Recent reviews by Rabbidking

Disclaimer: I received this game for free by signing up for Awesome Games Studio's newsletter. Receiving this game for free will in no way influence how I will review it.

Yet Another Zombie Defense's title tries to joke around about the oversaturation of zombie shooters in recent years. However, I feel that the developers of this game simply wanted to name the game this way simply to make this joke, and hope that people buy it solely based around that one joke, but put little effort into fine-tuning the game itself. The game itself isn't terrible; the main issue is that it gets very boring, very quickly. There is no variation in gameplay; it's just a generic point-and-shoot horde mode. And a boring, generic game is not a joke I want to laugh at.

The player (or players, in co-op mode) selects one of three character models (a man, a woman, and a SWAT officer), and is simply plunked into the only level in the game: a plain gray square with a single lamppost in the center. You must fight off zombies as long as possible, until your inevitible demise. When you defeat each wave, you will enter the day phase, where you can buy weapons, ammo, and barriers. There is no plot to speak of; no joking about other generic zombie shooters, no calling out the popularity of the undead in the media. It's just you versus the horde.

Gameplay, as I mentioned before, is simple: point a gun at the zombies, shoot the zombies until they keel over dead, buy new things. Lather, rinse, repeat. There's nothing wrong with having a simple approach like this. However, if there isn't any variation in fighting off the zombies (like, say, new enemy types, moving to new locations, or doing other objectives like saving distressed survivors or fighting off bandits), then the game gets tedious very quickly. The only thing that might make people constantly play this game is to see if they can beat their high score, or to earn Achievements.

Everything else about this game is also mind-numbingly boring and awkward. The character animations are quite awkward (especially the player characters), and seem to only consist of two frames each, with "faster" zombies speeding up said two frames. Death animations are just the dead character faceplanting into the ground. The weapon animations are also uninspired, but special mention goes to the flamethrower, which just shoots a small stream of orange circles at the zombies, with no flame animation on the afflicted mobs. It also appears that the zombies can hit you the second they start their attack animation, even if you move just out of their attack range as it begins.

Speaking of weapons, they don't feel like they dealt much damage against the hordes. The pistol feels like a cheap water pistol, the flamethrower is hilariously ineffective against large mobs of zombies, and the SMG feels like a rapid fire version of the pistol. I usually stuck with the shotgun and the rocket launcher, as these two seemed to be the only two weapons that dealt a significant amount of damage to the horde, killing zombies in 1 to 2 shots. If you're good at moving around the screen, you won't even need to use either of the barriers, except if you want to watch the bad AI pathfinding, as they get stuck attacking the barricades until you approach.

After spending a bit of time playing this, I just cannot recommend Yet Another Zombie Defense. It's just way too bland for most people to put up with. The levels, characters, weapons... everything just feels so dull and lifeless, with miniscule replayability, even with co-op play. The developers of this game could have done so much more to make this game stand out, to make it worthy of the jokey name they gave it. But in the end, YAZD ends up being the only one to laugh at its own joke, one that most people wouldn't understand.

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Pros:

+ Music is passable
+ Co-op play give this game a bit of longevity
+ Simple gameplay...

Cons:

- ...perhaps a bit TOO simple
- One level; no more, no less
- Weapons lack oomph, not many of them are useful (especially barriers)
- Animations are awkward, both in characters and weapons
- Only two songs in the entire game
- BORING

I'll start off by saying that this game will have very split reactions among its players. Some will call it a unique, haunting metaphor for our mortality and life. Others will write this game off as too simple, devoid of any meaning or substance, and too artsy-fartsy. After playing this game, I can see why both camps would believe these things.

Admittedly, there isn't much to this game. You are a fly, and you decide to fly higher and higher... and that's all I'll say about the plot. I wouldn't be able to tell much more beyond that without spoiling the game anyway, seeing as you can complete the game within 5 to 10 minutes.

However, a game's length doesn't completely determine if a game is good or not. How much you enjoy the game should be mostly dependent on the player's overall experience. Yes, length can be a big factor in one's enjoyment, but some games are designed to be short, one-and-done playthroughs. The Plan is the embodiment of this philosophy. It doesn't matter that the game can be finished in roughly 1/5th of an hour; as long as the player enjoyed their brief time as a fly, then time is irrelevant in this case.

Players may be divided when it comes to the overall gameplay of The Plan, but it's hard to deny that a lot of effort went into detailing this game. The graphics look quite nice, with mostly dark backgrounds that reminded me of LIMBO or NightSky. However, while those games mostly had silhouetted landscapes, The Plan has a bit more detail. Gusts of wind are drawn on-screen smoothly, giant leaves threaten to crush the philosophical fly, and the game's climax shocks us with a surprising transition or two.

