Between cave exploring deer, circles that explode at the slightest touch, and a version of Tetris that was never meant to exist, this week's Link Dump Friday deserves a one-word description: kaboom.
Tetrical - The most confusing incarnation of Tetris ever made, Tetrical pulls the old favorite block stacker into the world of 3D, forcing you to rotate and pile pieces in an isometric point of view. Not only are the dimensions larger, but the pieces are wackier and stretch well beyond the four-block limit. Yikes.
Cirplosion - Hold the left mouse button to expand the circle and let it go before it touches the edge of the screen or one of the bouncing marbles. Then, slide the resulting shadow over as many balls as you can and click to destroy them. You have a limited number of "cirplosions" to use as well as a time limit, creating some very tense moments.
Zipper's Cave Maze - Your standard old-school "collect keys to unlock doors to go to the next level", only this one features superbly detailed artwork and sound effects. Created for National Geographic Kids, you'll also come across a few dinosaur-related factoids, and as everyone knows, dinosaurs are cool.
Laser & Bubbles - A quirky little puzzle/arcade game where you must destroy all the bubbles on the screen using a grid of lasers. Think picross with less cerebral action and more bubbles going kaboom.
Gem Tower Defense - A rather unique tower defense game that uses gems instead of machines. It's a bit complex at first, but the basic idea is that you place rocks which turn into "towers" that can be combined with nearby gems as well as upgraded. It's sort of like alchemy. The game is still in its early stages and thus lacks sound effects and overall polish. But it's an interesting take on the TD genre.
There was a game back in the good old C64-days, called Tetris 3D - i think it was more enjoyable, easier to play and nicer graphicwise than this one (roumors had it that the entire game was written in simple BASIC - i dunno if it was right or wrong, the game was fun - unlike Tetrical which i found disillusioningly complicated to control and not rewarding enough to go on :(
Ragdoll Invaders duplicates exactly one of those dreams where some unseen terror is chasing you, and your feet are stuck in mud forcing you to run very slowly.
Lasers Bubbles is a fun little game.
I also think that Blockout was a better version of 3D tetris... from almost 20 years ago.
Yes, this was it!
zxo, thanx for the link and the correction!
blockout clone:
http://www.3dtris.de/
just like the original (which I played a lot 15 years ago), and much better than the tetrical.
Pardon me for being technical, however I thought you might want to know that the view in Tetrical is an oblique view, not isometric. Check out oblique projection at wikipedia.
I'm fairly certain you have previously reviewed Ragdoll Invaders. I believe it was a guest review.
Hmm...apparently for Gem TD, each guy you let pass kills you 3 lives...
I agree on Tetrical, I've seen better versions. I could probably find one with a minute or two of work.
Laser Bubbles is pretty sweet, although I kind of wonder what the point of the counter is. It's like Boomshine with less frustration.
Gem Tower Defense has a great concept, but it's ridiculously easy once you figure out a certain trick... either the levels need to increase in difficulty more quickly or it needs to be redesigned a tad so it doesn't get boring.
Yeah, I finished the Bubbles with once taking a leak :) The counter really seems pointless.
Anyone else have a problem in Tetrical where rotating the block (with ctrl and shift) stops working?
cave-exploring deer?
Um, guys -- Zipper is a Chihuahua, unless I'm crazier than I think I am....
Oh good, I'm not the only one that thought that thing was a Chihuahua. A very, very, very slow-moving Chihuahua.
The Gem Tower Defense is Based off of The Warcraft III user created game Gem TD, I dont know the name of the author though, thought the concept is almost exactly the same, the Warcraft III make of it is more complete.
i realy like that gem td one of the most creative tds ive seen i dont get why you cant downgrade the towers after youve used them for just one level thats kind of anoyin
I was doing fine in Gem TD until a late flying level, when a single flyer got past, causing 10 lives lost. I don't see any way to buy more lives, and since you only start with 9...
If you click "Lives" you can buy lives, apparently. I discovered this by accident.
I love the concept for Gem TD, unfortunatly I can't seem to DO anything. Reading a post in here told me how to buy lives but I'm in the dark on these "special tower" recipes. The website's instruction page says there supposed to be at the bottom but I only see an email and a created by sign.
Trust me to find out only seconds after posting! The recipes are found at the bottom of the Play page, not instructions. Oh well, at least others can read my post and find out without having to search.
Tetrical may be nearly unplayable, but I do think it is hilarious regardless. I'm not entirely sure if it is meant to be as anything other than exactly what it is. Kind of like 'BasTet' in a way, a version of Tetris that would use an algorithm to make sure you end up with the piece you need least each time.
Excellent!
I think the Gem TD is a good concept with a lot of potential, but it needs a lot of polishing to make it a more playable experience. I beat it on easy mode by creating a longer maze with the extra rocks that are left after gem placement. I managed a few good specials too... I ended up with one malachite, two silver, one tourmaline, a red crystal, and two yellow sapphire all fully upgraded. I find the special combos confusing as to when and how exactly I'm able to create them... I think there should be an option to combine gems that have been on the field a while. anyway, hopefully we'll see more work on this one!
This is a knockoff of a Warcraft 3 custom map called Gem TD, which is an improvement of another Warcraft 3 custom map called Poker TD, where your towers are made through poker hands.
Here is a link to the Gem TD: http://www.epicwar.com/maps/16414/
Dunno how, but i managed to completely miss Circplosion until now.
Shouldn't have. Of my very humble opinion it's the best of this assortment. Easy to understand and play but gets damn (but not TOO) hard after a couple of levels. Very well done.
Easy version of Tetris :)
www.tetris1d.org
I'm liking Gem TD, once I got the hang of it. Still it's very dependant on luck - some times you get some good combinations, and some times you get garbage, even with the upgrade in chances. Even so, I'd like to see this one after it's had a little more development time.
Two tidbits: four of one kind of gem will combine up to the second level (example: two flawed = 1 normal, four flawwed = 1 flawless) and two perfects = 1 greater, something that doesn't appear to be an ingredient in any recipe, but is still pretty powerful.
I've ben playing Gem TD for 2 days now.
EASY and NORMAL are just too easy with the right maze.
Even in HARD the only enemies that actually are hard are FLYING.
EXTREME however is absolute badass, I never breached 30 so far.
Oh weel, gotta keep trying if I want to get Sandbox mode.
I'm really enjoying GEM TD as well, I've been playing solid for a couple days. I agree the luck factor is a little high, and it would be nice if you could combine with crystals you placed in previous rounds. Needs polish but I've had a bunch of fun... but I'm a sucker for TD games.
how I get the blue key in level 13 on zippers cave maze?
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