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Review
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Review by
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 Doug Kay
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Reviewed on
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2004-11-22
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Attention span: 8/10 The game can get pretty addicitve
Controls: 10/10 Easy and responsive
Implementation: 9/10 Like Super Mario with a gun
Overall: 9/10 A great game everybody should have
This game, as you probably know, is a side-scroller/shootem up. And not a bad one at that. You control a little guy with a gun (when you find it). There are two worlds which you can play that come with the original zip file. I have not yet beaten any of the worlds, but I do know that they each have a certain number of levels. You don't start out with a gun in the beginning of the game, so it is a bit hard to maneuver your way past enemies. In fact, until you get a gun, it is reminiscent of Penguins for the TI-83, for all you old-schoolers out there.
There are a multitude of different enemies, each with different sorts of attacks. Laws of physics do not apply considerably seeing as how you can change directions in mid-air. However, this is helpful when you cannot see whats on the other side of a pit, allowing you to jump halfway across and then turn around to land in your original position. Each individual level within a world has a time limit indicated by how much oxygen is left in your tank. When the line depicting your oxygen dwindles down to zero, you die. It is not to difficult to make it under the time limit in most levels though, especially since most levels have a pick-up that makes your oxygen boost to 100% again. There are also other pick-ups like a gun, coins, bullets, and one other I am not too sure about (the readme file is very poor in quality). Every time you get 100 coins, you get an additional life (you start out with four).
The levels themselves are quite impressive, featuring many different types of terrains, including water in which you can swim. The side-scrolling is very smooth and hardly blurs when you are moving like most other sidescrollers do. I dont know about the rest of you, but games like Super Mario Quest always make my eyes hurt because they had trouble focusing on the blurry motion. This does not happen in TND.
The graphics are pretty decent. Everything is done in gray-scale and is pretty well detailed. The little guy you control is, I think (again, bad readme file), an astronaut of some sort. He can be seen carrying his gun even when he does not have it yet(?).
This game is very well programmed and in itself does not need too much improvement. However, the level editor is quite bad. This may be just my error, but I could not get it to do anything. The instructions in the readme file were not too thorough either. Other than that, this is one of those great games that should be on everybodys calculators. |
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Review
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Review by
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Joe Stegner
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Reviewed on
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2004-11-22
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Attention span: 9/10 Nice side scroller, fun
Controls: 9/10 Nearly perfect controls
Implementation: 10/10 Original story, many enemies, tough
Overall: 9/10 A keeper, just fix the cursor prob
Ah boy. Once in a blue moon does a nice game like this comes by. Say hello to The Next Dimension.
First off, I enjoy the fact that this thing had a nice long readme file that had a well thought out storyline. Many games tend to miss the fact that sometimes a nice readme file is needed to gain the interest of its player, and don't give any hints as to how the game is played. This one, however, has a very nice description of the game and the objective.
It is also a little difficult to beat. You'll probably die many times before you can beat this one. The gameplay itself is very nice. No bad scrolling here either; smooth as silk as one would say. I also like the way your need of oxygen makes the game harder. You must pick up the oxygen tanks scattered all over the place in order to survive, and that constraints you quite a bit on time. The grenades and gun add a nice touch as well.
The only problem with this game is the fact that is causes my cursor to mess up after playing. I was told to run Sonic Misadventures by someone I emailed after I found this out to get this problem fixed, but I use DoorsOS 1.00. The only other way to fix this is to do a good ol 2nd+left+right+on. This should be fixed in next update.
Overall, this should be a game you'll have on your calculator a lot. |
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Review
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Review by
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Ryan Aycock
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Reviewed on
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2004-11-22
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Attention span: 10/10 This will be on my calc for months
Controls: 10/10 Classic run and jump controls
Implementation: 7/10 Levels are pretty large (>1K each)
Overall: 9/10 Everyone with an 89 should get this
Finally, a graphical game that made it past the beta stage. Matt Teiken's The Next Dimension may appear to be just another side scroller game for the 89, but after playing this several times, I can say that this will last longer than the Super Mario crazes. The difficulty and the ability to add outside levels makes this grayscale program an instant hit.
Although the program lacks the intense graphics that other games in the past have held, its smooth animation surpasses many of its competitors in payability.
Many people have claimed this game to be like Penguins for the 83. I must disagree with their statements. In Penguins, controlling the character was very difficult considering all jumps made it to the same height. In TND, however, the player has complete control of the game. Enemies in TND are killable, too. Once the gun is obtained, you can freely fire at opponents as many times as the number of bullets allow.
The game may be good, but the readme and the level editor aren't so hot. The readme doesn't clearly explain what the game is about. I think the character is a spaceman who needs to get oxygen tanks or he will die when air (time) runs out.
The editor itself is only for Windows. No on-calc editors here - sorry Macintosh and Linux users. It requires Direct X and therefore, not even DOS users can try the editor.
Other downsides to the game that keep it from getting a perfect score include the long intro (which can be skipped by pressing 2nd, waiting a second, and then Enter); the long credits which appear when you die - these can't be skipped; and whenever you hit Enter at the "GAME OVER" screen, your calculator automatically powers down.
I suspect, however, even with these flaws TND is a great game that will stick around for many months. |
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