Roar Rampage

When I first started the game, many of the levels were extremely easy, but before I knew it the levels were increasingly becoming very difficult. I thought that the difficulty ramp was very sharp, where one level, you may breeze though, but the next you’ll struggle through for many tries. With the game’s difficult to master controls, especially where in the later levels a slip-up can mean your death, the game becomes even more challenging, but for the most part, in a frustrating manner. While, I generally love difficult games, this one seemed to have both a sharp rise in difficulty and some levels seemed to rely too much on the random chance of a health-pack or two. Overall, I’m mixed with the difficulty, some of the levels were easier, even later in the game, and some seemed to be unleveled with how much health you actually had.

The ability to smash through buildings was the first thing that really caught my eye with this game. It was satisfying and fun, but the controls are what really ruined the experience. At first I liked the controls, you could pull the mouse back and then jut it forward to deliver a most powerful punch, but later in the game, due to the bad mechanics, joints, and the often small distance between you and the buildings this made the game especially difficult and let you exposed to attacks for a good amount of time before you could even break through the building or kill the enemies. What I did like about the game though were the power-ups and the neat effects that they would have on the buildings. When you could actually beat one of the later levels, it was quiet rewarding, but I still felt that there were some actual errors in the gameplay that lead to more frustrations than actually fun gameplay elements. Overall, while the controls were fun to play and experiment with in the beginning of the game, later on they became and annoyance and often you couldn’t get in strong enough punches to keep you alive.

Roar Rampage

I really admired the artwork. This is one of the few features of the game that I can say was all-round perfect. I love pixel art and this game was entirely made of it. The dinosaur looked amazing and was well animated. I loved the little additions such as the spikes on the back and the boxing gloves that seemed to really bring the piece together and incorporate the theme of the game. The buildings looked fantastic and the background was great as well. I liked the addition of the background moving up or down depending on where your mouse was. This added a bit of depth. Overall, the artwork is the best part of the game for me, it looks fantastic and is well animated.

I also really enjoyed the music. It had an energetic, but dark feeling to it, that I thought worked well with the premise of the game and also the nighttime atmosphere. The sound effects also sounded great and worked well with the game and fit in  quite well. Overall, the music and sound effects played a crucial role in the game and sounded great.

All in all, Roar Rampage is a fantastic arcade game, but i couldn’t help feeling that with a little touching up that it could have been much better. In terms of gameplay, I loved it, the game had a really great idea, but the game would have been much better if it was more zoomed out, giving you more space to swing and charge your punches, and would also give some room for creative level design. The game eventually become extremely difficult and this was because, while the amount of health points in the beginning of the game worked well, it later spelled trouble in more challenging levels. The graphics were wonderful and I loved the design of the dinosaur and the building. The music was also a good choice, it carried both the feeling of action, mystery and darkness, that I felt incorporated into the game well. Overall, if you’re looking for an awesome game to keep you busy for a while, then fire up Roar Rampage! Be sure to play it today on Armor Games!

Play Roar Rampage on Armor Games!

Turbo Kids

One of my only problems with the game is that every level, each time you start it up, or hit the retry button, the level is randomly generated. I don’t like this because the developer looses control over how difficult the level design of each level is and some earlier levels can be more difficult that later ones giving a very unbalanced difficulty ramp. Many of the levels seemed much the same and most of the races could be won on your first attempt. What I would have liked to see is a bit more control in the level design and later levels being more difficult and trickier to navigate. I realize that most running games are randomized, but they also have a fair difficulty ramp that continues throughout the character’s existence, unlike Turbo Kids. Overall, a bit more control in the level design would have been great hopefully, making some of the later levels more challenging.

Many running games are based around the idea of trying to survive for as long as you can. Instead, Turbo Kids goes in a different direction and breaks the game up into different levels. This is an interesting take on the genre and is something that I haven’t seen before – it also helps that the genre consists of only a few games. I liked this set-up, because it gave you something to strive towards and kept me playing longer than if it was just survival, or the marathon mode. I also liked the ability to be able to affect the other runners. The other running games, which have includes enemies don’t allow you to do this, and being able to toss a snowball at them and slow them down, or fire a rocket at them spiced up the game and made it unique. The power-ups, picked up while running were also unique and gave advantages to people who used them and set back others who skipped or missed them. Overall, the gameplay was unlike any other running game that I’ve played and definitely ranks high for me in its genre.

