Review: Arachnophilia

Spiders, one of the commonest phobias in the world, present on every continent except Antarctica and sworn enemy of every gamer since developers could code more than just a blob of pixels as opponents. It doesn't matter whether it's a platformer, RPG or shooter at some point or another you will have been confronted by these poison oozing, web spinning, eight legged monstrosities (available in sizes ranging from squishable to city destroyer). It's basically hardwired into the gamer's brain that spiders are the enemy and best left splattered across the floor as soon as possible but Arachnophilia wants to change all that. In fact, not only does it encourage you to like spiders, it wants you to be one.

The object of the game is pretty simple. Build a web to catch flies and other tasty treats. The more creatures you catch and eat the more points you get with the difficulty increasing in levels once you've gobbled up enough bugs. It is all controlled through drawing new web lines via the mouse or clicking on the bugs you want to eat so it's easy to get to grips with. The challenge comes in designing a web which can withstand the hordes of bugs that will inevitably come crashing through and threaten to destroy your hard work.

You have a limited amount of web which can be replenished through eating certain prey and a health bar which gradually depletes (again, replenished by eating) acting as a time limit. Each string has a certain amount of resilience to being broken so closely packed strands are the way to go to catch the stronger creatures because they spread the load out and stop your web breaking. As I said, a pretty simple concept but one which is pulled off remarkably well thanks to the variety of insects and animals you can actually capture and eat.

Whilst you begin with the humble fly you will soon be catching bees, dragonflies, stag beetles, humming birds and eventually the grand prize of them all, the bat. Each new item of prey is introduced in a different wave and has its own properties. A lady bird for example gives plenty of health but no web whilst a queen bee actually harms you when you eat it, as well as summoning more damaging bees to its aid. Learning these properties is the key to maintaining your web and staving off starvation because a certain bee destroyed your web by calling in an air strike from its mates. This all culminates in a confrontation with the bat, who cannot be caught outright but must be tangled up several times in order to wear down its stamina. Catching the bat is not necessarily the end of the game though and players can still go for the highscores afterwards, eating multiple bats if you're good enough.

Graphically the game is unremarkable. It all functions well enough but the creatures are pretty simplistic and the background never changes. The sound however is pretty good, with soothing background music to ease away the stress of seeing a web you have spent ages building get smashed to pieces by a swarm of moths. The spider makes some interesting sucking noises while it feeds and each enemy has its own sounds to announce its arrival which helps keep track of what's coming. If that bothers you don't worry you can always mute them and put on something a little faster paced to get the adrenaline flowing for those more frantic moments when it all goes horrible wrong because believe me, it'll happen.

As far as a challenge is concerned this game offers enough to keep you entertained until you conquer the bat and it'll probably take you a few tries to really crack the game but beyond that it really depends on how much highscores mean to you. Regardless of your aim though Arachnophilia is definitely an original and entertaining game which is well worth your time though be warned, you will start feeling guilty for all the webs you have mercilessly destroyed once you realise the work that went into them.

Graphics: 5/10 functional but basic
Gameplay: 8/10 great fun but gets repetitive one you get past the bat
Sound: 8/10 Music relaxes you for the task ahead
Lifespan: 7/10 Depends on your motivation but a reasonable challenge means it'll take a few attempts

Overall: 8/10 a fun and original game which will test your planning skills and your reflexes

Review: Upgrade Complete!

Whilst most shooters are about having a little fun and blowing off some steam every now and then a game comes along with a point to make. Enter Upgrade Complete! (because nothing says I'm trying to make a point like a good exclamation mark) where everything in the game is unlockable or upgradeable from the weapons on your ship to the graphics themselves. One of the best examples of this can be found right at the beginning of the game where you have to purchase the menu. I won't spoil it for you but make sure you read everything on the screen because it sums up everything this game wants to say about online gaming's (and indeed most games now) obsession with the ability to upgrade and improve things.

