Review: Stroll

Stroll

I know what you're thinking: "A Pinkie Pie Platformer? I've played hundreds of those. Give it a rest, already." Well, hold your horses, so to speak. Just recently, Silly Mare Games released Stroll, which strives for an artsy, open-world feel rather than following in the hoofsteps of the rest of the genre. Does it find a successful niche, or is it just a bunch of walking around? You know where to click.

In the first few minutes of playing the game, I was struck by two things. First off, the game sounds like something you might play to fall asleep: rather than the customary bouncy electro remixes of pony songs, you're greeted by soft hoofsteps, mellow nature sounds, and the whistling wind. Walking around is a relaxing experience. However, I was initially a little put off by suddenly being dropped into the sandbox - I'm the kind of gamer who purposefully walks through a dungeon picking out the tunnels least likely to be the correct path, so I can make sure I haven't missed anything before continuing. Massive open worlds are intimidating.

After walking along for a few minutes, I began to get bored. I'd already found one of the ponies hidden in the game world, and I wasn't sure what to do next. The scenery was quickly becoming repetitive, and I had already been confronted by a couple of dead ends. If you're a fan of rapid-fire action games, this is probably not your cup of tea. 

Lyra doesn't sleep the way one might expect her to.

Then, after scrambling my way up a mountainside and between several precarious floating platforms, I was rewarded with another hidden pony. At this point, the game's central mechanic became clear: find your way into the game's most secluded spots, and you'll be rewarded with ponies and other secrets. Now that I'd determined my challenge, I was hooked.

There are 11 ponies, and several more easter eggs, hidden around the surprisingly expansive map. Although there's nary a cutscene, the trek from Ponyville through the Everfree forest to the outskirts of Canterlot still feels like a journey. For those of you  who like more low-key adventuring, this game provides a meditative experience: I certainly didn't expect to spend as long with it as I did, although I'm not disclosing the amount of time.

Here's the bottom line: this game doesn't possess universal appeal, and some of you will quickly find you'd rather spend time on something else. However, it's unique among the fan games I've played, and I expect it to win itself many charmed fans. Final verdict: 7/10.

Review: Drifter

Silly Mare Games, SylrePony and others have joined forces, attempting to synthesize the best elements from several of their previous games. Drifter's a spiritual successor to Stroll and Derpy Buddy, among others, and comes from some of the same folks currently working on the Nightfall project.

Derpy Hooves must travel to the ends of the earth, and if you want to find out why, you'll have to lead her there. Find the review after the break!



If you're familiar with Drifter's precursors, you'll know not to expect points, combo multipliers, or other forms of rapid gratification from this game. However, while Drifter's certainly centered on artsy ambiance, it swings a little more toward the goal-driven side of things. Character maintenance is relatively important: Derpy's health, happiness, and energy levels must be maintained by eating food, meeting ponies, and taking regular naps. However, these stats generally don't warrant attention, as Derpy eats when she stops moving and sleeps when her energy bar falls to zero (although you'll take a small happiness penalty.)

As in Stroll, the goal of the game is to discover the various ponies hidden throughout the landscape. However, when you come upon them, they don't just sit there - instead, they'll disappear into the night after giving you a unique perk. Although the game doesn't tell you directly how Derpy's skill set has improved, names like "Double Food Perk" and "Half Fatigue Perk" are fairly self-explanatory.

Rather than controlling Derpy directly, the player must lead her around by moving the camera and waiting for her to follow. Although this can be cumbersome early in the game, once mastered it's an efficient way of moving her around - and it prevents Derpy from falling off a cliff by accident. After loading the game, make sure to locate the dot of tinted pixels in the center of your screen. That's the center of the camera, and it can't phase through walls any more than Derpy can. If the camera won't move, the central dot is usually stuck against an obstacle.

Twilight spends many a peaceful afternoon reading in the bowels of hell.

The game would be nothing without the eerie, meditative ambiance which sold me on Stroll - and fortunately, it's there in spades. It's impossible to tell whether the game's atmosphere comes from the music, the misty graphics and particle effects, or some combination of the two. My only artistic complaint is the ground texturing near the surface, which transitions awkwardly between several patterns.

