Since the Yoyo Games competition 05 ended, I’ve been playing a few of the games that people entered. I can’t say I’ve played all that many yet, but I have played a few here and there. One of my favourites so far was Cowboy Killa, and thought I would write a little review about it.

Cowboy Killa was created by Andrew and Banov for the 5th Yoyogames competition. You play as a guy (or more specifically, a cowboy) who has sadly lost or misplaced his ice cream sandwich (perhaps theft was involved!?) and goes on a rampage killing anyone in his sight as he searches for his missing food.

The gameplay is very entertaining and fast-paced. You run around hitting enemies with whatever item you currently have in your hands, be it a sword, club, pistol or magic glove. Each new level introduces new enemies and items to make the game just a bit more interesting as you make your way through it. The goal in each level is to kill as many things as you can, as fast as you can, and try to get high multipliers as you do so (by killing a bunch of creatures, be it ninja’s, monsters, aliens, or giant bugs, in a row). The general quick footedness of your player, along with your murderous goal, tend to make the game pretty frantic and you find yourself running all over the map trying to find locations filled with enemies.

Overall, the gameplay is really enjoyable, though maybe a bit repetitive as, though new enemies and items are added in each world/level, you still get the same gameplay throughout the game.

Onto the graphics! I really liked the graphics. Some were a bit more simplistic than others, which made me feel that maybe if they were to continue improving the game, they could touch some of them up. But, in general they fit the mood and worked quite well with the gameplay. Nothing looked really out of place, and it was pleasing to the eye. Each of the 4 worlds have different graphics and a feel, from being out in a forest/wilderness, to being down town, and then later in a graveyard.

Lastly, the music created by LilVypa was really well done, and fit the fast paced gameplay perfectly. I remember when I was on GMTalk we thought it was funny that a rapper was going to be doing the music, but in the end it turned out very well.

In conclusion, this is a game I really think you should give a try, even if you’re not a fan of fast-paced platformers (or platformers in general). Though it can be a bit repetitive, and some of the weapons don’t feel totally right (not sure how to explain that.. they just don’t feel like they are as smooth as they could be), the game is really fun.

You can download the game from yoyogames.com

I played Blueberry Garden today. I bought it a few months back, but my old computer was unable to run it, so I thought that, since I have a new computer now, I should give this game a play.

And I’m really glad I did.

Blueberry Garden, at first look, seems like a little exploration platformer.. Nothing special. When I started playing, I wasn’t expecting much, and wasn’t really interested in exploring around. But, I started anyways. After wandering around for a long time (maybe half an hour), and collecting big objects (apples, top hats, and the like), I realized that the water, which at the start of the game is really low, was actually starting to rise.

I had skipped the intro, where it shows a large tap being turned on. It wasn’t until i played again that I realized that you were playing as some sort of gliding bird, that was being drowned in a garden.

Anyways, eventually the water got high enough that I did drown, for good. You can drown an endless amount of time without getting a game over, as long as your pile of objects is higher then the water. Otherwise, you die for good.

I was a little shocked at first. I had spent 30 minutes exploration the world with this little bird guy, and he drowned. The music just added to it. I didn’t feel depressed, but I felt I should play again, and see if I could save him.

It sounds a little silly, but the game really has some cool emotional stuff in there. I wanted to save the little bird from drowning in his garden.

I still haven’t, but I’m going to keep trying. I little tip if you play, try eating all the different fruits. They give you special powers or change things.

Anyways, Blueberry garden is a really great little game. At first, a bit dull, but when you’re gliding around trying to find high land to save the top hatted bird, it really gets interesting.

I was bored last night, and thought I would go check out what was new that I could get on my Wii. I found a demo for Bit.Trip.Beat, and the interesting title and screenshots made me download it and give it a spin. I quickly got caught up in the game, and when the demo ended, I had to go buy myself the game for 600 wii points.

Bit.Trip.Beat is a really simple game. It’s like old Pong game. You move your paddle or board up and down on the screen, and bounce the balls that come at you back. However, the game has a lot more depth then a simple pong game, and I had a hard time putting it down.

At first the game is relatively slow, with a ball coming at you every few seconds that you have to bounce back. Over time, things start to speed up, and all of a sudden your moving the wii mote all over the place trying to hit every ball. The balls also don’t just come at you from a strait angle. Some move in circular motions, other squiqqle around, some come to a total stop before moving sideways and then at you again. You can usualy tell what a ball is going to do by it’s colour.

If you miss too many balls, you’ll go into a “Nether” state, in which the whole game turns black and white. In the nether state, if you miss too many balls, before you hit back enough balls, you get a game over and have to restart.

The game features three levels which you can unlock after beat the previous ones, when you play you can also get power ups like double paddles, or occasionally a smaller paddle (where you can score more points for bouncing balls back, since they’re harder to hit).

Graphically, the game is really well done. Though the background gets distracting (I think that’s the goal) I like the simple graphics over the high res effects floating around be hind the game. Cool idea.

Lastly, the sound. The sound really makes this game special. As you hit balls back, they make a sound, and though there is a beat played behind them, you can tell the creators spent a lot of time making the balls be played in time with the music, and the end result is really cool. It makes you want to hit all the balls so you don’t get a flat muted sound that occurs when you miss one.

Overall, this game is really well done, and I look forward to playing their other games (2 of which are already out on the wiiware). This game isn’t for everybody, and can be pretty difficult, but I really enjoyed it.

Check out a youtube video of it in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6cjZF7m6fU