Hello. Since the release of GM7 there have been countless games released not only made by GM7 but Klick and Play, Multimedia Fusion, and Shockwave. And since noone here has taken it on themselves to start a fan game review I figured I would pioneer into it.
How this works, I will present a review for a fan game or original freeware game that has been released within the last 6 months and after my initial post you all can comment on the game or my skills as a game reviewer. Note: This is not an ad for a game but it talks about games.
Now on to my very first review:
Toad Strikes Back
Author: ThunderDragon (of Mario Fan Games Galaxy)
System: Windows 98/NT/2000 XP
Rating: E 10+ (Everyone ten and older)
Development time: 4 years
Publish Year: 2007
Now that the specs are out of the way on to the meat of this discussion.
Brief Story Over-view:
Mario has gone somewhere or it has been so many years in the future he is dead. (The story isn't clear on this part)
And Bowser went off to far off lands to try to conquer them. One day a magikoopa who claims to be kin to Bowser takes over the koopa clan and proceeds to take over the mushroom kingdom. Eventually a common citizen, named Toad, steps up and tries to save the kingdom from the koopa clan.
Game Play 7.57/10
The game play is mostly glitch free with a few animation errors every now and then but none too noticeable.
The game starts you off in a level hub called the Mushroom Kingdom where you can select from a variety of 7 worlds. (at first you can only go to world 1) The player has to only press up in front of a world's door to enter that world from there they enter another level hub that contains the the world's stages all set to the theme of that world.
Like...
World 1 = Grassland (Mostly overworld sunny Levels)
World 2 = Caverns (Deep Underground type Levels)
World 3 = Beach (Aquatic, underwater or near water levels)
World 4 = Pipe Woods (Pipes, pipes, and more plumbing pipes)
and so on...
Controls 5/10
The key for picking up and throwing items (CTRL) and be sticky at times and cause the player to blow their character up because they could let go of a bomb-omb in time.
There is a total of 7 keys/buttons in use during the game but you can only customize the first two (Shift and CTRL) which not that bad unless you want to only use the game-pad which would mean you would need a separate program like JoyToKey to customize all the keys used.
The key customizations are "forgotten" by the game when the player resets the game with the F2 key.
The camera tends to jump up and down when your using a game-pad's joystick to control the main character.
Interface 10/10
This game sets it self apart from most Mario games by allowing you to carry up to three items at once and utilizes to score as money in order to play the many mini-games that are found.
Level Layout 10/10
Each level's layout is short in the beginning and progressively gets longer yest is still ingeniously designed. None of the levels, except when you have to pass part of it in a lake of lava, (World 6) have time limits which is nice because the some areas require more time and skill then others. To end each level you must find and activate a red star switch, when all the star switches have been activated the world's boss stage opens up. Which usually a castle or a normal slightly more difficult level with puzzles and locked doors leading to a boss fight at the end. Additionally to unlocking the boss stage a secret stage can be activated by retrieving all of the mushroom coins found in the levels, there is one in each stage including the boss stage. The secret level is hidden in all the Worlds except 1 and 3.
Each level has at least one halfway flag that will allow the player to resume the level at the flag in the event of death. In addition to the level flags you can use pipes you go through and the boss door as resume points too.
Boss Fights Beginning 10/10 Towards End 5/10
Note: I will explain why I have two scores for this.
The bosses are creative. They are souped up versions of common enemies found in the game. Playing off the SMW2 boss sequence the main antagonist comes in and comments about your progress and then swoops left and right spilling magic on the enemy on screen transforming it into a creature which appears to be a very well hand drawn super enemy.
Note: I have yet to complete the game but I will put the bosses in order as I found them. Additionally I will give them names since Thunderdragon did not.
World: 1
Name: Boom Boom Koopa
Behavior: Slams massive hands on the grounds and runs back and forth. Upon being hurt it jumps in place and shakes not only the ground but loose some bricks from the top of the screen which you have to dodge. During the "rock shower" Boom Boom is invulnerable to attack. With each strike to the head Boom Boom releases more and more rocks from the ceiling and runs faster back and forth.
World: 2
Name: Tubba Blubba
Behavior: Walk back and forth attempting to ram you. The only way to inflict damage is to hammer the platform he is only sending him to some spikes on the ceiling which cause him to barf out his heart. Attacking the heart damages Tubba. With each hit he also gets faster so watch out.
World 3:
Name: Capitan Shy
Behavior: Jumps towards player and spins trident until magic balls appear to spin around it. When the balls turn from blue to red he throws it at the player. The captain will give chase to the player even if the trident is in the other direction, giving the player ample time to pickup and throw the trident at him. Upon taking damage, he will fly off screen (as if you hit him really hard!) and several shy guys will fall down on to the screen. The captain soon will return and the fight resumes. As always with each hit his jumps will become longer and faster which makes it easy to pass under the captain.
World 4: (This is where it gets annoyingly hard!)
Name: Franken-Pirahana-Stein
Behavior: Stays put and lets and un ending army of pirahana plant weeds try to bash into you. Some of the weeds will carry a block you can pick up and throw at the enormous pirahana plant sticking out of the Franken-Stein Pipe. After dislodging the plant you have to jump on the to the pipe and press down the enter it consequentially dealling damage to it. After a few hits the weeds will move faster and begin to shoot yellow flames.
World 5: (Unfinished but I've been one hit from defeating it)
Name: Robo-Bill
Behavior: chases you through a never ending level shooting cannon balls, rockets, and pretty much anything a crazy robot bent on destroying you would shoot! He also throws bomb-omb which you need to pickup and chunk back at him before it blows up in order to inflict any damage. The insane part about the fight is everything is happening at once! So it is almost impossible to dodge anything!
What's worse is when you get his health down he gets faster! As if he wasn't hard enough!
Security 10/10
Most reviewer don't dive into this but I wanted to review every aspect of this game so I went on-line and downloading as many hex scanner, memory scanners, and game trainers I could find to attempt to cheat at this game. Every attempt to scan the game's memory and hex failed. This tells me the game is nearly inhackable which makes the game more fun for those who like playing by the rules and turns away those who only like destroying the game and the fun in playing it.
Overall Score:
5/10
Review Coming Soon:
Soldexus
Final Note: If any onf you want me to rate a specific freeware game pm me or email me at Ironwits@aol.com with the subject line ZFGC Game Review and I will get on it as soon as possible.
