal? Let’s address this like a MOTHER FATHER GENTLEMAN…. Sorry.
Controls
The controls are pretty straight-forward. You move, you jump, you glide, you duck, and do a duck & roll. There are times these controls work out pretty well and times that they feel a bit delayed during the more hectic moments. There are times where the game actually uses the controls against you but I’ll talk about that later on.
Graphics
The graphics are pretty good. Each level seems to have a setting of a noir alleyway or something else with an urban setting. In almost level there’s at least one silhouette of a cat, a rat, or even a bat (no those are actually in the game, I wasn’t rhyming to make it sound cute). I particularly like the design of the gentleman himself. His design looks like good noir art that I saw on Deviant Art.
Difficulty
Like I said before, some levels can get challenging. And by challenging, I mean frustratingly challenging, as in you die with one hit. Although some of the earlier levels are easy and are just demonstrations. Another thing I mentioned earlier was the controls could be used against you. There are times that the game uses these controls against you by making you run up wall, run upside down on ceilings, doing that Kid Icarus thing where you run to one side and come out the other side, there are even moments where the levels alters the perspective in order to deceive you. At one moment you’re on a platform the next you are far behind in the background. Some of the levels actually require you to adjust to changes. At one moment you’re on foot, other times you’re on this slippery slope, sometimes you’re on a bicycle, and there are even moments at the beginning of the level where you’re immediately in harm’s way and have to think extremely fast. There are bosses in this game that’ll definitely try your skills. One thing that bothers me though, referring to the enemies, you can jump on the bat and kill them, but you can’t do the same with the rats. And it may sound crazy but even the fire hydrants can kill you. The Gentleman seems to have found this very bizarre yet clever way to make the challenge all the more difficult.
Overall, The Gentleman is one of those bizarre puzzle platformers. The levels are like Braid, and it has humor that’s just as good as the humor in Portal (P.S. My favorite joke was in Level 42, I won’t spoil what it is but it will make you laugh). I would recommend The Gentleman to anyone who loves a good puzzle and loves a hardcore and skillful challenge.
Overall, The Gentleman is one of those bizarre puzzle platformers. The levels are like Braid, and it has humor that’s just as good as the humor in Portal (P.S. My favorite joke was in Level 42, I won’t spoil what it is but it will make you laugh). I would recommend The Gentleman to anyone who loves a good puzzle and loves a hardcore and skillful challenge.
Heli vs. Tower
For the Third and final game in this review is Heli vs. Tower. Now here’s another 2D shooter. However instead of a clear goal the objective seems to be how high you can get (or maybe there is an ending but I never gone far enough to see it). It has a very interesting concept, It can be a Shooter (the Heli) or it can be a shooter platformer (a person with a gun). Now when I saw this concept I started to have high expectations for this game. Then I started playing it. And …. Well…. Umm.. Just read the review.
Controls
The controls function fairly simple in this game. You have your moving keys, a button to shoot regular bullets, a button that fires special weapons, and an eject button which intrigue me. At first I thought it was a suicide button, but then I actually landed on the tower and was able to shoot people. Which I thought was a brilliant idea. And if you want to get back in a helicopter just hijack your enemy’s helicopter by jumping into it. But if you don’t hijack quick enough, you die. It's a very interesting way to catch a second wind.
Graphics
The graphics are actually really lacking here. The ships and aircrafts look alright, and I also don’t mind that they used stick figures for some of the enemies. But the real problem is the special weapons. They’re just so uncreative. Considering that I been playing many shooters lately, I had high hopes for the weapons here. But really, I got a rocket power-up, I held down the special key and it just shot rockets in one direction. It's really nothing special. Then I got the bomb power-up, and you know what happened? A bomb drop, there’s a quick 1-second flash and everything on screen died. You think that a bomb that would kill everything on screen would have a more epic of an explosion, but no, not in this game.
Difficulty
And then we find Heli vs. Tower’s major problem. THE DIFFICULTY. Most of the enemies die in 1 or 3 hits. And considering that the special weapons are overly common, you can just keep on going and killing. Lather, rinse, repeat. There will be moments where the enemies will actually run down your health bar. But here’s the thing, when the health bar runs out, you don’t die, your heli just explodes and you parachute your way onto a platform and hijack another helicopter. Lather, rinse, repeat. You can only die if you little person runs out of health or if your guy falls off screen. Lather, rinse…. You know the rest by now.
Overall, if I could describe this game with 1 word. That word would probably be TEDIOUS. Which is a real shame, because it had a brilliant concept. However, the point of this game is to see how high you can go and not beating it. You don’t win, you just do a little better each time. And that can get old really quick. I can only recommend this only if you have nothing better to do.
Overall, if I could describe this game with 1 word. That word would probably be TEDIOUS. Which is a real shame, because it had a brilliant concept. However, the point of this game is to see how high you can go and not beating it. You don’t win, you just do a little better each time. And that can get old really quick. I can only recommend this only if you have nothing better to do.