I must also tip my hat to whoever was in charge of the audio for this game, as it is simply some of the best ambient noise I've ever heard. Rustling leaves, huge wind gusts, a tense encounter in the trees, and the haunting melody in the finale stand out in my mind long after I finished playing. The sound quality in this game is superb, and I was completely immersed in this game due to how realistic the sounds were.

As I mentioned above, the game is incredibly short, so there is very little to no replayability once you've seen the conclusion, since you know what happens. The game also seems to crash at the end of the game when returning to the main menu (as of the time of this writing), and, for whatever reason, I can't figure out why there is a text field after the conclusion. But these are some minor gripes. They don't detract at all from the game's overall quality.

In conclusion, I recommend you play this game if you want to do a bit of thinking about morality and regret, need a quick time-waster (and want to earn a quick achievement), or if you just want to hear a haunting tune. And, at a low price of free, you have nothing to lose if you don't like it (well, other than 5 minutes of your time, but aren't we all wasting time anyway?).

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Pros:

+ Great atmosphere
+ Nice visuals
+ Amazing sounds
+ Thought-provoking
+ Doesn't drag itself out too long / feels like the perfect length for a casual game
+ FREE!

Cons:

- Game has virtually no replayability after the ending
- Crashes when returning to main menu (at the time of this writing)

"Write anything, solve everything." This has been the mantra for Scribblenauts since its creation in 2009, and each new installment comes closer and closer to realising this goal. Scribblenauts Unlimited on Steam has taken the "write anything" part to heart, but falters a bit of the "solve everything" side of the equation.

The Steam Workshop support for this game is quite huge. If you can think of an object that the game doesn't recognise (mostly copyrighted content), then it's possible that someone has either created it for you, or some toying around with the game's impressive object editor will make your dreams a reality. Even better, you can upload your creations for all Steam users to enjoy.

As awesome as this is, the gameplay is a tad disappointing. At least, we finally have an explanation for Maxwell's endless search for Starites (the game's MacGuffin). The story acts as a prequel to the series, as Maxwell struggles to retrieve the errant Starites to rescue his sister, Lilly (one of literally dozens of his relatives, all of whom are playable characters), from being turned into stone. This story is quickly forgotten once you start summoning vuvuzuela-playing pink jaguars to fight a winged preposterous black knight riding atop a cowardly telekinetic cybernetic T-rex, with only the occasional interlude reminding you of your main objective.

To retrieve the Starites, Maxwell must help people around the game's expansive world with various problems, from helping an up-and-coming rock band gain a fanbase, to helping patients in a hospital with their various ailments. While its nice to have a large amount of different areas to explore, many of which feel alive with various characters mulling about, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was just playing nicer-looking versions of the DS games' title screens. Worse yet, many of the main challenges don't encourage your imagination as often as you think they would.

Despite these problems, I would still highly recommend this game to anyone who hasn't played the series before. The visuals are crisp, the sheer amount of objects that can be generated is mind boggling (not counting the extensive Workshop creations), and it's still fun to see how each object and adjective interacts with each object in the world.

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Pros:

+ Graphics look amazing, even on low-powered laptops
+ Amazing object editor
+ "Write anything": only limited to your imagination
+ Always fun to see object/adjective interactions
+ Nice origin story for Maxwell...

Cons:

- ...but is quickly forgotten while goofing off
- Worlds feel like glorified title screens from the DS games
- Many challenges limit/stifle creativity

Imagine a neon-colored, less fruity version of... well, Fruit Ninja. That's part of the set-up, but there's a bit more to it than that, as you have to cut larger shapes down into smaller shapes. There's a great sense of tranquility in this game, as well; the game doesn't rush you along, and the music is pretty soothing, even when it intensifies.

It's the perfect example of a game that's easy to pick up and learn (drag a line, cut stuff), yet hard to master (some cutting puzzles are MUCH harder than others, and the difficulty ramps up a bit too quickly). And best yet, you aren't penalized for making mistakes, as the handy reset button will quickly undo your mistakes, one at a time Pick it up when you need a relaxing brain workout.

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Pros:

+ Easy to learn, hard to master
+ Excellent sound design and music
+ Easy to go back and fix mistakes
+ Easy to skip difficult levels

Cons:

- Difficulty rises too quickly, especially for perfect runs.
- No real progression
- Controls can be a bit imperfect at times

Soothing, but just a little bit creepy. The music is very relaxing and somber, and it doesn't take up too much space on your hard drive (or your window, for that matter). Give it a try today.