Turbo Kids

The game was very pixel-art oriented and feature beautiful art. The scenery is of winter, with snow and ice, low-lying fog and mountains in the distance. To me, this created a beautiful scene. The game holds a primarily blue color to top off the winter feel and the background, with bold, dark, blues, drawing depths of forest and rolling hills. My only problem with the art aspect of the game, was that far in the distance there are a few hills that appear pure white and light grays. Its a really sharp contrast to the rest of the scene and even things in front of it are dimmed out, which I thought these mountains should be as well. Besides that issue, I thought that the artwork was executed perfectly and looked amazing.

I really liked the music as well. It was calming and very upbeat. I thought that it fit the artistic style of the game and the, mostly, bright colors that accompanied the game. It also paced well with the speed of the game. One of the interesting points about Turbo Kids was that there were a few announcer sound effects, where in the beginning of the game the announcer would say something along the lines of “Start your engines!” and would continue by announcing short tidbits, such as combos and remarking reactions of the crowd. This reinforced the idea of a competition and was also a neat feature. Overall, the music worked very well with the game and I thoughts that the sound effects in place, especially the announcer added more to the game and gave more depth the idea of a competition.

All in all, Turbo Kids is an exciting, fast-paced game that brings the running genre to a whole new level. If you liked games like Canabalt or Ninja Run (also by YailenkoGames) then you’ll love Turbo Kids as it continues the idea of the running genre, but also takes its own unique spin with power-ups and individual levels. In review, the game wasn’t too difficulty, which I was disappointed to find. Many of the levels were much like one another and there was virtually no difficulty ramp. With a bit of tuning and more controlled level design for each level this game could be more challenging. The gameplay was something that i did not expect. I loved the addition of various power-ups as you progressed through the game. The gameplay is where Turbo Kids really sets itself apart from all other running games that I’ve come across. Another big plus for me was the artwork. It featured detailed pixel art and created a wonderful winter scene. Finally, the music was spot-on and the announcer was a nice touch to this game. Overall, Turbo Kids is one of the best running games that I’ve come across so far! Be sure to check it out today on Kongregate!

Play Turbo Kids on Kongregate!

Achievement Unlocked 3 Guide

Play Infectonator 2 on Armor Games!

Play The Ice Temple on Armor Games!

This guide still has a lot of work to be done, so I’ll be continuously updating it until it’s more complete. I’m trying to get a glossary of all of the weapons, armors, et cetera, right now from the developer (which he may or may not have). Hopefully, that’ll be up soon and should be not only a neat addition, but will let you know what the best weapons and armors are.

Suggested Parties

What’s the best party for you? Leaving a comment below and I’ll update the post with your party.

By DeAimon

DeAmimon posted a really great guide for this party. You can read it here. This is one of the most in-depth guides for Monsters’ Den Chronicles, so it’ll be a definitely help, and provide you with an awesome party.
By Brian

Comment:

“I liked your build for sustainability, but I tweaked it a bit. Instead, I’m using both Cleric and both Rangers. At one point, both rangers get the “Swiftness” skill which is an active skill that increases a party member’s quickness by 15. You can use Swiftness on your Rangers first and then use it on your Clerics for an entirely swift party. In addition to both Clerics’ healing ability, both Rangers can get Herbal Remedy which is another healing skill!”

By Mike

Specific Set-Up:
Confessor – Front Line: Center

Captain – Front Line: Left or Right

Thief – Front Line: Left or Right

Warden – Secondary Line: Center

Comment:

“I went with the Captain, Confessor, Thief, and Warden. The warden’s in the back and I have the rest all in the front. I put the confessor in the middle of the formation so they all get radiance. The thief is set to opportunist so that he gets a bunch of free half-turns to finish off enemies.

The warden and thief are my main damage dealers, with my captain for utility and my confessor for healing. My frontline is pretty tanky, especially with buffs like Hold the Line and debuffs like Holy Light making it so that if my party does get hit, it’s reduced by quite a bit.

Thorns is also pretty useful, if an enemy uses a skill that hits more than one person then they’ll usually take a ton of damage. And both my confessor and warden have ressurrection skills so that in the off chance I lose either one, I can revive the other.”

