Review: Super Lesbian Horse RPG

Super Lesbian Horse RPG

 One day Bobby Schroeder decided that he liked shipping cartoon horses enough to warrant creating a silly game about it: Super Lesbian Horse RPG was the result of his labour. Overall awareness of the game spread quickly after its announcement by virtue of its somewhat odd title, along with a rather amusing /mlp/ thread which claimed SLHRPG was something else entirely, and now here we are with the somewhat final product (given that there will probably be several bugfix releases in the near future). Expectations for the project have been fairly high overall, but does it live up to them? For that, dear reader, you will have to read the rest of the review.

Horse Time below the break.

 Super Lesbian Horse RPG starts off quite well, presenting itself as a comedic, dialogue-heavy RPG. Problem is, after a couple minutes of playing it becomes clear that Bobby's idea of "comedy" basically involves reusing the same couple lesbian jokes over again, rephrased and with different characters. The game would honestly be much funnier if Bobby didn't try so hard to cram in as much stuff as possible, most of which ends up being mediocre enough to make the player consider fast-forwarding all the dialogue. I wouldn't advise doing so, however, as there are a few gems here and there which deserve to be seen and make the game somewhat more worthwhile (coincidentally, most of these were carryovers from the 5-minute demo which I praised back in May).

 Even if the game's main draw also happens to be its greatest weak point, that doesn't necessarily mean everything else in it sucks as well. Bobby's experience as the operator of several Tumblr ask blogs, the most notable of which being Fluttershy Replies, has paid off incredibly well for the most part, resulting in some of the nicest pixel art I've ever seen in a My Little Pony fangame. The environments are fantastic, character portraits are pretty good and the battle backgrounds manage to be quite impressive, albeit not quite as much as Earthbound's animated extravaganzas. Enemies tend to be fairly creative for the most part, especially once the player reaches some of the more spoilery areas. It was also nice to see to see that Bobby took a cue from Earthbound and gave them some joke actions just for the fun of it (along with a completely useless enemy to boot, which resulted in a fair amount of snickering from my part).

Shh, the elves will hear you.

 Take away the custom assets, however, and what you have is a standard RPG Maker project. I hate to be rude to folks who like the engine, but after playing several games made with it I must say that after a while I start to feel some deja-vu, as if these are all reskins of one game. Then again this complaint doesn't only apply to SLHRPG; it's more of a general problem for RPG Maker and is kind of to be expected when one decides to play them. Some might find this annoying, others won't, still figured that I might as well mention it just in case.

 Ah, but is the game fun? At times, as more emphasis is put on advancing the plot than grinding, but after a while it tends to get rather...dull. Shame too, as the story takes an interesting turn partway through Rainbow Dash's basement but ends up falling apart soon after, accompanied by what is perhaps the saddest final bossfight I have seen. Heck, several encounters with groups of regular enemies posed an even greater challenge to my party than a reality-warping [REDACTED], although perhaps that was due to my following the convention of conserving items and MP for bossfights. Either way it was still kind of an overall letdown in general, punctuated by a few extremely promising moments that were, alas, misused. Bobby also tried throwing in some relationship melodrama as well, so let's just say that it didn't work out all that well and leave it at that.

He likes thinking about pants, unsurprisingly.

 Musically, Super Lesbian Horse RPG is miles ahead of most of its competition, with an almost entirely original soundtrack made up mostly of chiptunes by our fandom's Tumblr community (with one semi-notable exception). There's not really anything to complain about here unless you're overly picky about video game soundtracks, in which case you can simply mute it via the options menu or something. Previous releases did have some missing audio files which caused the game to crash, but to the best of my knowledge the issues have been resolved in 1.0.3. Yay?


 ...Now that we're actually able to play the game, I get the impression that it's somewhat of a mixed bag. Sure, it looks and sounds great, but as a game it tends to get old after a while. Most of the humour is rather stale as well, which is really unfortunate as it originally showed so much promise (although that could have been because the creator threw all his best into the original demo and ran out of inspiration afterwards). Some people are still going to love this, as can be easily seen on Tumblr, and there's nothing wrong with that but in my opinion this is a prime example of style over substance. It may be worth a playthrough just to see the enemy designs and environments, but don't expect to get much for replay value out of Super Lesbian Horse RPG unless you miss the bonus boss or something.

