Muri

Discuss classic and favorite computer or console games here.
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Roobar
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Muri

Post by Roobar »

I'm not sure MURI needs a separate topic, but men, just look at these!

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It screams Keen and Duke Nukem! The author himself admits he is inspired by those games.

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Not to mention that he was clearly aiming at the authentic DOS feeling and EGA color palette.

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Well, I haven't bought this yet, but to me, it looks like a Metroid meets Duke Nukem 1, Commander Keen and Captain Comic.

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The only thing I dislike it the color scheme with a lot of purple.
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tulip
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Post by tulip »

Looks nice, but oh man, even if the graphics are not ripped the ideas are so stolen from keen mods and others. .
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Post by Keening_Product »

I see less Keen and more Duke II, Xargon and Gate World. It looks neat! Nothing new at all (except maybe female protagonist (good thing), JotG and few others got to be popular in DOS really)... but neat!

Too bad it's authentic enough to be Windows-only. :celtic
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Post by Paramultart »

Looks more like Metroid to me.
Also, the palette is not a genuine EGA palette.
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Roobar
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Post by Roobar »

Well I bought this game and it's not bad in a sense that it looks and feels exactly like a real DOS game. Very authentic DOS experience, especially if you set it to 16 FPS! Good job on this (it's even with PC speaker sounds). However, if this was a real DOS game from the 90s, it wouldn't be one of my favorite ones. There isn't much variety and you can beat the game in normal for like 3 hours. There are like 5 levels per episode, and if you don't explore for secrets and try to collect 100% of the goodies, you'll beat the game in no-time. Even though each episode brings something new, it's still more of the same with a higher difficulty (the fourth episode being the most difficult one). Most of the graphics are minimalistic in use of the colors, black being predominant all the time, which don't appeal much to me. For instance, Duke Nukem 1 has much better graphics imo.

Overall, for the price of $4 you can't ask much, but it was nice to experience an authentic DOS feel.
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Post by Levellass »

tulip wrote:Looks nice, but oh man, even if the graphics are not ripped the ideas are so stolen from keen mods and others. .
It's not a homage, it's a ripoff!
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Post by guynietoren »

Gameplay looks fun. But the title screen just irks me. Could easily added dithering to push better detail.
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Post by Keening_Product »

guynietoren wrote:Gameplay looks fun. But the title screen just irks me. Could easily added dithering to push better detail.
Hipsters don't understand dithering.
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Post by Nospike »

I'd absolutely buy this if it had an authentic Adlib soundtrack. PC speaker is fine for sound effects but songs... well, I'm not exactly a fan of em. :p
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Post by Levellass »

Is anyone?


LGR gives it a whirl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp-WeTNbLzM
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Post by tulip »

Nice to see it played. But also this shows the games main weaknesses very clearly: Awkward feeling jump physics and the enemy design is just, as Jroc would say, weak. Also the guy who made this doesn't like to animate stuff I guess.

Still I like the overall graphics style, and I like the fact that it works *without* dithering. For me it's a lot harder to make graphics work in ega without dithering.
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Post by troublesomekeen »

Yeah... Better walking and jumping animation for the main character would make a big positive difference. Very cool anyhow.
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Commander Keen in... Canteloupe Quest!
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Post by Levellass »

I wonder if it was deliberately bad?
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Post by Paramultart »

Levellass wrote: It's not a homage, it's a ripoff!
I think they deliberately ripped off Shmaynoria, the greatest mod ever created. PRAISE MY ORIGINALITY!
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Post by Spatula »

I had a feeling this would get some attention here. It is a very authentic looking DOS-style throwback. I like the character designs, and I actually like the simple artwork more than the busier Duke Nukem style. It stylizes the game in a way.

Thing is though, as others have mentioned, it doesn't appear to do anything new at all. It practically looks like a mod of Duke Nukem 1, rather than a unique game. Yet the gameplay is simpler than Duke's... there are less things you have control of. The progression of the levels is the same as Duke. The game is linear and you destroy power cores to advance to the next level.

I think for a game to justify itself it needs to do something new. Alright, crouching and shooting is pretty cool (that was in biomenace). Female protagonist is pretty cool (metroid). The weapon upgrades are cool, and while different they're the same general idea as Duke 1. The lighting and background styles are straight out of Keen 1. Jumping on enemies is sort of a Mario joke thrown in. There are even little bots that look like goombas. I do like that actually. The only truly new thing is locking on while firing--which almost seems more annoying than useful. The weapon upgrades are admittedly cool. I would've liked to see more tools perhaps, more gameplay elements. An overhead map with nonlinear levels, keen style.

I would say overall.... 7.5/10

There are some really good moments. The level design, for what it is, is pretty good. There's no need for backtracking and there are many moments where you can just unload on a ton of enemies while running along, and that feels great. The levels have some puzzle solving moments and some run and shoot moments and that paces the game very well. All-in-all it's an effective game, and someone who grew up with an NES, who never played any computer games in the early 90s, would probably be floored by it. For someone who's never played Duke Nukem or Commander Keen this could seem really awesome.

For those of us who have though... It accurately recreates the kind of gameplay you'd get from Keen or Duke but it only imitates. It fails to innovate. Though if there are sequels I could see those potentially exceeding any real classic DOS game, if they can build on this template.
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