I usually find your games great, but with a few serious flaws. This is no exception.
First, the game's style is great - the manual is well made, the graphics suit the game just right, the level select screens are presented nicely (the ticker messages are a nice touch), your choice of backgrounds doesn't annoy me like it usually does, and the music fits quite well (not including the intro and credits, of course, but at least the daft music was kept outside of the core of the game). However, one disappointing thing in this area is the reason for the bombs - at the start I thought it worked well, thinking it would gradually range up from the school prank, but then it changes to a more humorous tone ('explosive price drops') then at the end it's just 'terrorism' for all of them. It feels a bit inconsistent.
The actual gameplay works well - not sure if it's directly based on anything, it reminds me a little of old grid based puzzle games like Picross but with enough differences to feel original. However, the game was a bit easy, and lacked variety. I do appreciate the usual helping of Chubigans brand bonus features - Ac!ddrop is fun for a short while, and the VBS is nice to have (having to complete bombs to do the challenges is a bit dull - although if you choose the right settings it's very quick and easy! The actual challenges were well chosen.), but it would be nice to see more focus on the game rather than the extras.
Many of the different bomb types were almost the same:
Explosive - defuse it before the time runs out.
Spontaneous combustion - defuse it before the (much smaller amount of) time runs out.
Oxidizing - defuse it before the (even smaller) amount of time runs out.
Multi-bombs - defuse multiple bombs before the time runs out.
Nuclear - defuse the big bomb before the time runs out.
The problem is that most of the levels give far too much time, so only the spontaneous combustion and oxidizing bombs were particularly challenging.
The other two types are more interesting - the chemical ones relying on memory is a nice touch, but unfortunately the time limit is so huge that, while not really neccessary, anyone could just write down where the bombs aren't. The napalm ones are also a nice idea - making the player control their speed - but again, the time limits are too generous, so the player has plenty of time to let the temperature drop.
Of course, it's a bit cheeky of me asking you to add more features without giving any suggestions.
New virus types:
Reduce time
Add a new piston, or change the place of an existing one
Remove some/all of the player's marks.
Also, being able to mark viruses after triggering them seems to go against the idea of remembering where they are - perhaps that should be removed?
New bomb types:
A bomb with moving parts? I thought the nuclear levels would be difficult because of the rotating bits, but then I realised it was just a graphical effect and didn't change the positions of the pistons. A bomb with sections actually rotating, or with rows/columns sliding every so often, could be more of a challenge.
A variant of the chemical bomb where you get a low time limit, but a little bonus time (up to a certain limit) for each piston you mark - the time limit stays low, so the player has to keep working quickly to find the next piston, which I think would be a bit more exciting.
Multi-bombs where the levels can be of different types - for example, a 2 level bomb where the second level is oxidizing, so if the player completes the first one fast enough, they get more attempts at the oxidizing bomb, possibly saving them from having to defuse the first one again. This might put a little more pressure on the player - something which I think is essential for a game about defusing bombs.
As it is it's an enjoyable little game, but I think this should be seen as the start of something bigger and better.
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Posted 26 August 2006 - 09:41 PM
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Much of the manual was written in the kinda-serious-but-not-really type way that I seem to enjoy more than most. 
