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The Daily Click ::. Downloads ::. Review Review: Nic's Tomato Game
Nic's Tomato Game is essentially a clone of Bill's Tomato Game on the Amiga. Your mission is to guide your tomato through several levels to reach home, or something. If Tomato Game had a plot it would be better (but obviously, it wouldn't be the tomato escaping from the van plot, that was already used), but as it is it's a plain old game for fun, even if you'd rather eat the tomato than help it escape. Presentation: It's Rather Good. While there are no pictures of kittens (get it? Oh well.) the title screen has the essential features, the world select & save screen look nice, and you don't really need anything more. Nothing flashy, but it's everything you should expect from a demo game. 6/10 Gameplay: I liked Bill's Tomato Game. I also like this... BUT (you knew it was coming!) there are a few fundamental flaws. One, your friendly tomato is often left in a red mess all over the floor, and it's not your fault. Why? Because of the most BASIC and IMPORTANT thing is wrong... the movement engine. The game's author used long Every events to create gravity, so it's a matter of when you launch your tomato that will decide if it becomes puréed or survives to see the next level. For this reason, the gameplay suffers quite a lot, and frustration sets in. Another problem with the gameplay is actually finishing the game. You think that fan will put you in the right place to get over the spinning death-circles? Well, you're wrong! Your unfortunate tomato will fly over the green killing machines, above the firey pit of hell, narrowly avoid the Juicing Machine of Armageddon, and soar over the conveyor belt. "Hooray!" you may shout, if the tomato didn't fly off the screen and... into oblivion. Oops. Is it too hard for your tomato to bounce back a little, or even just let you go to the next level?! Careful with your fist, you don't want to break your monitor just yet. After all, you've still got to complete the 20-odd levels in the full version, each with the same glaringly-obvious (and easy to fix) bugs. (Yes, I've played a nearly-complete version.) Apart from that, though, it's a fun game. It's just a shame that it stops being fun quickly. 4/10 Graphics: Average. The tomato graphic looks nice, even if it never turns around. Backgrounds are VERY basic, as they are just gradients. The objects you use to help your tomato could've been drawn better - the low-colour undithered gradient look isn't good. Because there are few graphics in the game, I'll have to give it a three. 3/10 Sound and Music: There is only one piece of music, and you'll hear it throughout the game. It's appropriate, but more variety would be nice. Sound is in all the right places - it makes your tomato sound more like a rubber ball than natural produce, though, but if it can survive slamming into a metal block from far away then it must be quite tough. However, not very varied, but as this is a demo I won't mark it down too much. 4/10 Lastability: This game is only a demo, and the levels in it are very easy (if you ignore the gameplay bugs, that is). A level editor would be good, and would increase lastability. As it is, there isnt' much of it. in the original game, if your tomato fell a long way it would be destroyed, whereas it doesn't happen in this one. Bill's Tomato game is more challenging - this isn't. There are lots of ways to do something, except not all will work at once (gameplay bug again). More levels = greater lastability. Greater challenge = greater lastability. No annoying gameplay bugs = greater lastability. Unfortunately, it lacks in all of them. You won't be playing this demo often, but the actual game should be better. 3/10 Overall: This game could be a lot better. It just needs more variety, and for its bugs to be fixed. Oh, please, FIX THOSE BUGS! 4/10 I also have concerns over the nature of the tomato involved. From my comment in the Lastability section, I have doubts over its origin. If said tomato turns out to be man-made, the name of Nic's Tomato Game will be tainted forever. In fact, I have a feeling that it's actually an old Comic Relief symbol...
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