Guidology

After playing the game a bit I realized the immediate need to heal members during combat, instead of relying on Restoration Shrines. I decided to go with a party that would be able to sustain itself, being able to take a lot of damage, heal themselves overtime and deal a fair amount of damage themselves. What’s great about this group is that all of the party members have the ability to heal one another (except for the Conjuror) and all of them deal a fairly good amount of damage. Obviously, the two clerics should be placed in the front line and the mage and ranger should take defense behind the clerics. With the clerics Radiance ability all of the party members are constantly being healed. The ranger’s Nature Balm also provides strong regeneration healing over time.

The Confessor will be able to take care of himself. He has high armor ratings and in the beginning of the game is given a war-hammer that destroy anything in its way. I decided to have the Confessor specialize in taking and dealing large amount of damage, while my other cleric, the Inquisitor would have strong healing abilities. The Inquistitor also has high defense and can deal a fair amount of damage. The ranger will be able to start off the battle for you most of the time and deals a fair amount of damage. His Nature’s Balm and other healing spells will keep the party healthy and his piece attack will be useful in the beginning of the game. Finally, the party is reinforced with a mage. Some enemies will be harder to kill physically. The mage can deal large amount of damage to any enemy.

For skills, make sure both clerics gain the Resurrect skill early on. Along with a resurrection and a couple of healing spells, a defeating ally will soon be back in the game.

For me, this is the best party I’ve found and I’m confident that it’ll get me to the end of the game.

General Tips

Have a tip? Leave a comment below and contribute to this guide!

1) Stuck at a certain part of the game? At any time you can quit a quest (by going to the main entrance) and you can restart the quest. If you choose the same characters, they will contain the same stats and equipment that you had when you quit. This is useful in the beginning of the game, but probably shouldn’t be used, unless entirely necessary, if you’re deep in the dungeon. If you start a new quest with the same characters all of the enemies will be leveled to your characters so that you can begin to level-up and receive new equipment before getting to the point you were stuck at.

2) Want to breeze through the game regardless of what difficulty setting you’re on? If you keep some of your party members at a low level (levels 1, 2, et cetera) then enemies on new floors will spawn a lower levels regardless of how high a level your strongest party member may be. This allows you practically kill anything in one hit later in the game, utilizing only one or two of your party members. Only use this method if you want to kill the entire integrity of the game and want to be able to brag about how you beat the entire game with a bunch of level 1 party members. This is an odd, round-about way of completing the game, that I hope the developer fixes in future updates, and probably will fix.

Reich of Darkness

Reich of Darkness offers three different difficulty levels per stage. Of course those being Easy, Medium and Hard. It usually easiest to stick to easy mode and then work your way up through the difficulties, so that you know the map better and know strategic points in the battlefield. Most of the levels I got through with little trouble, as I could get most of the upgrades before reaching Scandinavia and all of the best units in the game were quickly available in my roster. Some levels were extremely difficult, such as the last level in Scandinavia, in which several enemy heroes entered the battlefield, before you could even send out your first hero or rack up enough troops. Many of my troops were very efficient, being able to kill their Allied counterparts with ease. Overall, the difficulty of the game was balanced pretty well and even if your going the “easy” mode path your still going to find a couple, or so, levels challenging.

The gameplay was much like their recent launch Necronator 2. You’d pick a unit that you want to train then fight for you and then it would move on it’s predetermined path encountered enemies along the way. This made the game very simple to play, but didn’t seem to give you much control over your units. Even though you can turn off the “Auto Move” function, the game moves at a pace where is is hard to control your units manually. What I really liked about the game was the level design. When I first started the game, the first battlefield was just a straight line with a few buildings here and there. I began to think it was a cheap re-skin of their popular game Necronator, but later levels began to surprise me as battles took place both outside, in the streets, with many buildings and turret positions, and inside buildings with extremely close-quarter fighting. Overall, the game was very fun to play and the level design kept me playing, wanting to see the different terrains to fight in and the wonderful pixel art.

