[RETRO] Ninja Smoke (by Mongapop)

[The Son of Anarchy]

Originally Posted by Exact-Psience

I see hands for promo codes, but no impressions yet.

^^My thoughts exactly, impressions please...

[ombaudsman]

Well, to align expectations, let me give my impressions! After all, we created the game because I was unable to find a port at the app store.

1) This game was originally created in early 80s I think to be played in a text only environment. Here's the story about the original: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots_%28BSD_game%29

2) I remember trying that on UNIX but we got the idea after seeing this MSXDEV entry: http://msxdev.msxblue.com/?p=1139 . BTW, MSX dev is a 8-bit vintage computer game competition organized by MRC: www.msx.org. MSX is a 8bit computer created by Microsoft and ASCII corporation Japan

3) Gameplay is really simple. You control a tiny player which can only move horizontally and vertically. Enemies (robots) can move also in diagonals.
4) Game is turn-based, which mean that enemies only move when you move.
5) Enemies are always moving in your direction and they try to collide with you. If that happens, you die.
6) Objective is simple, to destroy all enemies. How can you do that? By making robots collide with each other (what produces a static scrap on the position they collided) or, by making robots collide with one of those static scrap piles. Robots are dummy. They cannot deviate scraps neither other robots.
7) After some turns, you might be in a position without way out. Surrounded by robots, so, you need to use the Ninja Smoke.
8) You have unlimited "unsafe smokes" which teleport you to a random location and you can die if you're teleported to a robot or to a scrap pile
9) and you have a limited number of safe smokes which always teleport you to an empty slot
10) Every stage you win, you get more safe smokes and a lot of points
11) Every move you make, you lose points
12) And, to add more "fun" to the game, you might try to get the fruits. One of the strategies is to leave a single robot and try to get as much fruits as possible. But you need to make sure not to spend too many moves to get them. Otherwise you lose more points than the bonus.

So, to me, it's a really simple principle that can became really challenging on later levels. How long can you save the safe smokes? How though it is to move when you have a lot of robots, but, at the same time, it's easier to make them collide and etc...

So, that's the story of the game...

*PS* It's not angry birds! Neither Real Racing 2!

[ombaudsman]

Oh, and BTW, new free codes are still available, but only after some impressions!

[Seiza616]

Thanks for the promo code.

General impressions....I really appreciate the retro visuals and the control scheme is easy to grasp and fairly responsive. The sound seemed to be appropriate for a title such as this.

In all fairness, I have only played a few rounds but I see how the gameplay could become a bit repetitive. I think more variety would help this title immensely (new game modes, unlockables, etc.) These things would give gamers more incentive to keep playing other than to register a high score.

It sounds from prior posts that this a port of an older game which is fine. However, adding new things would encourage new and old fans of the game to purchase it on ios because of something "different". You can see that formula at work all over the app store.

I hope this helps.

[ducksFANjason]

I'd love a promo code if you don't mind! If you do, I'll be glad to post impressions quickly.

[ombaudsman]

Promo code sent to ducksFANjason! Quick impressions expected!

[J.R. Jalapeno]

It's not a bad start but it needs more. Maybe powerups, different enemies. It would be cool to get a weapon powerup where you could go on the offensive or something.

[ombaudsman]

Originally Posted by J.R. Jalapeno

It's not a bad start but it needs more. Maybe powerups, different enemies. It would be cool to get a weapon powerup where you could go on the offensive or something.

Well, I was considering creating something like Deep Dungeon.
It's a game created by a friend of mine, also for MSX. But this one won the 2008 edition I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1hToQu3sqE

But that would be a different game I suppose...

[homieson]

Promo code? :-)

[ducksFANjason]

Pretty fun little game! Definitely a high-score chaser type of game, so if you're one of those people who enjoy that sort of thing, you'll find some fun here. I agree that it could use a little more, but it's a great start. 2 suggestions I'd like to make right off the bat are to implement a pause function and an auto-save function for when the game gets interrupted by real life. Would be a shame to kill an awesome high-score run just because someone called through. I look forward to seeing where you go with this!