Created by Finnish developer Timi Koponen, using the ever-popular Unity engine, RYO is a color-based puzzle game available for iOS and Android that uses simple one-finger swipe mechanics to match red dots with red dots, yellow dots with other yellow dots… and so on. This simple premise is evolved upon by adding different shades of colors; therefore, asking the player to cross colors in order to change them to the correct shade needed. Against a plain black background, it has a simple visual style that is effective and quite calming. There is no music other than simple sound effects, so a nice piece of ambient/shoegaze/post-rock seems to do the trick (full on thrash metal also seems to work – don’t ask why).

Pretty self explanatory

As far as puzzle games go, RYO never straddles too far away from its comfort zone. The slightly more complex layout of colors that exist later in the game are entirely achievable to solve through trial-and-error, and the comforting lull the game presents soon becomes a mad-dash swipe of fingers, as thought and a need for logical problem solving are thrown out the window. It’s a shame, as for about the first fifty of the game’s eighty levels there’s a nice groove of adding layers of difficulty that suit the limitations of the game’s mechanics. But without any sense of risk/reward, and with only a few times where it feels necessary to think about which colors to swipe across, the last third of the game does start to drag.

Also – and it is a minor thing in all honesty – if you swipe across but halfway decide that you’ve made an incorrect move, you can swipe back to the starting point, but the screen will still shake, thinking that you’ve swiped across to an incorrect color. It’s more of an irritation than anything else, but no one likes to be told they’re done something wrong when it isn’t valid!

Swiping through different colors will, unsurprisingly, change colors

The game is very short: around ninety minutes is more than enough time to see it through to the end. But for the asking price of $0.99/£0.69, it’s the smallest of gripes to have about an otherwise enjoyable slice of touch gaming. There is certainly room for improvement; obstacles, extra colors, variables – there is a multitude of things that could be done, but for a first attempt, RYO is a great concept that is worth checking out.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed on an iOS device using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose. 

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Wyv & Keep is a puzzle/platformer game created by A Jolly Corpse, a three-person indie development team that are – in their words – from the hellish underworld. The game’s core puzzle mechanic is focused around the cooperation of both characters to climb up walls, push boxes across and/or down, and reach the end goal of each level. Every level has a final score, and it’s one of the things about the game that doesn’t work, or at least doesn’t give you a reason to care. You’re scored on how many times you die or restart. The problem is that while there are a lot of levels which can be planned out meticulously ahead of time, it’s more likely you’ll go by trial and error. If you end the level with a bad rating, you can go back to achieve a higher score. There’s no real fun in this, though, as repeating levels in puzzle games doesn’t work as well for replay value as other genres do. The game would potentially end up with a poor sense of pacing playing this way. When it’s clear the high score doesn’t account for much, it’s quickly thrown by the wayside.

Fortunately, the puzzles are put together well, the difficulty is set at a reasonable, gradually-increasing pace, and there is a good deal of logic and thinking that is needed throughout. Each level takes place on a single screen, and it never overwhelms you with too much information at once. The trial-and-error approach mentioned above also helps in figuring out tricks the game has hidden up its sleeve – I’ll leave it to you to go and figure them out. The one instance where pacing is an issue comes from the lack of an instant restart button, which seems like a small issue. However, it’s becoming a standard function for games of this type instead of having to pause every time to admit defeat.

Still, even playing by yourself there is a wonderful connection you develop between yourself and the two characters. It’s about teamwork, figuring out where Wyv or Keep needs to be at any point of the level. You can swap between characters at any moment, and the game – at times – feels like a simplified version of Thomas Was Alone, except while you only have two characters to go between, their uses are exponentially bigger. There is the option of playing online or local co-op, and local works with either both players using the keyboard or the keyboard and a wired controller. It lends itself to a co-op game, having two minds to solve a problem is always better than one, of course.

The game looks like many 16-bit retro titles that are becoming the norm lately, but it still looks beautiful and holds up against the best that are currently on offer. Both characters have charming facial features and react when the other ends up in a sticky situation. That’s the best way to describe Wyv & Keep: it’s a charming puzzle game, and is the sort of experience that could be easily introduced to a non-gamer for the first time.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

The Windows version of this game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

In a blog post on the Size Five Games forum, Marshall said, “It’s  something I’m doing extremely reluctantly, because I don’t want to  devalue the game.” Further on he noted that, “here’s the takeaway from  this, for any indie dev considering adding multiplayer to a game: the  number of games you have to sell in order to have people playing  constantly is HUGE.”

