Giveaway of the Day - Turtle Odyssey

Turtle Odyssey a 10.2Mb download has been given away twice previously, back in March 2007 and more recently, earlier this year (Feb 08). It originally got 94% of 266 votes and then earlier this year it received 79% of 354 votes. You can read all the previous comments by following the links below including the review by Lockett (worth reading):

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/turtle-odyssey/#comments (90 comments)

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/odd-turtle/#comments (60 comments)

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2515?replies=1 (Locketts comment)

Turtle Odyssey is a totally new adventure epic of Good versus Evil that will take players on a treasure-hunting journey into the mysterious underwater world. The game comes to life as Ozzy, a brave turtle, has been chosen to find thieves and bring back stolen talismans. To complete the mission you and Ozzy must overcome evil forces and collect all talismans.

Reference: http://www.downloadpipe.com/games-entertainment-other/review-Turtle-Odyssey-752563.html accessed 21st Nov 08

This is a gorgeous looking platform game, with very cartoony graphics, easy game play, hints that can be toggled on or off and prompts (in the form of a red arrow) directing you to the next gem. It looks and feels like a children’s game, but I found it just as playable as other games I play so wouldn’t actually categorize this game as a children’s only game; though I’m sure they will love the game. The violence, if you can call it that is limited to jumping on your foe, kicking them, or later shooting bubbles of air at them. I’m a little biased against platforms and apart from several games such as Gish, Barrel Mania, Gumboy Crazy Adventures and Wik and the Fable of Souls, I don’t particularly find them that entertaining, so I’m not going to give it a score as I don’t think I can be objective enough.

The options menu has the usual sound and music sliders and a full screen window toggle, plus toggles for an in game tutorial and a toggle to change the color mode from true to high color, which should give slightly richer colors (though comparing the game in both modes there doesn’t seem to be any difference to me). The controls can be re-mapped from the options menu. The option menu only indicates that keyboard and joystick controls can be used; however you can also use the mouse to move and make turtle jump as well.

The game is divided up into 8 episodes each with its own flora and fauna as well as different backgrounds. There are 6 levels in each episode. Each episode is introduced by a short story and each level introduces either a new enemy such as jumping sea urchins or bonus items such as the air rug and sponge, both of which enable you to jump much higher than normal. The air rug will come into its own when you encounter your first end of episode boss, a massive purple bloat fish. You’ll need the air rugs to jump onto the bloat fish to kill it. (see images) You can earn extra lives by collecting the numerous gold coins that lay around. You’ll find these in 10 and 50 denominations plus there are sacks of gold containing 100 gold coins and treasure chests containing 250 coins. These chests are usually found in secret areas, which can be found by exploring each level and not just following the red indicator arrow that points in the direction of the nearest red diamond that you have to collect. You can also gain bonuses once you’ve killed an enemy, (not all enemies can be killed so watch out) though these will disappear if you don’t pick them up quickly. They include extra lives, 10 and 50 gold coins, health vials and air bottles. To the bottom right of the playing area is your health indicator and to the left is your air indicator. You must replenish your air supply before the indicator empties. You will be warned when the time approaches by an audible warning. There are air geysers scattered around where you can replenish you air. After you have collected the correct amount of diamonds you can leave the level by a portal that takes you to the next level. There are save points in each level apart from the first one, so if you lose a life you don’t have to start from the beginning of a level. To activate a save point you must stand next to it. These are introduced at the beginning of a new level so you’ll know what to look out for. Once you’ve completed an episode you can return to it at any time without losing your progress in the latest episode. You can also set up multiple profiles from the main menu.

Pros:
Beautiful Graphics
Entertaining
In Game tutorial
Bonuses
End of episode bosses

Cons:
No game rules
To few levels (the whole game can be played in less than 3 hours)
Levels easy to win
Red indicator arrow (tells you where the next diamond is)
Bosses and enemies easy to beat

Specifications:

OS……………..Win 98, 2000, Me, NT &XP
RAM…….…….65Mb
Graphics……….DirectX 8
CPU ………….. Pentium II 450MHz

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Game play Videos:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SSGeEH9CGU8

Images:

All on one page:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Turtle%20Odyssey%201/?start=all

As a slideshow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Turtle%20Odyssey%201/?albumview=slideshow

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User reviews:

http://www.reflexive.com/index.php?PAGE=game_detail&CID=22050&AID=231

Free online browser version:

http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/turtleodyssey.jsp

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Conclusion:

Turtle Odyssey is much the same as its later version, though there were some improvements made to Turtle odyssey 2. The same gorgeous graphics and game play that all ages can play makes this an ideal family game. I’d have love to have had this when my children were younger, especially my daughter who loves anything with animals in it.

Once installed it’s just over 27Mb, so it’s not going to fill your hard drive up. Doing a clean up of your internet cache would probably free up much more space than this game takes.

I’m not going to score this game because it doesn’t actually inspire me to play it, but that’s because I have an aversion for platform games of this type that stems back to the early days of the Commodore 64. That said after playing a couple of episodes (for the second time around) I’d say it’s a well crafted game, that is worth adding to your library of games if you have a family, like platformers, or have never played a platform game before.

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Other free platform games:

If you like platform games there’s a free commercial game available from the Gametop site called Dungeon Raider, a 3D perspective platformer:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/dungeon-raider/

Please be aware that when you close down a game downloaded from Gametop your browser is opened, (though technically it’s not been hijacked). Once you close the browser down that’s the end of it. All games I’ve downloaded from Gametop have been tested and I’ve never found any malware. . I have noticed recently that Gametop seem to be generating more pop ups than they used to, but you just have to click on the x to get rid of them. The tiny inconveniences are worth if for getting the game free, IMO. Oh yeah, also some of the games do try to set Gametop as your home page. Make sure you watch each installation to ensure that the small box is unchecked. Shark Attack definitely had this feature, but so long as you make sure the little box is unchecked there will be no problems. If you do forget and find that when you next open up your browse and it opens at Gametop then just right click on your internet icon and choose the internet properties from the drop down menu, then reset your home page or type in the page you want.

Anyone who downloaded Azangara (a previous giveaway) needn’t bother though as it is the same game. However, for those who are new to the project it will be an opportunity to get two free games today.

I posted all the games below when Turtle Odyssey 2 was given away a few weeks ago.

There’s actually hundreds of free platform games available if you search the web, though you won’t find any as beautiful for free. I’ve posted a very small selection

Shark Attack:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/shark-attack/

Super Mario 3: Mario Forever:

http://www.acid-play.com/download/super-mario-3-mario-forever/

Super Mario Bros Deluxe:

http://www.acid-play.com/download/super-mario-world-deluxe/

Abuse:

http://www.acid-play.com/download/abuse/

Mario Brothers:

http://www.acid-play.com/download/mario-bros/

Super Mario PC:

http://www.acid-play.com/download/super-mario-pc/

Loads of online browser platformers:

http://www.youdagames.com/platform-games/

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Have a great week everyone. Thank you Realore and the Game giveaway team for another great looking game.

Here’s a link to my review of Turtle Odyssey over in the forums, (just in case the links I have posted stops my review from being posted):

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/4295?replies=1#post-46154