6 replies to this topic

[Questionare]

Playing the game, Tower Bombarde, has been an almost emotional experience for me. The graphics, game-play, graphics, music, graphics, skill curve…and graphics all work together in perfect and intense harmony to create a beautiful gaming experience.

The idea behind this game, that is, what makes this game different from most shoot-em-up arcade games, is that you have no gun, sword, neuron blast, indestructo-tank, or laser to speak of. No, in Tower Bombarde, you need to be more clever than the average GI-Joe. The thing that makes Tower Bombarde so unique in idea and in game-play is that to dispatch the enemies, you have to cause them to kill each other and themselves. It's really quite simple, (the idea that is) you simply have to dodge or deflect bullets in such a way that they end up destroying your enemies. This simple idea is taken to its extreme in this game, and it is really quite an exciting challenge to take on.




Tower Bombarde's graphics have got to be the best I've ever seen in arcade/retro gaming. Games like Grid Defender and Crash Dodger are barely on the same level of this game, graphically. The explosions, layered backgrounds, enemies and pretty much every other visible thing in the game, contribute greatly to the overall atmosphere. I felt cooler from just seeing the YouTube video. In fact, the screen shots have no hope of doing the game justice simply because nothing in the game is static, it all seems to be moving, morphing, and completely dynamic.




There are 11 different stages in Tower Bombarde, and the skill curve has a very nice slope throughout it all. In the first stage, the game-play is pretty slow, but it starts warming up towards the end of the second/beginning of the third. There are new enemies in every stage, and they are all decently creative, and create new challenges and obstacles for the player to overcome.

The game-play of this game was good, though not the best ever. It's not particularly addicting, especially in the beginning, which I find to be unfortunate, because there are 11 levels of amazing content that some people will miss out on because they didn't want to "struggle through" the first few stages. I'm not saying that the first stages are unbearably boring, or even mildly, its just that they can be slightly tedious. One thing I found very pleasant about the game is that every level was kind of like a very intense puzzle, that has a myriad of solutions, but only a few truly good ones. I can't talk about this game's game-play without talking about the glorious boss battles. There are 11 of them. They are works of genius. You can really get into the intense mood of the battles, the atmosphere enhanced by the tough and imposing bosses, each of which posing a new and more difficult challenge.

I have to applaud the author of this game, Crystall_m, for the sheer mass of content, not only the mass, but the quality of the mass of content. You really don't see a game with this much work put into it every day-and I think that the amount of effort put into it should be appreciated accordingly.

I would suggest this game to anyone with a beating heart, who is willing to feel insufficient and inferior as a game maker for the sake of an awesome gaming experience; and remember, the game gets cooler as it goes along, and the beginning stages are necessary for understanding the game, so don't stop in the beginning, you'll be missing out on all of the REALLY cool content that this game has to offer.

Here is link to a video of the game, which I find much more helpful than the screenshots.

Here is a link to the game itself.

[Mr. RPG]

You have a good deal of content (something that I saw another review on this sub-forum lack) and used proper grammar and spelling, however I just didn't really care for the style you based it on. I don't care for most retro shooters / shoot-em-ups but I'll give this one a go since it does seem a bit more original than most.

[Diptoman]

I'd have liked the link(s) to the game to be more prominent, one can actually miss out that.
The review seems pretty good and thorough. You never commented on the music/SFX though.

The graphics, game-play, graphics, music, graphics, skill curve…and graphics all work together in perfect and intense harmony to create a beautiful gaming experience.

That's probably intentional, but I don't like 'graphics' being repeated thrice, no matter how good it is.

From the screenshots, the game certainly doesn't look 'retro'.

Edited by dmsuper, 02 March 2010 - 05:40 PM.

[Leusid]

Is this game gone for good? It looked like so much fun!

[Nocturne]

Is this game gone for good? It looked like so much fun!

Link has been fixed.

[John Lennon]

I did not find this review to be accurate or convincing. In fact, I find it offensive that you would call this "artistic genius", as it is doing a disservice to many other GM games that actually deserve that label. It's simply ignorant to even suggest that this game, which is mediocre in every aspect, is anywhere near the level of genius.

What I find to be the most sickening about your review is the statement that "Tower Bombarde's graphics have got to be the best I've ever seen in arcade/retro gaming." This is a joke, right? TB's graphics are a random mish-mash of different styles, fonts, and ill-fitting particle effects that assail the eyes but do nothing to please them. "Games like Grid Defender and Crash Dodger are barely on the same level of this game, graphically." I agree, but comparing this game to games with similarly amateurish graphics isn't really a strong way to make your point. At least those two games had the good taste not to clutter the screen with the legions of unnecessary and superfluous effects which impinge on one's eyes while playing Tower Bombarde. This game's graphics are an incoherent and inconsistent mess, and I find the fact that you think they're of any quality whatsoever to be repugnant. Anybody with taste would disagree with you as vehemently as I am. Just look at the two screenshots you offered - what an absolute horror show. And the game looks worse in motion, not better.