So while it is a smart move to make (given that a multiplayer game  generally needs more than one person playing it) it has come at the  expense of potentially devaluing the game – and any game (namely his next release, The Swindle) that Marshall makes further in the future.

Speaking via email, I asked if releasing the game so close to the Summer Steam Sale might have had a negative effect on sales. “Yeah, that was probably a stupid mistake,” Dan said. “I should probably have sat on the game for a month or so, built some hype, waited for the Steam Sale to end, but I’ve got a mouth to feed (and believe me it needs near-constant feeding) so I put the game up and hoped for the best.”

One of the big issues that developers are struggling to deal with is the perspective that consumers currently have towards the pricing on games – and in particular, indie games. YouTube personality TotalBiscuit did one of his WTF? Let’s look at’ videos on Gun Monkeys and concluded that the game was good, but not to the value of $10. Pointing this out to Dan he said, “I think it’s a shame we’ve somehow got to the point where a game isn’t worth $10. Gun Monkeys is playable for hours upon hours, but $10 is suddenly a big ask? It’s something I’m increasingly concerned about, what price am I going to be reasonably charging for my next game? I need to make ends meet, and if we’re down to $3-5 per game as ‘reasonable’ the indie industry’s in massive trouble.”

He carried this on to say that, “When I started making indie games, back in 2006, there was a running joke on forums and stuff that it was stupid to charge anything other than $19.95. Whether it was a match-3 knockoff or fully-fledged brilliance like Armadillo Run, your price point was $19.95, that was just the standard. Somehow people’s perception of ‘worth’ for an indie game is slipping – and I’m not saying this is something I’m exempt from, even I do it, you look at a game and it’s $5 and I think ‘I might only play it for an hour,’ and actually, if I did that that’s still good value.”

There are a number of reasons why this is the case, one of the biggest issues is the trickle-down effect that the mobile gaming market is having. Marshall noted that even a game like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, one of the high points of gaming last year, had an excellent port to the iPad, but was unfairly lambasted for its release price of $19.99.

Selling a game that only has multiplayer mode is a big gamble in the current market, with the likes of Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 being free-to-play, being able to sway players is a massive challenge. While turning Gun Monkeys F2P isn’t happening anytime soon, Dan said that he plans on doing free weekends and tasters. So if you are still unsure about Gun Monkeys, it’s highly recommended to give it a try when the free trials become available.

Gun Monkeys is available on Windows and Mac for $5.99/£3.99.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

It’s only surprising because many 2D platforming games you play these days feature mechanics first seen in the sophomore effort; RPG elements of magic, armor, and weapons are all heavily indebted to it – Elliot Quest has all of these elements as you would imagine.

The game exists inside an open world, leaving you free to explore as you please (or are allowed to begin with). The first area to visit where you can really do anything is – both in visuals and audio - Link to the Past’s Lost Woods. What it lacks in originality though, it makes up for in visual charm and its simplicity in setting you up with the gameplay mechanics.

Elliot is paired up with a bow and arrow to begin with, and it works effectively. The arrow has a decent enough range, and basic enemies can be toppled with a few shots. The trailer shows off several other weapons that will be available as well, and it seems like certain weapons will help with traversing the environment and killing enemies.

While the forest music is a modified version of the Lost Woods, the rest of the soundtrack (currently available here) is more akin to the work of Nobuo Uematsu (composer of the Final Fantasy series) and it’s some seriously impressive stuff. Michael Chait has a keen ear for melody and is someone to keep a note on for the future.

The actual plot of the game doesn’t exist yet, but that’s a minor complaint (and really, who is going to be that concerned).

The official online demo is available to play here.

Elliot Quest is currently up on Steam’s Greenlight if you feel so inclined to vote for it.

Also, Zuno has put up a pledge on Indiegogo with the aim of raising $6,000. The packages go from $1 up to $1,400, and if you like what you see I would suggest going for the $8 package, as this includes a free copy of the game (Windows, Linux or Mac), the original soundtrack, and a PDF with drawn illustrations.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Rubberkid includes a series of nine mini-games split into three different game types. Ultimately though they all play like variations of Super Breakout, repelling the insults thrown by the bullies back at them. In some versions the bullies upon being hit will turn into good school children, and other modes play more like tower-defense games - holding off the insults until the timer runs out. Whether any of this teaches the child on the subject of bullying is up for debate. Regardless, it’s a simple gameplay mechanic that works for its audience in mind.