  I should also mention that I have stripped away the title of "strangest pony RPG", as Fnagame still deserves it for its hilariously counter-intuitive gimmick. Sorry, and enjoy your Christmas (although come to think of it this is a little late for that).

Luna Game 0 (CREEPYPASTA)

Luna Game 0

After a long, long wait, the prequel to the Luna Game series has finally been released! If you haven't already played Luna Game, Luna Game 2, Luna Game 3, and Luna Game 4 I suggest you go do that now.


YOU CAN ONLY PLAY THIS GAME ONE TIME NORMALLY.
I have received a program that allows you to play it again.
You can download that program here
Some files got mixed up before, and I accidently linked the game twice. This is the actual file. Blame me for that, not the creator :P

It's just like the fourth one, you can only play it one time normally.


DOWNLOAD GAME HERE

WARNING: SPOILERS - IF YOU WANT TO PLAY THE GAME, CLICK THE LINK ABOVE




You start the game as Princess Luna in Princess Celestia's castle. When you talk to Celestia, she tells you that it would be nice for you to make some friends after so long. After you exit on the right, you move to a grassy area with nice music playing. All six of the mane cast can be found on the map, and each one has their own problem that you can help with.


Depending on who you return the lost item back to, you can play one of six different levels, each with a different item (Twilight Sparkle's item is a book). After you collect 49 of the items on the map, you care able to collect the 50th, which is black and white. When you touch it, the music stops to a loud thump. After that, the only thing you can do is continue on, where the ground suddenly disappears from underneath you and some creepy music starts playing as the screen fades to black.


The screen flashes white, and an image of Nightmare Moon appears, after another flash, Nightmare Moon's eye opens. The screen goes back to where you stopped almost immediately, but everything is tinted red. After you continue back to the area with everypony, another creepy song begins to play, and everypony you talk to says that Pinkie Pie is looking for you.


When you talk to Pinkie Pie, she explains to you that she wants to throw you another party, but shortly after the screen turns black, and the dark item you got from before appears while you hear whispering in the background. After the screen goes back Pinkie Pie is going on about what the party will be like, and the screen turns black again with more whispering and the text 'Kill Her' at the very bottom. The screen goes back to Pinkie Pie continuing to talk, and then turns black one last time with longer whispering and large words saying 'Kill Her Now'. After the screen goes back, you see Pinkie Pie asking if you're feeling okay, and the screen goes black again.


This time, nothing else appears, but the music stops and you hear some sound effects and cutting noises. When the screen fades back in, you see yourself standing alone with Pinkie Pie with a red sky behind you. Pinkie Pie has a slash going through her, and the words 'B... But... Why...?' are at the bottom of the screen. After a few moments, the top half of her body begins sliding off, and the game shuts off. A few seconds later, the game opens again and a loud noise plays with a disturbing image of Pinkie Pie and text that says 'This Isn't Over Yet'. The game closes shortly after.
This is the image that was used at the end.

If you try to reopen the game, it says 'You cannot change the past...' and closes out.


Unlike the demo, the game does not stay open after it closes the final time.

HERE is a youtube playthrough of the game.

Review: Twilight Sparkle: Pest Exterminator

Play it Here!
Or on the Equestria Gaming Arcade

In light of the encroaching parasprite swarms, a desperate Princess Celestia grants Twilight Sparkle a new spell. Now, anything that stands in her way will be "obliterated into tiny bits of dust." Made by the notorious InfinityDash, this game features cute bunnies, bloodthirsty pests, and one trigger-happy purple unicorn. 

Spine-manglingly stoked yet? Read on after the break!

Twilight Sparkle: Pest Exterminator is a simple shooter with relatively straightforward gameplay. Dodge and weave your way around the screen, blasting away at parasprites to clear each level. Although incinerating the occasional bunny is fun, saving them instead refills the blue bar at the top of the screen, allowing you to temporarily transform into gatling pony mode. The bunnies' vulnerability is cheekily irritating: seemingly without fail, your current rapidfire attack will accidentally destroy the bunny needed to charge your next.