Once you have access the menu and all the other little bits and bobs necessary to actually play the game you can start blasting other ships out of the... well its not really a sky until you upgrade the graphics enough times but you get the idea. Your ship comes equipped with two blasters but there are a decent set of other options available to bolster your offense, speed or collecting abilities which, naturally, are all completely upgradable so those of you who enjoy tweaking their set up will have plenty to keep you occupied. All you have to do is kill enough enemies and collect enough of the coins that they drop to do so, something which you will almost certainly spend the bulk of your time doing.

Apart from all the upgrading and unlocking the purpose of the game is to blast your way through 20 waves of increasingly powerful enemies in a typical upward scrolling shooter. The controls are simply the arrow buttons and space to fire so there are certainly no problems there but the ship tilts rather than strafing so you have to compensate for this when shooting at your targets. It takes a little getting used to but it works and you have the time to line up your shot because your enemies don't shoot back... or even harm you when they crash into you... in fact there is no way in which you can die. Rather than surviving your goal is actually to destroy all the enemies before they can get past you, which would be fine except it takes all the intensity away and means for the most part that getting past the waves is more about how much firepower you can afford than your skill level.

Now to condemn Upgrade Complete! for this would be missing the point a bit. The game deliberately makes the upgrades the most important aspect because that's what it is about. If you fail a wave there is no penalty and you get to keep all the gold you collected so you can upgrade and have another crack at it but truthfully the game side of this game is a bit lacking. The graphics are pretty good once you upgrade them and the transition from very basic pong style to vector to 8 bit to 16 bit type graphics certainly makes the game more interesting but the truth is there isn't much to be found in the way of challenges. Ultimately you just need to grind your way until you can afford good enough weapons to get through all 20 waves.

Fortunately the game isn't very long so the grinding never becomes unbearable. It's just that with so many shooters out there doing it better it really depends on what you want/expect from your game. If you want a fast paced adrenaline rush where you have to dodge screens full of enemy projectiles you're definitely in the wrong place but Upgrade Complete! is not without it's charm and it's great to see some developers thinking outside the box. This would normally be the part where I would give the game a rating but in this case I don't think any rating I could chose would do it justice. Sure the gameplay is a bit lacking but it is making a statement and that takes guts and some lateral thinking so I'm going to leave you to judge what sort of rating this game should get because ultimately it depends on what sort of player you are as to how much you'll enjoy this game.

Badge Hunter Notes:

All badges are pretty easy to get. Just make sure you upgrade in all the right places and you'll make it through that final wave. Good luck.

Review: Dream World

I wasn't sure how to start this review so I guess I'll begin with the developer's own words: "Dream World is an unique and exciting turn-based multiplayer RPG. Please give it a try, you will love it." Sounds promising right? When you realise the game is set in sci-fi/fantasy hybrid setting due to its world being part of a dream which you inhabit it sounds even better, especially when you take into account the 4 stars it's averaging on the kongregate rating system. So many possibilities for a wide range of skills, classes, enemies and areas to explore which is exactly what you want from an RPG right?

The more keenly observant amongst you will have sensed a but coming (OK so it was obvious but hey I can pretend I don't suck at subtlety). The setting and the ideas behind it are all fine, good even, and the game starts promisingly enough. You pick a class, you go fight some weak enemies, pick up some side quests and you get the spark of a storyline. All the normal seeds for a solid RPG have been sown here but sadly at some point KingK decided to throw a little salt over everything to make sure those seeds never grew. And the salt comes in the form of the horrible combat system and utterly repetitive gameplay.

