Hello chaps - I don't post much (as you can see from my post count) but I just wanted to say that Space Giraffe on Xbox live arcade is fantastic - a very surreal shmup from veteran british coder Jeff Minter. Certainly worth a trial, and definitely didn't deserve the 2/10 review from the US Xbox mag. It won't be everyones cup of tea I agree but it's nice to see games like this appearing on Live - I don't want to seem like a total MS whore, I just think it's decent of them to give games like this a chance - It's a welcome respite from generic FPS/squad based shooter 15 etc. & hopefully bodes well for getting something a bit different from the norm now & again. Anyway, play it. Go on. My gamertags TTT Pete btw - see you on the leaderboards ;-)
Most other magazines have given it good reviews. To quote... Space Giraffe designer Jeff Minter referred to the OXM review as "just about the most extraordinary example of egregious fuckwittery I have ever seen.". Minter also revealed that the OXM reviewer had unlocked no Achievements on the game (some of which are given out fairly easily) and had a very poor score on the leaderboards, stating that "In short, the leaderboards show that OXM Dan was playing the game in about the most shit way possible, and being absolutely crap at it. The leaderboards also show a lot of other people playing the game rather well, so we know it's not the game at fault here. Basically he was just rubbish."
Wow, I never realized up til now one of the great benefits of online gaming: tracking the skill of game reviewers :-D. He's probably just pissed because Minter hadn't included a list of cheats with his game for the benefit of reviewers.
There's a really good article which tries to explain the reason it keeps getting such bad reviews. http://braid-game.com/news/?p=100 Its a great read, which I don't often say about reviews. Basically "those who liked the game understood it, and those who hated it, didn't."
I finally squeezed some more points off Microsoft HK and downloaded it and all I can say is that Jeff Minter is a genius. It is Tempest and it isn't Tempest, it's like saying Ikagura is like Tatsujin, it is and it isn't. It's a game that has the Atari slogan 'Easy to play, hard to master' slapped all over it. It's a pure gaming experience, no hand holding, no hundreds of moves to learn to be competent, no save points, no bags of gold, just a game that will stand the test of Time. The Jaguar is long dead but I am sure lots of people fire it up just to play Tempest 2000 every so often. I am surprised that Microsoft don't have a 'WARNING - Do not play if you suffer from epilepsy...', as other people have said, you have to look and then relearn on how to look to get the maximum possible score. I've already pencil in playing it for at least a few more days.
I've played the demo... and I got a serious headache from it. But I found it fun and found the Engrish charming. It sort of felt like a C64 demo... I will play it again to see if the headache was just a coincidence.
it does have a bit of that about it certainly - some of the later levels get quite evil, although it is just about possible to see what's going on. ....only just though.
Anyways, after owning the game for a while I think its say to say that its definitely not user friendly. Heck I honestly have a hard time deciphering whats going on. Indeed its a real chore to learn the basic gameplay mechanics. You really apprantly have to push to learn. But, honestly this is why the game got reviewed so low. Even if it is genious like people claim. A good chunk of people just haven't been able to figure the darn thing out. A good game is a game where people are able to figure out the mechanics easilly, or at least have the proper reasources to do so. Even the tutorial is aweful at doing this.
The game was really designed for 14" TVs running via a Composite video cable and the game will propbably appeal to the older gamers who have more patience at playing games and don't require the game to massage the gamers little ego every 2 minutes. The game is brilliant, I played it more then I did Halo 3 (and I completed that before getting bored of it...).
...patience is certainly required. Going back to my first post, the game is pretty much love it/ hate it, but kudos to MS for at least putting something a bit different in front of gamers. Space Giraffe is definitely from the old-school style of game design & like you say doesn't pander to the gamer or hold your hand throughout. It's just you versus the game.
After a while of trying to figure this all out I think I finally have. And it indeed is quite a addicting and fun game. I posted my full reasons for this over at the space giraffe fourms. So check it out. http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?p=1223451#1223451