Reich of Darkness

Reich of Darkness, like many TogeProduction games is heavily pixel art based. The game did change it up a bit with non-pixel-art drawn characters before and after battles which all looked really fantastic. The pixel art is what kept me so hooked to the game. It is simply some of the most beautiful pixel art that you’ll see featured in a game. The art is actually done by a five person “Art and Animation Team” as listed in the credits. A big congrats to all of them for making one of the best-looking games of 2012. My only problem with the game was that, while most of the art was new, a few sprites got left-over such as the stat icons and the overall design of the game. I couldn’t help feeling that I’ve seen all of this before and it felt a little cheap, especially when the rest of the game features new art. Overall, the art is definitely the high-point in this game for me. It captures the destroyed world of war and delivers a game that is very appealing.

I thought that the battle music was perfect. It contained the sense of war, excitement, anticipation, heroism and action. It seemed almost up-beat and fit the military aspect of the game well in my opinion. I really enjoyed the music. With the great music and the sound effects this game delivered the perfect sense of war. I liked the variety of sound effects as well. Most games would leave out small speaking roles, but this game includes quite a few and this adds even more to the frantic chaos that is war. Overall, the music was really good and it seemed to reinforce the concept of war.

All in all, Reich of Darkness is one of the best games that I played this year. I you’re looking for a game that’ll challenge you and make you think quickly then look no further than Reich of Darkness. It’s a creative game that takes history into another dimension. According to TogeProductions another campaign should soon be available, making a great game even better. I’m really looking forward to it and know that I’ll be back the first day the new campaign comes out to play it. In review, the game’s difficulty seemed perfect. I got stuck a couple of times, but it’s nothing that a little leveling up a couple of units and purchasing of upgrades can’t fix. The gameplay seemed a lot like Toge’s recent games (, but as long as they keep coming back with entertaining concepts of the same gameplay (and TogeProductions keeps turing them into hit games scoring over 8.0 with every release) I have a feeling we’ll be seeing this same gameplay for a while. The art was something that I thought was a big plus for this game. It was essentially, what I consider to be some really impressive pixel art and is definitely the most beautiful game I’ve played this year. Finally, the music was perfect for this game as it contained all of the emotions of what all war-music. In conclusion, Reich of Darkness is one of the best games I’ve played in a long time. If you’ve liked Toge’s games, then you won’t want to miss out on Reich of Darkness! Be sure to play it today on Armor Games!

Play Reich of Darkness on Armor Games!

Super Pig

The developer proclaims that this is the hardest game of 2012 so far, boasting stats of rage-quits in the game and number of deaths in each level. This all makes up for a very intimidating atmosphere, but once you begin playing the game it doesn’t necessarily live up to be the most challenging game of 2012, but it is up there. Mainly the game is just based on shear luck (on whether you can make it to the end in only one or two lives) and most of the time you just have to kill Super Pig repeatably until you carve a nice path to Super Pig’s girl. If anything, this is basically a memory game. You can spend most of your lives trying to light up the screen and then dedicate your last couple to finding your way. Once you’ve lost enough lives you likely have the experience necessary to know exactly how to beat the level and hitting the retry button and completing the level becomes extremely easy.

The gameplay was what I thought to be the biggest plus. The game took the platformer genre and then turned it upside-down. Instead of trying to survive and save all of your lives, you’ll want to die occasional to light the way for your future lives. This is an interesting concept and is definitely something that I haven’t seen done before. What I didn’t like about the game though is that it was more memory based than anything else. It wasn’t necessarily skilled based, or reaction-based, but simply you had to know where you were going. This made most of the levels extremely repetitive and slow, as you found yourself dying at every corner. Of course this is how the game is meant to be played, but maybe some additional features, like some sort of flashlight or emitter could be a power-up where you could see the area around you briefly, just to make the game rely a little more on skill instead of shear luck and memory.

Super Pig

The art was something that, while it didn’t necessarily need to be done extremely well, was still done effectively and attractively. What really caught my eye when I first started to play the game was that when the pig died that blood flew everywhere. It was a really neat animation and when it landed on a surface it kind of splattered again and created a neat texture on the spikes and platforms. Lastly, the characters were nicely done, but I couldn’t help feeling that the pigs looked a little weird. I can see why they would be scrunched up, but to some degree it looks a little too scrunched and the tail on Super Pig looked way too high. Besides those two things, the rest of the artwork was really great and I loved the simple style.