"The game-play of this game was good, though not the best ever." Not the best ever, indeed. There is no way to shoot, meaning you have to rely on the enemies to kill themselves. This makes the game boring, tedious, and puzzle-like - not fun, fast, or exciting. In fact, it's a mistake to call this an arcade game, because doing so would be an insult to the spirit of arcade games. I did play the game past the first few levels. It really does not get any better. Then you go on to stupidly praise the boss battles, saying that "They are works of genius." So now you're using the word "genius" to refer to generic boss battles? Don't you think you're throwing around that term a bit too loosely? What exactly was it about the boss battles that you find unique, or "intense"? Could it be that you didn't explain this, because there's nothing unique or intense about them?

"I would suggest this game to anyone with a beating heart, who is willing to feel insufficient and inferior as a game maker for the sake of an awesome gaming experience." If this is how you felt, then I pity you. You simply have no standards if you believe this to be some kind of pinnacle of arcade gaming. There's nothing about this game that isn't mediocre - nothing. I think the quality of your review really reflects the actual quality of this game.

[PoniesForPeace]

I did not find this review to be accurate or convincing. In fact, I find it offensive that you would call this "artistic genius", as it is doing a disservice to many other GM games that actually deserve that label. It's simply ignorant to even suggest that this game, which is mediocre in every aspect, is anywhere near the level of genius.

What I find to be the most sickening about your review is the statement that "Tower Bombarde's graphics have got to be the best I've ever seen in arcade/retro gaming." This is a joke, right? TB's graphics are a random mish-mash of different styles, fonts, and ill-fitting particle effects that assail the eyes but do nothing to please them. "Games like Grid Defender and Crash Dodger are barely on the same level of this game, graphically." I agree, but comparing this game to games with similarly amateurish graphics isn't really a strong way to make your point. At least those two games had the good taste not to clutter the screen with the legions of unnecessary and superfluous effects which impinge on one's eyes while playing Tower Bombarde. This game's graphics are an incoherent and inconsistent mess, and I find the fact that you think they're of any quality whatsoever to be repugnant. Anybody with taste would disagree with you as vehemently as I am. Just look at the two screenshots you offered - what an absolute horror show. And the game looks worse in motion, not better.

"The game-play of this game was good, though not the best ever." Not the best ever, indeed. There is no way to shoot, meaning you have to rely on the enemies to kill themselves. This makes the game boring, tedious, and puzzle-like - not fun, fast, or exciting. In fact, it's a mistake to call this an arcade game, because doing so would be an insult to the spirit of arcade games. I did play the game past the first few levels. It really does not get any better. Then you go on to stupidly praise the boss battles, saying that "They are works of genius." So now you're using the word "genius" to refer to generic boss battles? Don't you think you're throwing around that term a bit too loosely? What exactly was it about the boss battles that you find unique, or "intense"? Could it be that you didn't explain this, because there's nothing unique or intense about them?

"I would suggest this game to anyone with a beating heart, who is willing to feel insufficient and inferior as a game maker for the sake of an awesome gaming experience." If this is how you felt, then I pity you. You simply have no standards if you believe this to be some kind of pinnacle of arcade gaming. There's nothing about this game that isn't mediocre - nothing. I think the quality of your review really reflects the actual quality of this game.

did not play the game, but plussed you because this made me laugh.

My review: The music was a bit too loud that it cracked my speakers, although my volume was set to 100%. Menu graphics were good. The game graphics were actually pretty good although the screenshots don't really appear so. They novelty of the graphics faded away rather quickly though. The tutorial didn't make much sense, and I had to restart from wave 1 during wave 4, and I'm not really sure if I am supposed to run into enemy turrets or not. If I'm not, the turrets don't really shoot fast enough for it to be exciting, maybe later in the game I will understand what I'm doing. Oh okay, I guess I'm not supposed to bump into turrets, after further reading. It doesn't help matters that the most instinctive way to beat the tutorial is to run into the turret. And the turrets shoot so slowly, it feels like a chore. I think this game would benefit greatly from some degree of directional lock, perhaps 16 degree rotation? The hitboxes should be made larger too. Overall the game feels a tad bit boring, which as someone said, isn't really good. Most games try to catch your attention on the first level.

Edited by PoniesForPeace, 08 July 2012 - 05:24 PM.