Another week another pair of games ready to be reviewed! That’s right more indie games and they’re all goooooooood!! This week it’s Capsized and Critical Mass, a Platformer-Shooter and a classic Puzzle game! Jump in!

CRITICAL MASS

Critical Mass, over the years puzzle games became more and more intricate the complexity no longer goes through the graphical aspect or engines. Today’s gaming industry and particularly indie games are all about innovative gameplay.

Critical Mass at first glance is a Rubik Cube look alike…until we are given extra pieces to add onto that cube, so basically you must place these pieces around the cube (that rotates in every single axis) to group them by color  (4 or more) and make them disappear before the camera zooms all the way in reaching…Critical Mass.

While that appears to be simple enough the game gets more and more complicated, rotating the cube fast in every single direction trying to find the color that you need and dealing with the zooming camera and checking the score counter to launch the multiplier to  do some points. All in all a good puzzle game that will get you through a dead time in the workplace or the the location you choose to play it.

Overall Score: 7 (A good puzzle game that works great but will strain some old machines, fun, challenging and colorful)

CAPSIZED

This one it’s the real deal for the week, not that Critical Mass was bad, but this game innovates in an over-populated genre like platformers and side scrolling shooters.  Capsized is a great game, the graphic style is awkward and we’re definitely not used to these kind of illustrations in a modern shooter but somehow they work flawlessly and the entire game is flooded with a Moebius-like sensation.

The music, the ambiance, everything makes us think about being on an unknown planet, afraid to take the next step or scared of turning the flashlight on. Achieving this kind of atmosphere in a side scrolling shooter is a HARD THING to do.

The controls on the other hand are not nearly as good as they could be, they’re sometimes unresponsive and if you play with a joystick oh my god, the amount of ammo you’ll be missing could turn the tide of WWII into the Axis side. The jumping system is clumsy and from time to time you just won’t know how the hell you are dragging something with your gravity hook, it’s just, jumping and running around ’till it finally gives in.

The enemies can be tough, I mean REALLY tough, this is a good thing if you consider the fact that the game focuses on survival and stuff like that it’s a positive point…but the difficulty can be overwhelming from time to time.

All in all CAPSIZED is an entertaining game that mixes an underused style for a overused genre, a really good mix that will definitely bring joy to the fans of the genre

Overall Score: 8.5 (hard an unresponsive from time to time, everything else, freaking great!)

See you guys next week with more indie reviews!!

@Greenmousa, out!