Visually and technically there is no reason it would struggle to find its way onto touchscreen devices. It’s not groundbreaking  but it works solidly enough. With that said, the gameplay is only part of the purpose here; it’s the message that needs to be discussed.

Each of the nine mini-games have a different scenario involving a child or children. You receive an explanation beforehand as to the reasoning behind why the child is being bullied. If you’re successful in preventing the taunting reaching the child, you are given two scenarios explaining what would happen to the child’s life; one scenario is a ‘happy ending’ and alternatively one is a ‘sad ending’.

Here is where the main issue with the game lies: It’s the inherent problem with tackling a subject like this to an audience of a young age with such a minimalistic approach of bullying = bad! Compliments = good! For example, Alan is bullied for being the chess club champion at school. If you are successful, Alan will become a great inventor and remove bullying from schools completely. If you fail, Alan will commit suicide. It’s completely black or white as you’re either Christ reborn or the reincarnation of Satan. Here the child will do some great thing for humanity as a whole, or will spend the rest of their life not fulfilling their potential – or much worse. There is no ‘absolute’ outcome in real life, and anyone who has been affected by bullying might feel that entire subject comes across as cartoonish, which I’m sure was not the intent of the developer.

Overall it is hard to recommend Rubberkid. As a light-hearted casual game for a child to play, there are better games out there. As a tool to educate your child on bullying, you’re probably better off talking to the child yourself. While I would say that video games have the potential to educate kids on weighty topics like bullying, that discussion – along with topics like racism and sexism – have a long way to go.

Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

The game is free to play on browser with the option to pay what you like. 

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

The new characters are Benjamin (who has a jetpack) and his father, Anna, plus a returning character from the original game. This all ties in as a prequel to main story of Thomas with twenty new levels – about a 5^th the size of the original game – and will be available as DLC. Danny Wallace – who received a BAFTA award for his role – returns as the narrator of the story for the new DLC as well.

The game will run at 60 fps and 1080p due to the work of Curve Studios, who took the task of porting the game over to the PlayStation systems. It looks fantastic, with Benjamin’s jetpack releasing a gorgeous smoke/particle effect as he flies across the stage.

The controls feel tight and anyone who played the original with the Xbox 360 controller will immediately grasp them. The same also goes for the Vita, with the game coming across like it was built for the handheld in mind.

I was fortunate enough to meet up with Mike last week to talk about Thomas – but also to talk about the indie development scene in general as well.

How important do you think it is that Sony is now looking at the indie gaming scene as a viable source for them?

Mike Bithell: It’s massive. We entered this generation a very different culture from what is now the case. Mid-sized teams made games, and every now and again a team of hundreds and hundreds of people would release a mega blockbuster AAA game. What’s happened over this generation is that the AAA games are still there – and they are making more money then they ever did – especially as more people buy the consoles and the market widens. So that’s still there, Call of Duty and Assassins Creed are doing very well. But that middle ground, those games made by 50-100 people have kind of fallen off, there’s not so many of them.

And what you are seeing is these indie games that are coming up, where say five years ago you had World of Goo, which was made by two people – and that was the norm. And so people like me saw that and thought, “I could give that a go”, and so we are in that second or third generation of indie games where people like me are trying this model. But we are also seeing the guys who made those older games like Edmund McMillen, who have a bit more money and are making bigger games, so they are growing up and becoming bigger companies. So within the indie space, it has taken up the space where the mid-sized teams used to be.

So what Sony have realized, is that while you are still going to be seeing your big AAA games, the indies are the people that could potentially be filling in the gaps throughout the rest of the year. We have an audience where we can fill in the space. Also indie games are performing very well on PC. Thomas was Alone – while no means the biggest success story – has still done surprisingly well, and that doesn’t go unnoticed. I just think the industry has changed.

Do you think there is a stronger relationship between indie developer and player – compared against the bigger companies?

MB: Well this is something that AAA tried. Cliffy B was a designer in a company and they thought, “We need a rock star. You’re good looking!” They tried to do this, and some have been successful to an extent; you’ve heard of Levine, Cliffy. With indie, that is kind of by default. And it seems to be working out that even if you are not likable you can still become notorious. And I do feel I have players that have a loyalty to me that they might not have with other games. You don’t go into a shop and buy Bioshock because you want to support them – you just buy it for the game, whereas that is the case a lot of the time in indie.

