Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 5595
Author: dunny291073
Date: 25/02/2006
Subject: Re: Quirky features debate (or should I say war)
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, Visa-Valtteri Pimiä
> At least UMM is playable even without any knowledge of "quirky
That, I think, is my main problem with this game - presentation issues
> features", with a bit of luck and experimentation. I myself know
> little about the said features, and I almost never remember any of
> them while playing, but I still seem to be able to complete even the
> trickiest screens people have designed. I just try to be adventorous
> and not always try the obvious thing first.
aside.
I wouldn't mind if the game was bloody hard to get through simply
because I didn't know the bugs to be exploited - but this one makes it
sooo damned hard.
If you don't know the way through, you've got about a minute or two to
figure it out before one of your lives goes out the window due to the
rather strict "air" limit. More than a couple of goes, and you're back
to the start which means that you have to wait through the first
black/text screen, run through to the bar, then try again.
Using an implementation like that doesn't require brains - it requires
prior knowledge, and if you don't have it then you're punished
severely. You've no real time when you get to the first screen to
ponder the layout, and try things, and solve the puzzle. You either
know the solution, or you die. A lot of other people are finding that
to be a real turn-off.
Tbh, I'd far rather than someone had developed an engine capable of
doing all these extra tricks more smoothly, and still managed to keep
the feel of JSW/MM in the way the characters moved and so on. That
would have been a far better way of pushing the genre.
If I were after a flamewar, I wouldn't keep on at the game to see what
else is on offer - I'd have left it when I binned it the first time.
D.
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