The game featured a really neat soundtrack. It seemed to fit the arcade style very well and the fast-paced movement of the game. The splatter sound effect was also pretty good and worked with the music well, not blaring over, or being too quiet to hear. Overall, the music was very good and fit with the game perfectly.

Overall, Super Pig is a very unique platformer. Anyone that wants to try out a new platformer with a twist will want to play Super Pig. In review, the game isn’t too challenging, but the difficulty is more based on memory than anything else. The gameplay is unique and is something that I haven’t seen before. It was a very good idea, but I thought that the execution could be more skill based. The artwork was really simply, but it worked really well and I enjoyed it. I did think, however, that the game looked better without the static. Finally, the music was really good and worked perfectly with the game. All in all, Super Pig is a game that you have to play at least once, as it offers a unique experience that few games deliver. Be sure to play Super Pig today on Kongregate!

Burrito Bison Revenge

Like most launcher games, the difficulty isn’t really there. Most of the time you can just launch Burrito Bison and then come back to the game in a minute or so to see him finally come to a stop. Usually you can do this and get around the same distance than if you were to actually participate in the game and you get around the same money count. The difficulty doesn’t really seem to change throughout the game, although, more police are added as you continue through Candy Land and get ever closer to his wallet. I would have liked to see a bit more interactivity, such as in Toss the Turtle, you can actually begin to move the turtle in the air slightly left or right. This would definitely help score more hit with special gummy bears, avoid police and would make the game a bit more skill-based and less luck-based.

The game is tedious, and the prices of various equipment and upgrades is set high as to make this game drag out for hours on end. For me, the game is a bit too long with too little differentiation between different parts of the game. Much like the original Burrito Bison your goal is to make it to the end of Candy Land and escape. Burrito Bison Revenge takes very much the same storyline, where you end up in Candy Land again, but with the simple twist that you must also escape with your wallet that the gummy bears had stolen (or maybe you’d forgotten). I did however like the big improvement in the shop and the newly added quest system. The shop was revamped to now include a couple of new upgrades and three new wrestlers. This added a little spice to the game, but simply not enough to stop it from feeling like the original. I think the best improvement came with the addition of the quest system. Much like Chuck the Sheep, after each run it tells you if you’ve completed a mission or not. What I felt was lacking though, is that you cannot complete a mission if it doesn’t not show up as the three current missions (viewable after completing a run). This meant that you often had to complete very specific tasks in a very random game.

Burrito Bison Revenge

I thought the artwork was a big high-light of the game. I’ve always admired the artwork in Burrito Bison and Burrito Bison Revenge was no exception. Not much of the artwork was changed between Burrito Bison and Burrito Bison Revenge, but some of the backgrounds were change. The stadium went from crowded to deserted and destroyed and it appears that many of the other backgrounds were changed. While the artwork went mostly unchanged, I felt that it really didn’t need to much changing and that a couple of switches with the backgrounds is enough, as the game already looked fantastic. There were a couple of sprites that didn’t make it to the end product of Burrito Bison, such as the entire gummy bear cast of the original Burrito Bison, except, for the rocket riders, and of course, for the original gummy bears. And with the leaving of those bears came seven near bears, which all look really good!

I’ve always enjoyed the music in Burrito Bison. It has a nice Wester/Latin American theme to it. It seemed to match the theme of the game really well, with excitement and anticipation. The sound effects were another big part of the game and narrated everything perfectly – from the crunch of landing on a gummy bear to the implosion of an engine on a plane, to the pop of a balloon.

Overall, Burrito Bison Revenge is lacking in a few areas in what I thought could have been improved, but exceeded my expectations in others. If you enjoyed the first or are just looking for a great launcher game to keep you company for a while then this is the game for you. With it’s long gameplay and 120 missions this game will keep you hooked for hours to come. In review, the difficulty just wasn’t there – not like many launcher games have actually achieved making their game difficult, but I felt that Burrito Bison could have allowed a little wiggly room for us to move Burrito Bison a bit, left to right, (similar to Toss the Turtle) which would allow for a little more interactivity and skill. The gameplay was an improvement over the original Burrito Bison, now sporting more upgrades and things to purchase, as well as 120 mission to try. Although, many of the upgrades seemed very expensive and because of that the game seemed to drag on an unnecessary amount of time; while the game was fun, two or three hours of doing the same thing over and over again in bound to getting boring. One aspect of the game that i think Burrito Bison has always exceeded in is the artwork. While it didn’t differ to much from the original a few backgrounds were change and new characters were added as well as others removed. The music has always been appealing to me and I thought that it worked perfectly with the game. All in all, Burrito Bison is probably one of the best launcher game’s your going to see all year! Be sure to play it today on Newgrounds, AdultSwim or Kongregate!