Do you see a point down the road where you will be finished with Thomas was Alone?

MB: I don’t know is the quick answer. With this PS3/Vita port, it was cool to go back and fiddle with new stuff. The game will probably keep selling for a bit more. There might be DLC at some point, or a sequel. For me though, I feel this is the definitive point of the game now. Adding much more to it would feel wrong and feel bloated.

One of the things I wanted to do from day one was running commentary. DLC was a cool way to fix a character I didn’t like in the original game, so I get to go back and re-write history for the character I originally wanted them to be.

I think it might be the ending point for it. Basically, if I do something else with it, it will just be to make it more awesome. But I’ve just gone indie. If I now go indie and start churning out sequels every year I’ve kind of missed the point. The new project I’m working on is completely different to Thomas. There are some links, but its new gameplay, new ways of telling stories, because I have the freedom to do that.

Compared to where both the indie and YouTube gaming community is from when Thomas was first released, will you be giving the game to many of the YouTube channels and letting them do the free advertising for you?

MB: There are people that I have an established relationship with. I’m lucky in that journalists, generally, seem to like me, so there are people that I can send stuff to. And I know that when the game is released they will tweet about it, because they know this is a small team and we need all the help we can get. But this is where Dave (ed – David Miller: Senior Marketing Manager at Bossa Studios) comes in.

David Miller: The great thing about being a hit already on steam, is that it falls into the category of being a game that if major publications didn’t get a chance to play it first time round – are now telling us how happy they are it’s coming to the PS3. So we know it’s going to be reviewed in all the majors and the Playstation press.

MB: It was a slow burner originally. And someone like Total Biscuit – who had an enormous effect on the game – he didn’t talk about the game until about six month after it had come out. So it slowly built up, but it’s at the point where lots of people will now be talking about it.

DM: It’s sort of the antidote to Activision releasing a game and throwing a massive party, with a load of Coronation Street actors there.

MB: I think Danny (ed – Danny Wallace: British filmmaker/presenter who narrates the game) has been on Coronation Street! I’m not sure he has, it’s the kind of thing he would have done. (ed – I looked this up – he hasn’t.).

 DM: When you find out about something that has grown organically, that’s been developed with love… We were discussing over lunch “what makes an indie studio/game?” And Mike had a nice way of putting it: that an indie game is a game someone wants to make and not a game someone is told to make, because it has to hit the line on a balance. And you go to a party for one of those big games – and it is a pretty soulless experience. But every once in a while you get a project like this and everyone gets behind it, and people want to write about it. And with Curve Studios behind it as well now, it’s even better.

MB: It’s definitely been weird for me. It’s something that was genuinely a hobby game for me and now I’m here doing this, and I don’t understand how it happened. And we’re hoping to win over a whole new crowd now. There’s a whole bunch of people who have never heard of this game, so I’m quite excited to see how this new audience will react to it.

Do you think that the PC audience is more accustomed to a game like Thomas and do you have any expectations about feedback/response from the Sony market?

MB: Well first of all, I’m very grateful that Journey exists. I think that Journey has brought in a whole new audience that before wouldn’t have played a game without guns in it.

Do you still have people say, “It is just rectangles”?

MB: Oh yeah, absolutely. I still get “I’m lazy”, “I’m an idiot”, but that all gets a lot easier as the game sells more copies – so I mind less and less. That’s such an arrogant thing to say (laughs).

I have my headline sorted.

MB: (laughs) Yeah, “the next Phil Fish.” I think that people are ready for it, and of course there will be people that are skeptical. But that’s where the coverage for it will help, and there’s a lot of goodwill that has been built up with the game. I would very much like to see the game do as well as it did on PC.  There has been some indie stuff on the Sony platform like Journey, Papa & Yo, and The Unfinished Swan, which may have made people more aware of the indie scene.

Perhaps that has made Sony more aware as well?

MB: It might have. I think Shahid (ed – Shahid Kamal Ahmad: Sony) was born loving indie games. But I think within Sony, it might have made Thomas an easier sell perhaps. I think console has taken a little bit longer – because it’s not as open a system, but I think people are getting use to the idea. Thomas is coming in at £6, and you know… has Danny Wallace.

