Your brain uses 20% of your body's energy, yet it is only 2% of your total weight. The power your brain generates while you're awake can illuminate a lightbulb. And if you're restless, lavender can have a calming affect on the brain, while jasmine can rouse it from slumber. Fortunately none of this week's Link Dump Friday games will tax your brain too much, scientific proof that Jay is Games gives your body energy (by, you know, not forcing your brain to gulp more than its fair share).
Aeternus Lamnia Duo - An arcade game of fast reflexes, Aeternus Lamnia Duo pits you against fantasy-themed foes and forces you to switch between sword, shield and magic at a clipped pace in order to defend yourself. It's a lot like Elite Beat Agents, though without the musical tie-ins.
Telekinetic Eric - A puzzle platformer where you control Eric, a weird zombie dude with telekinetic powers. Use the mouse to move platforms and help Eric reach the goal, keeping in mind that you might have to move a platform beneath Eric while in mid-air!
Lasso - An action-based drawing game similar to Loop or Floats, Lasso adds power-ups and other gameplay elements to turn the familiar "draw loops around stuff on the screen" game mechanic into something a bit different.
Streetball Jam - A two-on-two 3D (you heard me!) basketball game that's about as straightforward as they come. Use the [Z], [X], [C] buttons to pass shoot and jump and the [arrow] keys to move.
Squirrel Family Summer - A simple skill-based arcade game from Mateusz Skutnik, Summer puts you in control of a hungry little fellow bouncing on three platforms eating food that falls from the sky.
for Squirrel Family Summer:
Lol. first time I have ever gotten a high score.. probably because this game has been out for minutes :P
not that deep, though
Aeternus Lamnia Duo: The controls are a bit complex and take a while to master. The battles are very annoying because you can only attack when certain symbols come up and it is hard to tell when...
3/5
Telekenetic Eric: The gameplay is slow and the character is limeted in speed and jump height. The method of moving things makes it even more complex and the move count can make it impossible to finish a level because of his low jumping...
2/5
Lasso: This game looks intresting but isn't. It's a very annoying grab and return game. I didn't play for long because of the skill required to lasso completely, seeing as the tail is so long...
3/5
Streetball Jam: Seeing a 3-D game that doesn't lag in flash is amazing! The only downside is the controls are very very rudementary and basic, with the computer ai set a bit too high for a quick game...
4/5
Squirrel Family Summer: This game is one of those very basic back and forth game with no depth and a time limit that can be expanded continuously. Very easy to pick up and play, but not hard enough to be interesting...
2/5
My overall rating of this Linkdump friday:
3/5
how do you beat time??? I can't hurt him and the increase clock only hurts only once in a whikle (literally) is there a secret to it?
ohh you have to hit him directly?? then wha't the increase for?
that's because its NOT a 3d flash game
its shockwave
If its not showing a logo and wont give a right click menu its probably java
if it says adobe shockwave its shockwave the format for shockwave is filename.dcr and if you use firefox you can use page info to check that in the embed area
flash on the other hand always ends in swf when pertaining to flash games or flash movies with menus or even flash movie players
flash videos can be refered to as flv such as in the case that the players on youtube are filename.swf but the actual videos are filename.flv
examples of "3d" flash games could be found http://dailypv3d.wordpress.com/?s=game
but as a heads up they all use a 3d engine called papervision for the 3d stuff in flash
Note: my above rant uses filename as the example for the begining of the file
Aeternus Lamina Duo was quite fun, though I'm sure I'd get bored of / frustrated with it before the proper end of the game. The controls are complex, but I never found it unmanageable in-game. The tutorial should, perhaps, be peppered in with the game, adding new tactics/abilities as they are needed. As it is now, the tutorial is a little overwhelming, but the game is much less so.
Telekinetic Eric has potential, but the few levels I played really seemed to rely on "trial and error" placement/movement combinations, which would be fine if the game didn't actively punish you for it. The limit on placement variations and overall attempts (the moves/lives system) really hurt this game.
Cute batch of games.
Aeternus Lamnia Duo: 7.5/10
Good presentation, like all Armor Games [Games], that appears to always be a priority.
The learning curve was too high for my likes. The tutorial was lengthy, but required. The game is entertaining though if you are up to memorizing all the colored seals and getting used to the correct commands for each.
The game does not have quite enough depth to warrant that time spent learning the game though.
Advice:
Use more intuitive visuals to que the correct command.
Telekinetic Eric: 4.5/10
The one was particularly unfortunate because the animation appeared to have had work put into it. A game is a game though, and this didn't cut it too well as such.
This game didn't even attempt to try something new. Moving objects "telekinetically" is overdone, especially since HL2. I do enjoy a good platformer, and it didn't even achieve that.
The controls were sluggish, and the game play was poor and frustrating. Most of the game is spent going back and retrying after falling pitwise due to the lack of response. Yuck. It sometimes takes several clicks for the telekinesis to kick in.
Advice:
Test the game a bit more before you release it, the controls were a tad out of whack, and that could have been or can still be fixed.
Lasso: 9.0/10
Good polish, but too short. This one appears it took a lot of work, but for what? One level of play? Waste.