In my first post I mentioned grindfests but at the time I had no real concept of what that meant until I played this game. The main bulk of the game is using the energy that steadily replenishes as time goes by to activate random events, most of which are fights with various creatures but also include encounters with people or objects which you can interact with. The problem is apart from the names and the pictures every single fight is the same. It's just stats against stats and if you're stronger than the monster you win and if you aren't you don't. There are no buffs, status effects or elemental weaknesses to exploit and very few special attacks. Those that do exist are simple more powerful regular attacks which consume skill points and since those are only replenished either when you level up or after 24 hours they aren't all that useful unless you are facing a particularly strong enemy. There are potions as well but they're too expensive to be worth the effort for the most part. Even PvP is dull since without all the options of a normal RPG battle it's basically just another super-strong enemy. The game even has an autofight function which takes care of the majority of your battles so it's even less engaging. Imagine buying a boxing game and finding you actually play the role of the coach not the fighter. That is exactly how this game feels most of the time and it's boring.

In Dream World's defense it does have a few nice touches. There are puzzle chests which a mix of math and logic problems which help break up the monotony and the wiseman's trivia questions are occasionally interesting (plus it gives you the time to google any answers you don't know) but again, this mechanic never changes. No matter whether you are level 50 or level 5 the challenges are always the same so once you've got the strategy for each cracked it just becomes another chore. It's a shame because it feels as though there were some good ideas in here but they just become trodden under by the repetitiveness of it all.

Visually the game is about as consistent as a British summer, blazing colour and interesting artwork one second and dull, dreary or just plain horrible imagery the next. The characters you repeatedly encounter such as the gambler look great with a lot of detail but then certain monsters look as though they were just knocked together in photoshop within the space of two minutes. The backgrounds are colourful but mostly uninteresting but this isn't too much of an issue since the game is mostly menu driven.

One bright side is that the game is very easy to navigate and control so you never feel at a loss what to do but that's like having a decent steering wheel on a reliant robin, no matter how good it is it's still not disguising the fact that driving the damn thing is a pain. Even the storyline, a major part of the RPG experience for many gamers, has no charm whatsoever with barely enough plot to provide you with an excuse to kill endless waves of the same boring enemies.

But if this is all true how come Dream World has 4 stars? To be honest I still don't know but when I asked people on the forums what they thought I noticed the same answer cropping up again and again. The community. And they have a point. The Dream World community is, for the most part friendly, helpful and above all up for getting properly involved with guilds. For many players the best friends they've made on kongregate came from this game. Is this enough to make this game worth playing? Well that's really depends on how much you like MMO aspects of an MMORPG. Personally the gameplay's inherent flaws are too much for me put up with (insert some terrible pun about Dream World being a Nightmare here) but you if you're looking for a time sink which might lead to meeting some fun new people then maybe this is worth a go. Otherwise avoid!

Gameplay: 4/10 Puzzles help break up the monotony but not for long
Graphics/Visuals: 6/10 functional and occasionally very good but some parts look awful


Overall: 5/10 Too many flaws and too repetitive to be worth your time

Badge Hunter Notes: (80 points available)

All badges can be acquired by just playing through the game but be warned the hard ones will take a very long time so if you decide to go for them be prepared for a long haul.

Review: The Several Journeys of Reemus Chapter 1

The first Chapter of The Several Journeys of Reemus is a point and click adventure which begins the story of Reemus and his sidekick Liam, who happens to be a bear. They are on a quest to reach the king for some as yet unknown reason but as usual there are plenty of obstacles in the way.

Now, there are a few things that every point and click needs to succeed. The first is a storyline which holds the attention either through good story telling or through humour and as you can probably see from the pictures the Newgrounds gang have chosen the more comical approach. The plot line is standard fantasy with its usual mix of monsters, magic and interesting locales along the way. It's not anything groundbreaking but the characters are likeable and the humour is good enough to carry it, especially since it's not exactly asking you to devote masses of your time.

The second major factor is the artwork and Newgrounds have done a great job here. The scenes look crisp and clear with the animated parts moving smoothly. The art style also remains consistent so there are no sections which feel out of place and it all reflects the humour of the story rather well. Definitely the best part of the game in this reviewers not so humble opinion.