Thomas Was Alone is released this Tuesday 23^rd April in America as part of the PS Store’s Spring Fever promotion for $9.99, and the following day in Europe for £5.99. You can also follow Mike on twitter.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

The game plays like an endless runner, but that’s just a presumption because the game is also pretty difficult. Even with a week or so of playing, it’s a genuine challenge to advance. Ball of Woe takes place in the skies. The only means of progression is by ascending squares of land, and each square passed amasses woe, which acts as the game’s currency. Woe can also be collected through treasure chests and knocking into certain non-playable characters along the way. Of course, there is also the option to pay real money as well.

For the most part, the controls work well. You have a general idea of where you want the ball to go. Tapping behind the ball will shift it forward, and tapping several times will increase the height and velocity the ball will travel. It takes a little time to master, and certain objects, which act as barriers, tend to get the ball stuck; but it works and the game never plays unfairly.

There is a lot to like about Ball of Woe; the story is interestingly executed, the game is fun and has a fair challenge, the visual design has a charming appeal yet has slight, subtle dark undertones, and overall the game feels like a solid product. At the same time, Ball of Woe has a few major issues that make it unappealing – and it’s mainly things outside the core gameplay. The game is all too happy to remind you every five minutes how much items cost and how far you are from having enough currency to purchase them. It notifies you constantly that extra woe can be sold for real money. It’s another case of developers completely missing the point of the in-app purchasing (IAP) system. Regardless of it being EA or a small development team like Doppler Interactive, the fact still remains: I don’t want to have your IAP’s shoved in my face.

Several practices that Ball of Woe uses can cause the player to grow weary. For instance, every time you fall off the side and start over, you are taken back to the inventory selection screen. It is annoying to not have the ability to restart instantly for two reasons: a) it breaks the flow of the game and b) it’s another constant reminder of how much that ball/puff ability is and how you can’t afford it yet. I feel the first point is rather important. It’s a game inherently designed to be challenging, but it’s hard to get any sense of flow or momentum going because of the time it takes to get between ending a run and starting back up again.

Ball of Woe is an enjoyable iOS game – just one that is marred by poor choices on how to implement in-app purchases correctly. Through gritted teeth, and only on the basis that the game is solid and has a such a lovely, unique IP, I’ll give the game 3/5. I hope the developers will tone down some of the IAP systems next time.

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

This game was reviewed using the iOS version.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

And it’s a shame to start the review off in such a negative way, because the execution works well and offers some level of fun gameplay. The tower defense section is your standard fare, but it’s executed solidly. Problem is, it can all get a little overwhelming when combined with the action shooting sections. If you compare it to something like FTLgame’s Faster Than Light, which blends tactical play with the general housekeeping of your ship, Straco simply doesn’t hold up as well when merging its two separate elements together.

The heads-up display (HUD) in Straco is an explosion of information that would have benefited from being trimmed down. Perhaps it’s just a personal preference, but the cluttered screen during gameplay is just an eyesore. And between the HUD and the chaos of the general gameplay, you have no idea where to look half the time.

Graphically Straco doesn’t stand out, but ironically that is what makes it different from other similar games. Many games on the XBLA Indie Marketplace try to go way above their level, which means either the gameplay suffers or the artwork looks out of place. Here, the sprites are clean and functional and the background is a patchwork of colours that represent sea, ground, forest and so on. The only shame is that the environment has no effect on your movement or abilities, whether you’re on foot or in the giant mechanical machine. This renders the change of colours more or less useless, but at least it’s better than a 100×100 grid of grey.

It’s understandable that games created by small teams, one or two people will multitask between programming, art, and audio. But that doesn’t excuse how poor and misplaced the soundtrack for this game is. It honestly might have been better to avoid using music altogether and take the Desert Strike route – especially with the helicopter sections.

Straco is by no means a bad game, but it just suffers from trying to spin too many plates at once. The minefield that is the tutorials and controls will turn off many players before they even get halfway through the first mission. And with Straco planned as the first of a series of episodic games, it will be difficult to see each episode garnering any new players. Straco has potential, it just needs major fine-tuning to realise any of that potential.

Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Created by a small Columbian app developer wOzy, TicToe Fury introduces a nine-square grid that turns the original game into tactical warfare. You start off and place a nought (or cross) on any of the eighty one squares available at the beginning, depending on which square you pick on a single nine-square quadrant, will correspond on which quadrant will be available on the next turn to the other player. So for example, if you pick the top-left square, on the next turn the opponent will pick a square from the top-left quadrant; thus you need to be two steps ahead on not only one game of tic-tac-toe, but eight others as well.

It ends up being a challenging and at times infuriating experience. The AI is no slouch and you will learn fast if you rush, you will be punished. Along with the single player option is multiplayer, split into two different modes: multiplayer and online multiplayer, with the former mode being a pass-and-play style mechanic. The controls are simple and functional even on iPhone, so I would presume they work just as well and even more conveniently on an iPad. The presentation is clean and everything looks about as well as Tic-Tac-Toe on an iPhone can look.wOzy seem very high on their creation and have already made one recent update, probably with several others to add various tweaks here and there along the way.

With recognisable games like Scrabble (Words with Friends) and Pictionary (Draw Something) becoming huge hits, it doesn’t come as a surprise to see developers trying to replicate the same success with different childhood games. TicToe Fury is a success from a functional perspective and is a good challenging experience, but it does suffer from perhaps not being as casual-friendly as the previous games mentioned. I can’t imagine from a line-up of those games, that TicToe Fury would ever be the first choice, and that has nothing to do with the game developed – just the game it was developed from.

TicToe Fury can be purchased from the app store here.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

The puzzle element of the game is a genuinely interesting idea and the strong point of the game. Your protagonist must use their imagination to build a bridge, connecting each node with how many corresponding lines are needed depending on the markers on each node. This, however, has two major flaws. Firstly, the controls are fiddly and makes the most taxing affair of the puzzle actually getting between each node and selecting to build or delete the bridge; secondly, and this applies for the game in general, you are left to your own devices to some extent to figure out the mechanics, because the game does a poor job of explaining what needs to be achieved. The second issue coincides with the platforming side of the game and is one of many, many issues that turn a promising indie game into an infuriating experience.

You need to build bridges with your imagination to progress further.

Let’s turn to one of the worst games ever released for a major console; The Wizard of Oz (Snes 1993), which is an abhorrent game that highlights the two big no-no’s you must consider when making a platformer. Firstly, if you have a platform to jump towards and you land on the corner of said platform but fall through to your death – you have a bad platform game; secondly, if you fill the screen with small platforms but fail to tell the player that a number of areas to land on are actually fake traps – you have a bad platform game.

Now to Mega Man 2, which is an example of a good platforming game that highlights how to explain to your player that a potentially lethal trap is coming up ahead. It carefully shows, even with a subtle hint, that a trap is imminent. For example, in stage 3 of Dr Wily’s castle, the player will encounter invisible platforms like the ones found in Sententia, but the first one you fall through is only back to the floor below, meaning the player is not cheated out of a life and they now know to be careful. Now, in Sententia you have unlimited lives, so a cheap first death does not have as many potential issues that exist in Mega Man 2, but that only serves to purpose lazy game design and thus it is inexcusable.

Look easy? It isn’t.

In twenty years or so of playing any of the 2D side scrolling versions of the Super Mario Bros series have you ever felt that you died because of poor controls? It is probably only a handful of times, even if that, because the games give you full control over every jump. So death only comes at the hands of tricky platforming and well thought out game design. Sententia has neither of these things and death usually comes in the form of terrible controls or unfair enemy placement – which brings us onto combat.

There is only one mechanic for combat in the game, which comes in the form of projecting words from the avatar’s mouth towards an enemy, who in return fire back at you. It creates a unique visual that flows along nicely with the art style of the game as a whole, but the mechanic creates a level of annoyance by not giving you the ability to shoot while jumping in the air and the enemy placement at times demands the need for such ability – it just adds to the non-stop frustration. It does not even end there, because even when you kill an enemy the damn thing will respawn almost instantly, utterly defeating the purpose of having any form of combat in the first place. Getting through any screen on the game feels nothing short of a chore.

Ultimately there is small reward to be attained from playing Sententia; which is a shame, because the concept behind it is interesting. The art style is unique, albeit the animation needs refinement, and the puzzle mechanics have potential, but it is all hidden behind a mess of poor game design on even the most basic of levels.

Overall Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ 

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose. 

Additional Sententia coverage:

Review on theXBLIG.com

Review on Clearance Bin Review

Review on Indie Gamer Chick

Review on Indie Theory

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.