A DOZEN GAMES IN ONE
A Review of Space Dude
by Mark Woon
It's really hard to know what to expect from a game with a name like
Space Dude. While ads from FormGen bill it as something of an
"interactive animated motion picture where you control the action", it
is really a loop of mini games glued together by cut scenes. This
loop continues until you've achieved the objective. As for the mini
games, they take one of two forms: they're either of the shoot'em-up
variety, or an avoid-the-obstacles kind of scenario.
What's the story, you ask? The evil King Dorf has kidnapped the
princess and his mechanical Hopper Attack Force are attacking the
Golden City. It's up to you to help Space Dude (a guy not unlike a
Mr. Potato Head on a surf board) save them both. You can do this in
three ways. Building defensive bases from which to keep the Hoppers
at bay, confronting the Hoppers directly, or taking the fight to the
big boss himself, King Dorf. The game ends when you finally succeed
in defeating King Dorf.
Whatever action you decide to take, you have to travel to your
destination point. During this time, you'll enter an "interactive
sequence" where you usually have to avoid the obstacles King Dorf or
Mother Nature may have set against you. Once you've arrived, you
enter into another "interactive sequence" where you have to destroy
the bad guys in whatever shape or form they take. Since there are
about a dozen variations of both types of "interactive sequences",
gameplay appears to be very dynamic. Thus, you will get to play
different interactive sequences even if you try to perform the same
action repeatedly.
Graphics-wise, there's nothing spectacular about Space Dude.
There are a couple good cut scenes, but in general, the graphics in
the game are a little too pixelated for my tastes. It felt more like
a shareware game than a commercial game, if you know what I mean.
Support for higher resolution would have helped. After a while, I
found myself switching off the cut scenes altogether so that I could
concentrate on playing the game. The "story" that these cut scenes
ostensibly divulge is unnecessary.
In addition, gamers who have invested in a good sound card will be disappointed. There is no music (or at least, I couldn't get any music out of it), and sound effects are sporadic, covering the usual stuff: gun shots, shouts, grunts, moans, and the occasional squawking bird.
With that in mind, I still found the game interesting. It takes a
while to get used the controls and figure out what's required in each
scenario, especially since the manual isn't too helpful. Once you get
the hang of it though, it is a lot of fun to play. Would I recommend
Space Dude to anyone? For kids, definitely, absotively,
posilutely, yes! They should have a blast once they figure out what
to do. For others, however, I think you could better spend your money
elsewhere.
Gamer's Zone Scorecard
| Product: |
Space Dude |
| Company: |
FormGen, Inc
|
| Cost: |
$39.95 |
System Requirements:
486 or higher, 500K RAM, VGA 256 color Graphics, CD-ROM Drive, Sound Blaster, Pro-Audio or equivalent card, and MS-DOS 3.0 or Higher.
Breakdown:
Fun Factor 4
Graphics 3
Sound 2
Interface 3
Replayability 3
Overall Score:
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