The final and probably most important aspect aspect of a point and click though are the puzzles. If the puzzles are too easy then the game becomes boring and you get no sense of accomplishment when you finish it. On the other hand if they're too hard then they just become frustrating and when a game stops being fun you really should stop playing. To make a decent puzzle the clues must be there but without giving it all away within five seconds. Luckily Reemus manages to tiptoe across this rather uncertain tightrope with only one or two minor stumbles. The final puzzle in particular is well thought out and challenging, made even better by the fact that there are two different way to solve it for two different endings.

The problem with Reemus however is that whilst fun and amusing it simply doesn't do anything we haven't seen before. Sure it's a good example of how a point and click adventure should work but ultimately it all feels a bit too by the numbers rather than trying to add anything new. The multiple endings also doesn't feel worth it when you realise the difference between the two is so minimal it might as well be the same ending (the drawback of doing a story in chapters I suppose). It's a game still very much worth playing, just don't expect it to blow your mind.

Graphics: 8/10 It all looks very nice and moves smoothly
Gameplay: 7/10 decent puzzles that never feel unfair but nothing groundbreaking
Sound: 7/10 Music is alright but nothing special and the cartoonish sound effects are appropriate
Lifespan: 7/10 Depends on how quick you are to work the puzzles out

Overal: 7/10 Entertaining and it looks good but its still the same point and click we've been playing for years

Badge Hunters Notes: (30 points available)

The different endings are only affected by the final scene and how you choose to escape so for the second badge simply go back to that scene and solve the puzzle in the opposite way.

Review: Remnants of Skystone

Now with this being my first review I wanted to start with something special and I think this Steampunk styled, action orientated MMORPG manages to hit that mark in rather spectacular fashion.

Anybody who has played the more recent 2D Castlevania games will be instantly familiar with the way in which Flipline Studios has combined action platforming with RPG elements such as leveling up and aquiring new weapons. There are three classes to chose from depending on your style; the Aeronaut who has a jetpack (and lets face it, who wouldn't want one of those) and blasters for an agile, long range character, the Crag who plays like a mixture of Simon Belmont and Spiderman thanks to the whip-like grapple arm and the Ferric who can climb walls and do back flips whilst getting in close to do massive damage with their arm blades. Each class plays very differently and knowing your strengths and weaknesses is vital in dealing with the variety of enemies that are going to come your way. And when I say variety I really do mean it. With 6 different bosses during the main game (plus more if you include sidequests) and over fifty regular enemies finding new foes is not difficult and this keeps the combat fresh and interesting. Sadly a few of the later enemies are reskinned and powered up versions of those previously encountered but for the most part even these reskinned enemies have had their attack patterns altered enough to force a change in tactics. The bosses are suitably large in scale and difficult to kill without feeling unfair and power-leveling does not give you the massive advantage it does in some RPGs so it never becomes too easy. The controls are also simple and easy to get the hang of with the directional buttons covering movement and the A and S keys are jump and attack respectively.

As much fun as the combat is though there is just as much emphasis on exploration. As you progress through the storyline more and more areas will become accessible until you are given free roam within three rather large areas, Luckily the map function makes navigating the maze of rooms relatively simple, assuming you can overcome the platforming sections that is.

The quests, for the most part, consist of the usual fetching items, killing monsters and interacting with NPCs, something which you will be doing alone as RoS's multimplayer does not extend into the main storyline but there are several elements which separate RoS from your usual RPG. I won't spoil all of the surprises that some of these tasks create but a good example would be a mission involving the mimic known as an embermite. These little bug-like creatures chase after you and explode on impact but instead of having to kill them you need to lure them through a series of obstacles in order to destroy walls trapping members of your organisation. This changes the dynamic of the game from an action platformer to a puzzler and by introducing such tasks RoS changes the pace and keeps the player's interest firmly in place.