John's right about it being a little bit of a copy off of the other two games, but re-done with a real direction. The game is a little challenging to pick up, and the instructions are scrambled all over the place as if terrified not to be found, but once you get the hang of it, the gameplay is really quite addictive.
Fantastic music, nice flow. The upgrades and the base added depth to the simple reel-em-in quirk.
Advice:
The game genre may be arcade, but don't stop there! The reward system is neat, but it's not enough to keep people playing.
Streetball Jam: 8.5/10
Nice, 3D! We need more 3D web-games, and this one delivers.
The major criticism I can give this game is that it's exactly like those NBA Jam, NBA Street type of games, but really stripped down down. I felt this game was more a message to the world saying, web-games are comin' up on ya! than anything else. It's like Super Nintendo game ported to the DS, it just doesn't take advantage of the platform as well as it should.
On the flipside, it is definitely nice to see AI in a web-game, bold move there. The game also has a good deal of detail in the graphics department with the buildings, cars, benches, and other scenery. I really liked that.
Advice:
It would have been nice if this game had brought something new to the table not done in NBA games in the past, maybe more with the mouse.
Squirrel Family Summer: 6.9/10
Simple, easy-to-control, flash game that felt rushed.
The game looked and felt too much like the author's other games like "Polar Jump." These games feel like they're thought of, slapped together, and shipped like a Chinese assembly line.
Quick note: falling food? Can anyone say Game and Watch? Aside from the game hardly having any depth to it, it truly feels like it was made by the hands of someone with lots of experience in the field: simple, effective instructions; simple, effective controls; simple, effective sound; simple, effective graphics, and so on. Unfortunately the game looks like it was designed to pay the bills and not really wow the crowd, quantity over quality shall we say?
Advice:
Please, I know you have it in you, take a little longer with a game, and make something brilliant, deeper.
Hmm, that basketball game is ridiculously hard, think my best score was 14-44! Still, at least I got to see the full range of special moves as the computer pulled them off one by one.... main problem seems to be the defensive controls are hugely ineffective.
As for Aeternus Lamnia Duo, I agree that they should have introduced the various effects gradually in-game, and possibly given some more thought to the color-coding (block red, attack orange, block yellow? block blue but attack green?). Furthermore, I thought it was pretty cheap to throw all this at a new player, and then have the very first stage include an element that *filters the color of the target*! It took me 4 or so tries before I realized that I was dying in the expanded water bubble because I wasn't attacking the blue-green target, not because I was failing to shield-block the blue-green target >_
I had to give up on Aeternus Sound. Target's were too small and not enough time to attack. You had to be 100% on defense and with that stupid yellow "fuzzy" accuracy bit, just no way to get past it for me. Frustrating.
With Eric, he seems to just slide straight off trampolines, collapsing into the nothingness and thus losing a life, preventing you from completing the level. It's rather irritating.
Regarding Aeternus Lamnia Duo, I think I need some tips. Aeternus Ferrus never seems vulnerable. All he does is attack and guard, it seems. Am I just not patient enough, or am I missing something?
@Dave
All the bosses have randomized patterns of attack. Just be patient and memorize how to counter each of these patterns. Main tip is to always center your mouse and be on your guard.
Also, for the low-running PC's out there, there's a way to 'cheat' this game. Set the quality on High and the game will lag like hell but not your mouse. It's extremely useful in the last 2 bosses (Ironic the Eternal of Time dies from lag XD) but not especially useful for the last boss though so good luck there.
I really liked Aeternus Lamnia Duo. Once I started playing I went through to the end...just to discover that there was still more to do in the game :). Some bosses did get a little tricky, but the game is never too unfair. Minor Spoiler:
There's a 3-Stage level, in which you have to consecutively beat 3 bosses. health refills after every battle but the last boss could provide a tough challenge for those who are not used to maneuver a mouse quickly.
Whack-a-mole meets Shadow of the Colossus, hehe.
ps: as I'm writing this, the score is running in the back and it's quite good too. but i better stop before I sound like a shill.
Aeternus Lamnia was fun, if you take the time to get used to reacting to certain colors. Better cues would be nice. Did anyone else complete all the extras?
The hidden final boss is giving me a headache from trying to avoid his poison, falling bombs, spikey arms, and especially when he reverses the mouse and your sword switches sides.
I like the diversity of the bosses. They each have a unique visual style, different attacks, and their own strategy. 3/5 stars
@tajbro
took me about 8-10 times to beat that one. as you said, problems start when directions are reversed.
what really annoyed me was that after the "mirror effect" was over, you were suddenly positioned at your mirror position. which not seldom would be one of the tentacles.
Lasso is terrible, nowhere near the other games its derived from. I like being able to use the tail to deflect things but the fixed length makes it way to hard to actually lasso anything. And the scoring is really odd.
I actually really liked Lasso. Its harder than the other "circle the shapes" games, but I feel like the difficulty and the depth that it has just makes for a challenging, deep game. Once you figure out the need to move slowly and smoothly, its quite enjoyable.
My problem with it is that its not rewarding at all, and like someone said the concept and polish feels wasted on 1 three minute arcade stage.
Telekinetic Eric should have included the information that clicking and dragging on a platform attempting to move it will leave you feeling like a moron. It's an unintuitive boolean click. Ugh!
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