Dr Pills is a fun little match three game based on Dr Mario. The doctor throws coloured pills into the container of viruses, and you have to match three or more colours to destroy the different coloured viruses. As the levels progress there are more viruses to destroy, in increasingly complicated patterns. You control the pills with the cursor keys and can rotate them and speed up their descent to the bottom of the playing area.
To add a little extra challenge to the game there are several power-ups (or power-downs depending on your luck) to mix things up a bit. Firstly there is a medicine dropper that will have one of the colours in it. This remains still at the top of the screen and you can move it left or right, before dropping the medicine inside. This will destroy any single virus that it falls on. The second power-up is a syringe of coloured medicine. Again this remains motionless at the top of the screen and you can move it left or right. Once you use it the medicine destroys all matching colours in a circle radius from the area it hits. The third power-up is a stick of dynamite that free falls and you can move left and right. When it hits something it destroys all blocks around it. The last power-up is a big black bomb. You have left and right control over this but it falls automatically. When the bomb hits it rearranges the entire playing area. Sometimes this is good and frees up buried viruses that you couldn't get to before, and sometimes it buries them even deeper. The power-downs I mentioned are a bag of more coloured blocks that explode across the playing area and a big X virus in a tube that releases more viruses to destroy.
This game is entertaining and enjoyable to play, and I played it right through to the end. To make the whole game feel more involving there is a story about how the Doc accidentally lets the viruses out and tries to clean them up. This is all revealed in a comic book style in between levels. It adds a little more depth to the game and makes it stand out a little more from all the other clones in this genre.
Graphically the game lives up to its cartoony feel. The graphics are clear and colourful, and the doctor is delightfully wacky looking. There is definitely more than a distinct likeness to Dr Mario but nonetheless this is a wonderful homage rather than a poor rip-off.
Overall I have to rate this game highly. It's not going to last a long time as there's no real incentive to play it again after you have completed it, although the levels do have an element of randomness to them, so if you really want to go again it won't look exactly the same. The graphics, sound and gameplay are all cute and quirky, but don't distract at all from the easy to play nature of the game. This game is easily suitable for kids and adults of all ages and skill levels.
Dr Pills is a commercially licensed game although the developer seems to currently have no links to it on their website. However it appears possible to download it via some trial and freeplay sites such as Hero Turko. Just Google 'Dr Pills' and you'll find the places it's available from. Alternatively keep your eyes on Gambana's website or in stores near you.
Friday, 24 December 2010
Monday, 6 December 2010
Knight Rider - The Game
As a fan of the original 80s TV show, I had high hopes for Knight Rider - The Game. But unfortunately that's where they ended. In theory Knight Rider has all the key points to make a great game; you drive around in KITT pulling off turbo jumps and wheelies, chasing down the bad guys and bringing them to justice. It's got pretty good graphics and a pretty decent 3D version of David Hasselhoff to boot!
However the controls are confusing and far too responsive at times, so where you might want to make a gentle curve on a race track you end up skidding out of control, often ending up doing a complete 180 degree spin. Pulling off a wheelie seems to be a mixture of skill and luck, as once you hit two wheels you've got a 50/50 chance of veering off in a different direction, usually resulting in falling off of the narrow platform you're trying to drive across.
I only played the first mission - the training level - before I gave up. I couldn't even bring myself to complete that. Racing around the circuit was repetitive but bearable and once I'd mastered tapping the left and right arrows to make corners, it was quite fun to race around with KITT. I almost gave up when set the wheelie challenges because of the difficult controls and the strange habit KITT had of veering off at an angle when you hit two wheels. But the killer was the third challenge which was to scan some objects in the environment. While this in itself shouldn't be too much of a challenge, the training mission completely forgot to tell me which key I needed to press to scan.
Not a problem I thought, hitting the escape key to get the controls menu up... But hang on a minute, I've only got two options; resume mission or quit. What? So I can't even see what the controls are from the menu? What a crappy training level that doesn't actually tell you the controls. The developers just assumed that you'd check the controls at the start menu and then memorise every single one. That's 17 keys to remember before you even start playing the game! My memory's good but not that good.
Maybe I should have persevered with the training level once I'd checked out all the controls again, but I just couldn't put bring myself to try it again in this play through. Perhaps for die hard fans who can adjust or overlook the control system there might be a really good game hidden beneath the surface, but for me this is the end of my adventures with KITT and Michael Knight.
However the controls are confusing and far too responsive at times, so where you might want to make a gentle curve on a race track you end up skidding out of control, often ending up doing a complete 180 degree spin. Pulling off a wheelie seems to be a mixture of skill and luck, as once you hit two wheels you've got a 50/50 chance of veering off in a different direction, usually resulting in falling off of the narrow platform you're trying to drive across.
I only played the first mission - the training level - before I gave up. I couldn't even bring myself to complete that. Racing around the circuit was repetitive but bearable and once I'd mastered tapping the left and right arrows to make corners, it was quite fun to race around with KITT. I almost gave up when set the wheelie challenges because of the difficult controls and the strange habit KITT had of veering off at an angle when you hit two wheels. But the killer was the third challenge which was to scan some objects in the environment. While this in itself shouldn't be too much of a challenge, the training mission completely forgot to tell me which key I needed to press to scan.
Not a problem I thought, hitting the escape key to get the controls menu up... But hang on a minute, I've only got two options; resume mission or quit. What? So I can't even see what the controls are from the menu? What a crappy training level that doesn't actually tell you the controls. The developers just assumed that you'd check the controls at the start menu and then memorise every single one. That's 17 keys to remember before you even start playing the game! My memory's good but not that good.
Maybe I should have persevered with the training level once I'd checked out all the controls again, but I just couldn't put bring myself to try it again in this play through. Perhaps for die hard fans who can adjust or overlook the control system there might be a really good game hidden beneath the surface, but for me this is the end of my adventures with KITT and Michael Knight.
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