Passion MSX2 Contest First Edition – JUDGES REPORT

RESULTS OF THE CONTEST

General Ranking

  %   Gameplay   %
1 – Shift   73   1 – Shift   68,3
2 – Equivocal   60,3   2 – Equivocal   53,3
             
Graphics/Visuals   %   Originality   %
1 – Shift   71,7   1 – Equivocal   68,3
2 – Equivocal   60   1 – Shift   68,3
             
Musics/SFX   %   Polish   %
1 – Shift   81,7   1 – Shift   75
2 – Equivocal   63,3   2 – Equivocal   56,7

The comments of the 3 members of the jury (Daniel Vik, SuperCobra and mars2000) have been gathered for each game, but their order is always changing . So you will have a little idea of the criteria that have guided the jury’s choice !

1. Shift – 73 %

Big winner all categories

Graphics/Visuals – 71,7 %
- The general look of the game is nice what concerns the graphics, it is very appropriate for a thinking game
- Not a whole lot of special effects, but nice backgrounds and play field.
- Nice tables, nice gems: an overall good effort.

Musics/SFX – 81,7 %
- The music is well written and fits the game. They show that the composer knows his PSG. If a game had this music in the 80′s I would have bought the game no matter how the game play was. It’s a pleasure to listen to.
- Sometimes the musics sound a bit dull, but good to have different tunes between levels.
- A large variety of musics inspiring action or thinking following the case, what is stimulating the player unceasingly.

Gameplay – 68,3 %
- Extremelly smooth controls, fluid. Rules are easy to understand. Got right into the action for long hours playing.
- If you like this type of game, you will become very fast addict to it and you will need to discover all its puzzles !
- Although I’m a big puzzler fan, I find this game pretty boring. But the controls are great and the game plays well.

Originality – 68,3 %
- You will appreciate that this type of game was converted with talent for the MSX system, especially with the 2 difficulty levels.
- Its not an original game idea, but few MSX games with this high quality of backgrounds exists, so in that context its quite original.
- Not seen this game before anywhere, certainly not on MSX. If this is a fully original concept, chapeau! Otherwise, nice work to get it working on MSX !

Polish – 75 %
- Normal mode is entertaining. Time Attack is a nice variant to try levels you didn’t reach in normal mode and to score better trial after trial.
- The game is polished at high level, with exception for an unfortunate bug.
- Screen 8 really gives a nice polish and together with the music it gives a great impression. The movement of the balls especially the bouncing back on illegal moves shows that the creators have put a lot of effort into making the game as enjoyable as possible.

Final Comments
- This is a good game, highly addictive – long playing hours guaranteed. Well done Infinite !
- A nice puzzle game. Its not as addictive as some puzzlers are, but its certainly a well put together game.
- A good thinking game for the fans of this type of game !

2. Equivocal – 60,3 %

1st ex-aequo for the originality

Graphics/Visuals – 60 %
- Clean but no crazyness (except in Dirty Mode). Enemies, options etc. are far too small.
- Good graphics for the background and the sprites, also their fitting to create a game which moves and attracts the eyes !
- Nothing special here. The scroll is simple but nice but the enemies and the main ship really doesn’t look that great.

Musics/SFX – 63,3 %
- Dynamic musics and good sound effects, but a bit variation is missing.
- Ok music for this type of game. It doesn’t enhance the game, but its not annoying either. A bit more variation would have been nice.
- Cool (even more in FM mode), drives the gameplay up.

Gameplay – 53,3 %
- It plays like any average shooter, but there is not much variations.
- The basics are working but I couldn’t get very excited (sorry), nor got far into the game… some bad flickering here and there – and game crashed a couple times during testing (solved with latest releases but I am not allowed to judge that version.)
- You become fast addict to the game and it’s a good way to release the tension, but do you want really to make a megascore ?

Originality – 68,3 %
- A shoot’em down/up/away or whatever you want to call it. The Dirty Mode helped staying above the average.
- A shooter with a strange name, an equivocal (!) story, elements with double meaning that become reality in a special mode of the game. Yes, we meet originality !
- Well, it’s a shooter, but it certainly has some elements that makes it a bit unique.

Polish – 56,7 %
- The developers have been short of time to provide a perfect product, you will note especially a bad corruption bug which happens sometimes to waste the pleasure.
- Some things are really nice, the game plays very smooth, but apart from the smooth movements, there aren’t too much more that adds to the polish. The amount of smooth moving objects shows that the team knows how to code, and the smoothess does enhance the overall feeling of the game.
- Since I didn’t came far into the game, maybe I missed something (outside the main screen options).

Final Comments

- The final version sent after the deadline would have scored a few more points. Though TNI added a nice sense of (dirty) humour, I could not get very enthusiastic while playing Equivocal. Either I am a very bad player, or it’s just that I could not see why I should play it over and over again.
- A good and original shooter that would deserve to be extended to other stages !
- It’s a simple shooter with some nice aspects, like smooth movement of items, but the game doesn’t feel complete and ready for release.

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