The Daily Click

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Review: Hasslevania: The Quest for Shuteye

Author:	Hill Gigas
Added:	25/11/2007
Overall:
Average:	8.5/10

So here is an interesting game called Hasslevania! There werent many downloads for a while, so it was nice to see this come along. This is a game that looks great, and is ALMOST as good on the inside as it is on the outside.

You are treated to a great intro, and even VOICE ACTING, which I thought was great (for a klik game). You don't hear voice acting much in klik games, so this was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the presentation, it really created a good feel for the game.

Gameplay is really the only flawed portion of this game. There are perfect 10 scores to follow for graphics and sound. But many people may find the play control to be a bit of a downer. The control scheme itself is pretty akward. You have to use shift to jump, and space to attack. This is a strain on the hand, at least it was for me. I would have LOVED to have been able to use Z, or something else a bit closer to the shift key to attack. Also, you never really feel like you have control over your character. Its like one of those old NES games that made your hand hurt because you pushed the buttons too hard trying to get the controls to respond properly. Every death feels cheap because your character never quite does what you want. Every ledge is a bit too far, every jump is a bit too late, and every high-jump is a shot in the dark. None of the rooms reward you. Instead, almost all of the rooms are designed in such a way where the akward controls will probably kill you. Even secret rooms have frustrating obstacles that make you wish you hadn't found them. I found a secret room with a valuable gem, only to be killed by seemingly unavoidable spikes that I got stuck under. Give a guy a break! EDIT: I hear that you need the Iron Suit to get past those spikes. However, that doesn't change the point- Not every room needs to be an obstacle of some sort. Sometimes it's good to just give the player a cookie! :) ( I actually had to come back and re-post this review because I gave it an 8/10 but my review sounded mostly negative! Don't get my wrong, it's a GOOD game, it just takes a while to learn how to enjoy it. It's a game you'll WANT to love, and that will be the beginning of your love/hate relationship with it.)

Graphics are beautiful is this game. I loved them. The character sprites and enemies all look great and have great animations. A lot of time went into making these characters and levels. It has a great cartoon feel and has a lot of personality. And dracula looks like "The Count" from Sesame Street! I love it!

Sound is also top notch. There is great music for each portion of the game, and there are good sound effects for everything that happens. And on top of that, there is voice acting for almost all of the dialogue. And believe it or not, I've actually heard much worse voice acting from "real" games! Combine these things, and you get a very rich audio experience. Great work!

Lastability is perfectly fine for a platformer like this, even if it suffers a bit due to it's extreme difficulty. The first areas are full of unfair deaths that may stop many people from trying again. Missing an akward jump and landing in water (where there is NO escape) can happen easily, and happen early. Other quirks, such as the difficult high-jump (and the 2 hearts it requires), also make a frustrating impression on new players.

Overall, I think this is a fun and ambitous platformer. It has great graphics, great sound, and a fun theme. It's worth the time to download, and will provide some fun moments. The play control will require some patience on your part, so be prepared to try the first area several times. But underneath all of that is a pretty solid and fun game that should keep you entertained for a while.