I would like to start off this application review by discussing something that will initially seem completely unrelated. However, bare with me. I assure you, they are related (At least to me).Are you familiar with Zero Wing? A popular old school game that, itself, was not all that impressive. however, it gained great fame for it's terrible English. The way the characters spoke (Via text) was so humourous that the game and many of the phrases from the into because memes. Even if you are not familiar with the video game, you may have heard the phrase "All your base are belong to us". You can thank Zero Wing for that one. I have attached a video (Thank you, Youtube) of the intro from Zero Wing, to the bottom of this post. Watch it to get a sense of what I mean, if you have not previously seen it.
Now, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with this game. it's not in space. It's not an old school game... Oh wait!... Yes... You guessed correctly. It's the way the characters speak. I believe this was initially a Spanish application. It was translated to suit the English speaking audience it was being sold to. However, much of the English is choppy. But not in an annoying way so much as in a funny way. I would go so far as to say that this game's so bad, it's almost good.
The game graphics are bad... The artist could certainly use some work on game graphic design. But they aren't 'terrible'. The characters are predictable and the situations can seem quite unreal. The game play itself is easy, though sometimes requires a good bit of memorizing what to do and what order to do it in. As you get to the later stages, it's much more challenging. Almost to the point of frustration.
Let's go over some of the elements of this game. First off you can choose to play in either Spanish or English, which is a nice feature. Somehow I feel like Spanish mode would not be as amusing. You can start a new game. Continue a game where you left off or choose to do an operation. If you choose an operation, it can only be one you have already successfully completed.
In the game you have several scenarios. The dialog scenes which add to the story. It features images of the characters against a background and dialog in a box below (You have no control over how these scenes go). Sometimes it will be a full drawn scene, and not just the character background setup. Second are the "before the game play" bits. These are where you look at the chart of the person and find out what to do, what order to do it and so on. Of course next is the game play. You can play with left or right handed mode, which is a nice feature. You cut people open, remove fragments, give injections, disinfect, stitch wounds and bandage, among other things.
After the game play, if you successfully complete the level you get your end of level data and it's back to more dialog and character interaction.
I will add some screen shots below of some of the funny things people in this game say. Feel free to click on the smaller images and expand them for easier reading.
If you enjoy this game, these is also a paid version. There is also a lite version. The paid version is the same, but removes the ads. granted the ads were a bit annoying since they sometimes cover a part of the play screen you need to interact with. The lite version isn't the full game. The free and paid versions both have the same levels. I finished the first 3 chapters. There are 14 chapters in total, listed. I didn't enjoy it enough to want to continue to play it quite that far through. Plus chapter 04 was frustrating for me. Bloody patient kept dying over and over.
So in closing... Bad graphics, semi-interesting plot, predictable characters, funny (accidentally) dialog, challenging gameplay (NOTE: Sometimes frustrating when doing tiny detail work because it's difficult to point to one specific tiny area on your phone screen with your finger. A small stylus may be better for playing this game). It's not a bad game, but it's not great. Honestly my favourite part is just reading the terrible English. I am not insulting the translators of this application. Honestly, I think if they had done a better translation job, the app wouldn't be as entertaining for me. So I am glad it turned out this way.
My biggest disappointment with the application is the art style is sometimes painful for me to look at. It's not 'terrible'. However, it looks like art from someone still learning the ropes for drawing. And it doesn't feel like 'game art'. The game play mode art is fine. The backgrounds I think are perfectly fine. It is just the characters themselves. The style for drawing and colouring of them just annoys me a bit. But I find myself to be a very visual person. I like when things look clean and professional. So it's really more of a personal opinion. But for me, a game's art is very important.
Before I forget, here is that Zero Wing video I promised.
- Free
- Category: Games
- Released: Aug 04, 2012
- Version: 1.0
- Size: 133 MB
- Language: English
- Seller: Ruben Pecellin
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