The exploration elements are of course greatly aided by the game's impressive graphics. Each of the three main worlds has it's own appearance and within each world there are subdivisions such as an abandoned factory or a tribal village which again are made distinct from the surrounding areas. This does come at a price however as loading times between the major areas can be quite tedious. As for your own character, the appearance is customisable as you would expect, with more options becoming available as you purchase items or gain them as quest rewards. The initial selection isn't enormous but finding and buying clothing adds a personal level to the game.

Customisation does not stop there though. You are also given a float, basically your very own apartment which you can decorate and furnish as you please and then other players can enter and vote on how well they think you have designed the place. Once again options for this are earnt through quests and shops but there are also trophies to be won for a variety of things such as using a particular weapon or killing a certain number of certain enemy. These trophies can be displayed in your float but also influence the game. The mimic trophies for example once earnt increase the strength of that particular mimic in order to increase the game's challenge which is an interesting feature and one which encourages the player to collect them. The problem with such trophies however is that the massive number of mimics needed to acquire the top ones makes attaining them a grind. Fortunately they are entirely unnecessary to plot line or even the unlocking of sidequests so should probably be considered a reward for the most hardcore of the game's fans.

Now I did mention the multiplayer earlier so perhaps I should expand. The gameplay is similar to that of the main game but instead of exploring a free roaming area on your own you are placed in a mini-dungeon with another player and together you have to fight your way through several rooms before fighting the final boss. Certain parts require co-operation which is easily managed through the game's chat functions but matchmaking can take a while if you haven't already organised a run with another person. These dungeons are changed every week and there is a leaderboard with rewards for the team who achieved the highest score for each dungeon so if solo isn't your style this might be a fun alternative to main game. The weakness with this mode though is that the boss you fight at the end of each run is weak and incapable of fighting back so it inescapably feels like an anti-climax.

There are extra missions, features and enemies available to members but sadly this membership is of the paying variety so naturally I haven't tried it. My suggestion is give this game a whirl and make your own minds up whether the extra cash is worth it for you.


Korenith's Ratings:

Graphics: 9/10 Always looks good but loading times are a pain
Gameplay: 10/10 Fun combat, interesting quests and plenty of extras
Sound: 7/10 Functional but the music quickly becomes annoying
Lifespan: 10/10 There are endless trophies and sprockets to earn for the diehard fan

Overall: 9/10

Badge Hunter's Notes: (80 points available)

Meet n' Greet (easy): General Stanton is the guy in the big hat on the first deck. Then go through each area talking to people. Use the map (not the map screen in the menu but the other tab in the bottom corner) if you get stuck

Nidarian Duty (medium): Just keep doing trailblazing missions. You could vote on people's floats if you prefer but trailblazing is much more fun and helps towards Stanton's second sidequest.

Remnant Reclaimer (hard): Self explanitary. Make sure you're stocked up on health items for the final boss.

Pockets Full of Sprockets (hard): You get these for each mission you do. Always have a full set of sidequests if possible and do them if and when the oportunity arises as you go through the main missions.

Welcome to Korenith Reviews

Welcome to Korenith's Flash Game Reviews, written by (as if the name didn't make it obvious) me, Korenith. With my PS3 busted and my money being directed towards the joys of transport, rent and all the other crap nobody wants to spend their money on I've been looking for a way to get my gaming fix without having to pay for it. Free online games seemed like the best plan but after a few months of messing around I realised that there is truckload of rubbish out there, but also, buried beneath it all a few really decent games that are well worth your time. The purpose of this blog then is to separate out the really innovative and fun games from the grind-fests, the artsy, pseudo-intellectual yawn inducers and the endless reiterations of the same games that have been there for ages. So have a look around and see if you can find yourself something worth playing for five minutes, or an hour, or a week or two, whatever floats your boat.

The site I play most on is www.kongregate.com so feel free to add me. I'm using a mid-specs laptop with a standard BT broadband connection so the games I review should work fine on most computers.

Korenith