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Playing Old Shit #1 - No One Can Stop Mr Domino (PSX)
iguanaDitty
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Playing Old Shit #1 - No One Can Stop Mr Domino (PSX)
Playing Old Shit - in which I look at games someone, somewhere has put on a "recommended" or "underappreciated" thread.
Summary: Great potential + one really annoying gameplay element + poor domino skillz
The idea - You are Mr Domino, a cute little domino with legs. You are running around a track, trying to lay dominos in such a fashion that when you run around again and set them off they will land on certain buttons and cause tricks to occur - cards or other dominos to fall over for example. If you are clever and set up your dominos correctly you can have one trick's effects trigger the next row of dominos you've laid which will trigger the next trick, etc. There's a couple hitches - you're always moving forward, except when you run into obstacles or enemies, and the level is timed. This is no doubt an unexplored area - the action domino puzzler - and the quirk potential here is great.
Unfortunately it's let down by a couple factors. The biggest is a combination. First, as mentioned the level is timed, and you have to get all the tricks before the (somewhat restrictive) timer runs down. But that wouldn't be a big deal except for the FREAKING RESET BUTTON which resets everything you've done in the entire level - tricks, dominoes laid, etc - but not the timer. And the worst part is, it's extremely easy to run into! It's right there on the 3-spaces-wide track, and the little guy is not extremely easy to control (even on Slow), so if you're me with not the best action reflex skills on the planet, you run into it 4 or 5 tries in succession. Now, I'm sure the need to reset would pop up for expert or even better-than-novice players, but is there really something wrong with a menu option? Or a reset credit you could accumulate and then reset if the need came up? Or anything else? I'm sure someone out there will say "well really you just need to put a little time into the game and practice with it" and to them I say: the reset button, as implemented, is a Bad Idea. The control is not tight enough to make me feel that with a little more practice I could get it.
In addition, I'm all for eliminating needless/mandatory tutorials, but this game is unusual enough that it really would have benefited from one. Or at least some introductory, easier levels (which, admittedly, the first one was probably supposed to be).
Now, I eventually managed to pull of a couple tricks and even got a chain once or twice, which was pretty cool. The control isn't bad, just a little awkward to get used to. And I'm sure I'm missing many more cool parts of the game which, y'know, I never got to see. So if you've got better skillz than I and enjoy dominos and quirk, it's worth a look. As for me, it gets back on the trade list for Goozex. And all because of an unfortunate implementation.
Playing Old Shit - in which I look at games someone, somewhere has put on a "recommended" or "underappreciated" thread.
Summary: Great potential + one really annoying gameplay element + poor domino skillz
The idea - You are Mr Domino, a cute little domino with legs. You are running around a track, trying to lay dominos in such a fashion that when you run around again and set them off they will land on certain buttons and cause tricks to occur - cards or other dominos to fall over for example. If you are clever and set up your dominos correctly you can have one trick's effects trigger the next row of dominos you've laid which will trigger the next trick, etc. There's a couple hitches - you're always moving forward, except when you run into obstacles or enemies, and the level is timed. This is no doubt an unexplored area - the action domino puzzler - and the quirk potential here is great.
Unfortunately it's let down by a couple factors. The biggest is a combination. First, as mentioned the level is timed, and you have to get all the tricks before the (somewhat restrictive) timer runs down. But that wouldn't be a big deal except for the FREAKING RESET BUTTON which resets everything you've done in the entire level - tricks, dominoes laid, etc - but not the timer. And the worst part is, it's extremely easy to run into! It's right there on the 3-spaces-wide track, and the little guy is not extremely easy to control (even on Slow), so if you're me with not the best action reflex skills on the planet, you run into it 4 or 5 tries in succession. Now, I'm sure the need to reset would pop up for expert or even better-than-novice players, but is there really something wrong with a menu option? Or a reset credit you could accumulate and then reset if the need came up? Or anything else? I'm sure someone out there will say "well really you just need to put a little time into the game and practice with it" and to them I say: the reset button, as implemented, is a Bad Idea. The control is not tight enough to make me feel that with a little more practice I could get it.
In addition, I'm all for eliminating needless/mandatory tutorials, but this game is unusual enough that it really would have benefited from one. Or at least some introductory, easier levels (which, admittedly, the first one was probably supposed to be).
Now, I eventually managed to pull of a couple tricks and even got a chain once or twice, which was pretty cool. The control isn't bad, just a little awkward to get used to. And I'm sure I'm missing many more cool parts of the game which, y'know, I never got to see. So if you've got better skillz than I and enjoy dominos and quirk, it's worth a look. As for me, it gets back on the trade list for Goozex. And all because of an unfortunate implementation.
iguanaDitty on
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