One thing the game has going for it is a well-crafted difficulty ramp. Parasprites quickly get tougher and faster as the levels progress, and beating the game's 10 levels is challenging, but not impossible. When you're engulfed by a wave of demonic parasprites and your health bar is emptied, the screen flashes red, indicating that Twilight has given up and invited the parasprites over for cherry kool-aid.

No! Not the bees!

Ponies and blowing up things both have a certain undeniable allure, which they pass along to this game. While short and simple, it's fun due to it's solid mechanics. Twilight Sparkle: Pest Exterminator is surely worth a play, and thus earns a sturdy 6/10. Happy blasting!

Review: Canterlot Defender

Play it Here!
Or on the Equestria Gaming Arcade

After the Season 2 finale, it's hard to imagine anyone who hasn't dreamed of defending Canterlot against an incoming swarm of Changelings, preferably using this technique, pioneered by Twilight Sparkle. Well, thanks to Futzi01 on Deviantart, you can do just that. This point and click style game is already on the Equestria Gaming Arcade, but I felt it deserved a proper review. You can read it after the break...

The gameplay here is simple enough. You aim and fire magic bursts with your mouse, shooting down changelings in the process. It is your duty to prevent any changelings from making their way to the side of the screen. You have 10 lives. The longer you live and the more changelings you blast, the higher your score.

There are two more elements to consider, however. The first is your magic bar. You mustn't let it drop down to zero, otherwise you'll experience a long cooldown period which is guaranteed to let at least a few changelings by. As long as you don't click too wildly, you should be fine.

They're no match for my Twilight Sparkle Gatling Gun!

Last but not least, by pressing the numbers 1-5, you can call upon the other elements of harmony to help clear the screen for you with unique animations. If you time it correctly, you should have at least 1 of your friends available at all times.

There exists an easter egg in Canterlot Defender, accessible via the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, enter). You have to enter this quickly to avoid losing too many lives, but from that point on, you can call upon Derpy in addition by pressing 6.

The atmosphere of this game is greatly enhanced by its music selection - Final Day Area by the wonderful Interrobang Pie. It's an upbeat 8-bit track inspired by This Day Aria, and I must say that it fits in perfectly with this game. All in all, simple as it is, Canterlot Defender is an enjoyable gaming experience.

Rainbow Dash Mini-Game

Rainbow Dash Mini-Game by Urimas

Rainbow Dash Mini-Game is a short side-scrolling game where you play as Rainbow Dash, flying and running above the clouds.

The controls of the game are simple WSAD controls. 'W' to fly up into the air, 'A' to move left, 'S' to move down, and 'D' to move right. Pressing the spacebar while running on the clouds will cause Rainbow Dash to jump into the air, while pressing it when flying in the air, it will cause Rainbow Dash to jump slightly into the air higher, and divebomb down immediately afterwards.

The game features only one continuous level, and the goal is to hit as many clouds as you can, while avoiding Derpy Hooves and the underside of the thunder clouds. Thunder clouds can be destroyed by hitting the cloud itself, but touching the lightning at all will cause you to lose a life. You start out with a total of three lives, represented by Dash's Cutie Mark on the lower part of the screen. Running into other Cutie Marks in game will replenish a lost life. On the bottom left side of the screen if your flight meter, when this is empty, you will no longer be able to fly. You can replenish this by touching the ground clouds, causing Rainbow Dash to start running instead.

The plot to the game is completely undefined, and there is no actual end; though the game has a nasty habit of breaking after you pass the score of 5719.

The collisiona nd controls of the game are well designed, and the game is very simplistic and easy to understand and play. This game gets:

The Way Home

The Way Home by Silver Spear

 The Way Home is side scrolling game where you can chose between two characters, Fluttershy (Normal Difficulty) and Rainbow Dash (Hard Difficulty). The game features some pretty epic songs, including Art of the Dress Eurobat Mix, Sonic Boom, 8-bit Winter Wrap up, 8-bit Night of Nights, 8-bit Space - Magic Fly, and Taking to the Air.

The controls are the Up and Down arrow keys to move Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash up and down, the Spacebar to fire either two birds, or blue energy, depending what character you chose, and Enter to see the level password which can be typed in at the title screen to skip back to that level.

