|
 Another horizontal shooter here, and another potentially innovative game rife with unusual problems. Wizard Slayer stars a broom riding magic user, whose main attack is a slingshot. The shots slung arc downwards, which is actually rather cool, and makes for some interesting attack possibilities. You can raise levels in this game by killing scads of enemies. Raising levels allows you to increase the power of your spells, which you acquire by finding them scattered throughout the levels. Mini-bosses appear at specific points during each level, and you must defeat them within a time limit, or else they flee. If you destroy them promptly, you’re rewarded with items that raise your strength, HP, defense and magic power. You can equip two magic styles at one time, and there are 16 total to choose from, if you can find them all. All of this is really cool in theory, but in practice, there’s a bit more to be desired. First of all, there is no music whatsoever. This is ok, but I’d really have liked the game better with some tunes to accompany the my play. Second, the difficulty is rather random. Sometimes, when you choose normal, you’ll actually play as though you’re on easy mode. Likewise, choosing easy can occasionally yield normal or hard modes. It’s kind of hit-or-miss there. Also, at specific points in certain levels, the game slows down to half of its original speed, for no good reason that I can see. It’s quite annoying. But the game is long enough, and the graphics get the job done (certainly not very exciting though…kind of ‘dirty pixels’, if you know what I mean)…if you love shooters, you might be ok with this game. But it’s in no way a showcase for the GP32’s processor or audio strengths, and is unlikely to win anyone over on its own merits. This game is a great idea bogged down by very sloppy programming.
Miniscore: 7.0/10
|
Therapy is the first visual novel/love sim for the GP32, soon to be followed by Tears: Contact and Story of Bug Eyed Monster. Therapy is definitely traditional, and completely oldschool. This is not a bad thing, it just doesn’t have the high-energy manga-infused style of many contemporary visual novels. You can choose between two girls, each of whom you must try to woo before the game’s end. The character design is quite excellent, and the backgrounds are photoshopped digital photos. The sprite based characters work quite well with the backgrounds. Making your way through the story, you can choose various things to say to whomever you happen to be speaking. Upon completion of one quest, another side-quest is opened, making for at least three-four hours of gameplay depending, for each girl. The music is gorgeous. This game features the most thoughtful and well composed music in the entire GP32 library. Truly masterful. And yet, music is only used for certain events, and never loops. This seems like a mistake. There should be some general scenario music, punctuated by the rest of the tracks at appropriate moments. It’s a bit troublesome, because each track lasts between ten and 25 seconds, which really leaves you wanting more. A loop or two wouldn’t have hurt them. So the majority of the game is played in silence, other than the click of the ‘advance text’ arrow. From my discussions with folks on GPzigi, the story is too linear; your decisions don't really change the outcome. But being a visual, rather than parallel novel, this may not be so surprising. But bear in mind that since I can't speak Korean, my score should be taken with a grain of salt. As far as I can tell, this is a solid purchase for Korean speakers, or those trying to learn. I sincerely hope that this is not the last game Rosa:6 makes for the platform.