The game becomes truly creepy when Derpy approaches the lair of a hunter, a mysterious creature that inhabits the game world deep underground. When you've ticked one off, the music is saturated by heavy, ominous bass beats while shafts of glaring red light herald the beast's pursuit. Fortunately, your progress is autosaved and discovered ponies serve as respawn points.

I played Drifter expecting to fault it for a confusingly large map, incoherent story-line, and repetitive gameplay, but was happily surprised. If you need an exploration aid, it's fairly easy to locate yourself by means of the included world map (at least, until you slip past the first hunters into uncharted territory.) While the game sometimes spreads itself thinly between a variety of mysteries, there were more than enough poignant moments along the way to keep my interest.

Overall, the game continuously impressed, and takes a solid place among my personal favorites. After a lengthy debate with myself, I decided on a score that, while debatable, reflects my impressions.

Review: BFS

BFS

 As his previous efforts have shown us, Vanni is determined to redefine the way we see RPGs, and to accomplish his vision he has even gone so far as to program it from scratch in C instead of going about the usual route of whipping up crap in RPG Maker like a mere commoner. This may prove he's no scrub, sure, but even the best of developers can slip up sometimes, so is this an example of such?

Pony fans will definitely want to check this one out, so read on below the break for my thoughts on it.

 Reality ensues upon starting BFS' executable: this is a game, and thus it must load stuff. This may seem rather unpleasant, but upon the fourth or fifth playthrough the average player will get used to it and maybe even come to enjoy the loading, as it gives one time to prepare oneself for the incredible experience ahead. It also helps that it has the decency to show you exactly what it happens to be loading at the time, giving one a truly visible indication of its progress.

 I'd consider BFS to be an example of modern art, really. Gameplay is deceptively simplistic, with its smooth The Matrix-esque scrolling effects having a rather soothing effect on one's mind, but there's an odd sort of beauty to it that one is hard-pressed to find in any other game of recent memory. One could compare it to NetHack or Dwarf Fortress in a certain sense due to various aesthetic similarities, or even the majority of Lego Island 2 if one is so inclined. It's definitely a great way to wind down and blow off steam after a long day of hard work.

 Learning the plot isn't exactly essential to this game, although from what I've been informed it involves the marriage of Queen Chrysalis to King Sombra, and their ensuing invasion on the Crystal Empire. It doesn't appear to have much relevance to the actual gameplay, though, as the story is unveiled through subtle environmental cues that casual observers will easily miss upon a first playthrough. Some might complain about this, but I honestly don't mind all that much. It's nice to have a game every once in a while that respects the player's intelligence and expects them to figure things out on their own for once.

 B

 S for us Linux users though, since the game somehow doesn't have a Linux build even though it's written in C and uses multiplatform libraries. Ah well, at least it should run well enough in Wine and can thus provide an interestingly introspective experience for users of all operating systems. Be sure to thank Vanni for his wonderful creation, and maybe check out his groundbreaking Fnagame while you're at it.

Tom the Rock Simulator

Tom the Rock Simulator

 Ever the ambitious fellow, Vanni decided to release a tie-in game to the ever-popular Goat Simulator (also being released today) featuring Rarity's waifu as its main character, doing what he normally does when he isn't being showered with affection from Maud. Some may find the content a bit lacking, although I personally think that it's an excellent representation of Tom's daily life including the bits where he does his own stunts and attends all the award ceremonies his voice actor has been been invited to lately. I'd suggest that future releases add in a realtime day/night cycle and possibly some wildlife to occasionally appear in the background, but as its stands right now this is probably one of the better avant-garde fangames we'll see this year (with the possible exception of BFS, which I'll be posting about in a bit).

Rumour has it that a sequel is coming to the App Store featuring unlockable outfits. Look for it in Summer 2014!

Tom has been contacted in the hopes that he would consent to an interview on the subject of his experiences as a video game protagonist, although we have not yet received a response from him.

Cadence Throw (AKA Best Game Ever)

Cadence Throw

 The current reigning king of Brony game developers, Sebastian Krzyszkowiak (otherwise known as "the cheesehead who brought us Super Derpy: Muffin Attack"), has released an utterly amazing that will knock your socks off; or at least it would if you were running Linux. Since you are obviously too cowardly to even think of compiling a program via cmake I advise that you take a sneak peak at the video to see the amazing pony fangames you are missing out on by not using a real operating system.