There are 5 levels total, including a final boss level. The goal of the first four levels is to dodge all the clouds and other obstacles, and collect the bubbled feathers to increase your speed to ten bars. Each feather will increase your speed by two bars, thunder clouds will decrease it by two, and everything else will decrease it by one.

Firing your projectile has the same effect on both difficulties, it destroys any clouds it touches. When playing as Fluttershy on normal difficulty, your speed bar will automatically regenerate one bar over a given amount of time. This advantage is taken away when playing as Rainbow Dash on hard difficulty.

The plot of the game is very simple; you are supposed to help Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash safely make it home to Cloudsdale.


While the story isn't really emphasized in this short game, the gameplay is simplistic and surprisingly somewhat addicting. This game gets a rating:

Review: Sweetie Bot's Pixel Trip

Sweetie Bot's Pixel Trip

Well, I'll be lucky if I ever get Teithepony's Pixel Buster remix out of my head after this. Sweetie Bot has a vendetta against the pixels of the universe, and it's up to you to wreak her vengeance upon them!

Perhaps the pixels are on the offensive. Who knows? Who cares? Regardless, prepare to give your reflexes a run for their money! Review below the break.

From beginning to end, Sweetie Bot's Pixel trip is pulled off with the trademark polish we've come to expect from futzi01. On the sparse title page, the game introduces a new feature - background animations can be turned off to reduce lag.

However, once you start the game, you might want to keep all the lag you can get. Gameplay is vexingly simple: use the up and down arrow keys to guide Sweetie Belle forward, jumping from pixel to pixel. Each key pressed moves her to the closest pixel in that vertical direction. If there's none, prepare to explode against the side of the screen.

Not even the ones that swerve can escape this orgy of destruction.

For a short while, oncoming pixels are slow and survival is a cinch - but they soon speed up. At a certain point (generally beyond a score of 75), pixels appear which slither up and down, making your key-pressing decisions much harder. At time of writing, my best is a combo of 107.

Using the Konami Code while pixel tripping grants you a confusing super power: by holding space, you can simultaneously slow the game down and reverse the direction in which Sweetie Bot moves when you press keys. Be warned: this ability doesn't make your life much easier.

I had no qualms with the execution this game: snappy, simple gameplay, fitting music, and adorable Sweetie Bot sprites combined to make it a treat. What I'd like to see is simply more: power-ups, multiple gameplay modes and perhaps a campaign could really make this game a classic. Final score (with plenty of room to grow:) 6/10.

Review:Where's Derpy?

Where's Derpy?

Derpy Hooves, undoubtedly the most famous background pony of all time (sorry Lyra!) finally has her very own fangame, and this one really fits her in-show status as a "Where's Waldo" -type challenge for the fans to find in every episode. Disregarding the fact that having Derpy in something makes it automatically awesome, just how good is the game? Find out after the break!

Where's Derpy? is a very simple game. In it, upon starting a level you are shown a scene from the show and instructed to find Derpy before the time runs out. You'll receive a higher score by finding muffins, and upon completing the level you move on to another, more challenging level. The game comes with sixteen levels and is rather short if you have a sharp eye, although most of us will spend quite some time trying to find all of the delicious but well-hidden muffins.

Can you find Derpy?

The included levels vary greatly in difficulty, with some being fairly easy and others that are quite challenging. In some of them you'll really have to strain your eyes just to spot our favourite blonde pegasus, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary, I found the game's overall difficulty to be just right, with a good balance between easy and hard. If the player wishes for an extra challenge, there are hidden Lyras in 10 of the levels, locating all of which will earn them a nice achievement to brag about. There really isn't much incentive for replaying Where's Derpy? once you've completed the game and collected all the achievements (which was a nice touch, by the way), although it should take you a fair amount of time to collect all those muffins.

The achievements are a nice touch.

Overall, Where's Derpy? is a good game. It's fun, has Derpy, contains a fair amount of levels, and should keep you occupied for a couple minutes. However, once it's completed it doesn't have that much replayability, and even though content updates may provide more amusement it's not something you'll be coming back to. Still, while it lasts Where's Derpy? is a lot of good, simple fun, and for that I give it a 6.

Xtux, out!