zonabi
zMaiL
welcome
guest
login
register

articles





Firefox 2

Kirupa.com Flash Tutorials



Kiva - loans that change lives

you are currently viewing articles in games   
books spirit music life mind art wisdom science
[game review] Intelligent Qube (PS1) by [zonabi]

As an avid gamer for over ten years, Intelligent Qube takes me back to the explosion of videogames seen in the early 90\'s. Widely popularized due to it being on one of the Playstation\'s demo discs, Intelligent Qube (IQ) surprised many with its addictive gameplay yet simple controls and premise.

The basic idea of the game is that you are a person atop a long grid of squares. a group of cube-blocks begin toppling their way towards you from the opposite long end of the grid-plane. You move around and can mark the grid tile you are stepping on. Once marked, the goal is to de-activate the mark when a cube is right on top of it, capturing the cube.

There are different types of cubes; normal, forbidden, and advantage cubes. Normal are the light-colored cubes that you want to capture. Forbidden cubes are black and should not be captured. Advantage cubes are green and give you a bonus stationary 3x3 grid to blow up at any time in addition to your one marked spot.

A simple enough premise that adds up to fun gameplay. A 2-player mode lets a friend join in. Original mode (unlocked after completion of game) allows you to create you own levels (now a popular feature in new games).

This game holds up as one of the classics in Puzzle Games. Everyone may not know or remember it, but it is well-regarded in deeper circles and commands a high-price on the web due to limited availability and rarity.


+view comments+
lost magic: nintendo ds (review) by [zonabi]

Lost Magic - nintendo ds (review)

i remember  the calm excitement when i first read about this title for the nintendo ds. it boasted a real-time RPG-Action adventure, where you would have to draw your spells using the stylus! and the good news is that they totally delivered their promise on this one. the game is fun, challenging, and features multiplayer battle. so what's it all about, you say?

you assume the role of a young magician in the making, taught by a well-respected mage of the town. as usual in game, some turmoil has arisen in the homelands, and many of the powerful leaders in the area have been put under an evil spell. you even face-off against some of these wizards, attempting to knock sense into them while recovering the special staffs across the land, which are the target of the evil enemy who is ravaging the place. you yourself possess a magical staff handed down by your father. the RPG storyline even splits with decisions such as when you are asked to give up your magic staff. very cool indeed. but let's discuss the best part: the gameplay!

as a magician, you learn spells based on the elements (water, fire, wind, etc) and each spell has a signature "rune" design that you must draw with your stylus on the screen in order to activate. furthermore, the better you draw the rune sign, the stronger the spell will be cast. neat-o! so how this works out during gameplay is: you hold down the L button to bring up the rune-drawing menu. a circular design with points shows up, waiting for you to start drawing. now you draw the symbol as a series of lines and curves, to make up the rune sign. for example, one spell is a simple ^ triangle shape. now the spell is activated, which for this example is a fire attack spell. once back in the battle, you now have to click on your enemy to cast the spell on him. other spells have you clicking on other things, such as heaing yourself/ your pets, or enironmental spells where you click on land to cast. one of the coolest spells is an earth spell where you can literally draw a line on the battlefield, and huge rocks will grow there creating a wall barrier!

this game is a must-try if not a must-have. it also features multiplayer action where you can battle your friends wi-fi styles. each player will need his own cartridge for that. it also has a free wi-fi download option, but this only lets the cart-less DS download a demo single player version of Lost Magic, tsk tsk.


+view comments+
serious games for global awareness by [zonabi]

Serious games have been around for quite some time; from simple algebra games to full-blown flight simulators. But in just the past year, a whole new type of serious game has emerged. At a time when popular games like Grand Theft Auto are coming under fire for too much violence and no real value to kids’ development, many groups are developing games with what could be termed a “global awareness” theme. The game that really kicked this trend off was “Darfur is Dying”, a browser-based flash game in which you have to survive in a Darfur Refugee Camp. Other games in this new genre are “A Force More Powerful”, in which ‘you learn, through trial and error, every principle of nonviolent strategy imaginable’; and “PeaceMaker”, in which you choose a side of the Palestine-Israeli conflict and attempt to resolve it.

This genre aims to bridge the gap between our youth and the important issues of the world today. While many kids are not likely to pick up a newspaper, they are very likely to pick up a videogame. And if that game can teach them some better values to apply to their world, the better off our future can be.

www.darfurisdying.com/


+view comments+