The Journeyman Project 

For a while, I had assumed that most people knew about The Journeyman Project, or at least heard of it. Turns out this isn’t the case. That needs to be rectified immediately.

Despite coming out the same year as Myst, The Journeyman Project may be the pinnacle of the first-person adventure game genre. It might lack the inventive logic puzzles that its contemporaries use, but in sheer density and immersive storytelling, few games can top it. Read more »

Span-It! 

Rarely does a game’s title explain its entire premise. In Span-It!, there is a board. And you must span it.

Even with the hilariously simple premise, Span-It! contains enough options and tweaks to stretch out its worth and replay value. But they also reveal a few major strategic shortcomings that makes the single-player mode wear thin quickly. Read more »

Wrath of the Gods 

The Muses in Greek mythology glorified the spirit of the arts and history through poetry and song. Not one could have predicted that several thousand years later, a grainy adventure game with stilted, public-access-quality acting would take up their mantle.

You have to hand it to Joel Skidmore and the small team at Luminaria: Wrath of the Gods is a fairly compelling attempt to cram the entirety of the Greek myths into a digestible, entertaining, and educational format. The game desperately needs a facelift and a tuneup, but in terms of raw effort, it’s hard to top. Read more »

Tubes 

Anyone remember Klax? In the age of Tetris clones, Klax stood out with its unique tile-dropping gameplay. Like all successful games, copies were inevitable. Enter Tubes.

Despite the upgraded aesthetics, Tubes plays nearly identically to its inspirational source. The wave system and the pacing are lifted directly. The game of course provides a few tweaks – extra difficulties and a new mode being the most significant – but little else shakes it from feeling like a knockoff. That is, unless you count the special pieces. Read more »

RoboMaze II 

I’ll skip the introductions. No, RoboMaze I never saw public release outside a bundle collection. Yes, this could be a blessing, given the sequel’s quality.

In RoboMaze II, players control a robot under the command of freedom fighters from the Resistance taking down a repressive dictator by battling through his massive tower, complete with an oversized lobby and penthouse. These battles play out in straight-forward run-and-gun fashion with a little platforming mixed in. The setup is ripe for level design potential. Each room uses only a single screen, with 20 areas grouped together to form a level. This lends itself to rapid-fire progression and light puzzle elements. Should you use a key in this room? Or wait for the next floor to see what you can unlock?

Too bad the game is unplayably busted. Read more »