Play Burrito Bison Revenge on Kongregate!

Awaken: Front Line

This game was actually more difficult than I had anticipated. I originally went with normal mode wanting a little bit of challenge, but eventually around wave thirty or so, some of my best units started to die off. The difficulty ramp actually seems to build upon how many times you’ve played the game. The more you’ve played, the greater your knowledge on future waves and what will actually happen. After each play I began to customize my interaction with the game to survive longer. This is a neat concept because it creates a great replay value system where after each play and, hopefully, you’ve made it further than before, you say, “Maybe I can change this” or “Maybe I can change that” to where you want to go back and see if you can reach a higher wave on a new run. My biggest tip is to recruit new unit early on in the game. Beware, hiring too many new units early on is a recipe for disaster; if there is too many units then it will be hard for them to level-up individually.

The gameplay was very unique. I’ve thought to myself before why this concept hadn’t been done before, or hadn’t been executed well enough to attract enough attention, and I think that Awaken: Front Line has perfectly executed this concept and has made it very enjoyable and addictive. One of the main reasons that I think the game to be so unique is that, unlike in most survival shooters, where you just fire upon the enemy and hold them off for as long as you can, Awaken: Front Line takes it to another level where you must constantly move your troops around, whether to get more ammo, after running out, or healing themselves, or trying to reach a new objective. It makes the game very interactive, where I feel that similar games have failed on. Overall, the gameplay was very unique and I found the game to be unique and addictive.

• Awaken: Front Line

  http://guidology.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Awaken-Front-Line-3.png

• Awaken Front Line

  http://guidology.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Awaken-Front-Line.png

• Awaken Front Line

  http://guidology.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Awaken-Front-Line-2.png

The artwork is all done by Ramos Emanuel, who I’ve known for a little over a year now. You can find a lot more of his pixel art work in the Prophets of Pixels thread (1)(2) on Kongregate, which I currently run. I really like the pixel art that Ramos has been doing and it is always very detailed and has its own style. I’ve seen Ramos spriting humans and armors for over a year now and they continuously look better and better. The guns where also very unique and even though most of them were based off of currently existing guns, Ramos gave them a bit of a futuristic retouch to make them fit in with the game. I do feel that a couple of things could have been improved though. There should have been some sort of shadows coming off the buildings, crates, soldiers, and cars. The game looked a little flat, but besides that, the artwork was very admirable.

Awaken: Front Line was accompanied by the best music for the job. It was very energetic and worked perfectly with the shooter theme. The sound effects were also very good and didn’t drown out the music, which is a big plus in my book. The gun shots sounded perfect and varied upon what weapon you were using. The zombie sound effects were well incorporated and gave you a good heads up when they were coming. Overall, sound effects were smartly used and helped create a wonderful atmosphere.

All in all, Awaken: Front Line is a top-notch strategy game that got you thinking in the long run and kept you in a frantic pace for most of the game. Anyone that has enjoyed games like The Last Stand, or Mud and Blood, will definitely enjoy this game. In review, the difficulty was a very exciting part of the game. I hate it when games are too easy, or too hard and this game was just perfect and tended to lean in a more difficult direction, but in a way that you knew that with a little adjustment the next time around you’ll be able to get even further. The gameplay was unique and I don’t believe it has been done too many times. I really enjoy being able to upgrade the stats on my unit and then buy weapons, partially, though my stats. The artwork was really good and the game had a very dark theme but I can’t help feeling that with a little tweaking it could have a little more needed dimension, but nevertheless, the game looks excellent. Finally, the music worked perfectly for the game. I thought that it matched the game well and that the sound effects matched equally well. Overall, this is one of the best games that I’ve come across this year and I’m hoping for more from the Awaken series. Be sure to check out the game today on Kongregate!

Play Awaken: Front Line on Kongregate!