bovi -

Thank you for your comments. I appreciate the way you have clearly identified the problems with the games you mention. My own experience with Dino Dave and Barkanoid2 was the same. As a result - along with today's comments about Jack's Crazy Cong reporting similar problems - I skipped even trying out Cong.

It really is helpful when folks give specifics about why they liked or did not like the day's offering.

well i decided to download and try it instead of taking everyones opinion and they were correct so i gave them my input on why i felt it wasn't a very good game.

Before reading my comments below, I would like to say that I am not criticizing just to criticize, I was looking forward to and expecting this game to be a good one when I read the description, however I have to echo some of the comments above.
I don't mind a game clone at all, some clones are better than the originals. :)

What follows is constructive criticism to allow you to improve the game, so you will get more customers interested in it, not just griping about it, hopefully it will be taken as such:

Graphics - backgrounds, etc are decent graphics. A windowed option should be given however.

Controls - poor laid out and not fully explained - no mention of the Alt key is even made for example. An option on what keys you want to use for the controls should also be added. I don't think a mouse option needs to be added, scrollers deserve to be played on a keyboard.

Movement - not responsive or over-responsive depending on what you are doing. For example a slight delay on pushing 'right' drops you off the ledge with the fire extinguisher then you have to restart the level. Or, if you aren't exactly below the ladder you cannot climb it.

Items - Not being able to carry them along for later use and having to drop them and they then vanish completely is silly. If you could at least pick them back up again, it would even be a minor improvement, but they should remain with you and you should be able to cycle through which one you wish to use as you progress.

Intro - Wonderful intro (reminded me of an epic movie intro), but at 17 megs for the avi and 3.3 megs for the intro sound, way too much overkill in size. That is 45% of the entire game size! Use a static picture and have the full intro as a separate download if people wish to get it. You're losing business with the dialup crowd on this due to size. The in-game music is only 2.9 megs in size. Some priorities need to be re-thought here.

Overall program size - Instead of all the duplicate German and English pictures, documents, etc. provide a separate English and German download. Once again to appeal to the dialup customers.

Help/Documentation - Severely lacking. Only the item points are addressed and nothing else. Sure it is just a platform scroller game but at least advise people how to easily get to the next level, not that someone has to die a dozen times to figure this out. Just 1 or 2 pages would suffice.

Advancing - Having to use a password to enter to get back to the level you were on is too tedious and doesn't add to the gameplay enjoyment. Put an auto-save into the game to remedy this. People want to have fun, not do bookwork to play the game.

Hopefully these changes/improvements will be made as it will improve a promising game!

Thanks for giving me the chance to review it.

SWEET! I've been wanting an updated Donkey Kong for years!!! Thanks.

@Tamarra What do you mean you are sad about the last 2 games? Arctic Quest 2 is great, and bugfree as far as I have experienced.

This game has very bad colision detection.
If i got on an elevator with an axe, i would fall through the elevator !

#26, you can get rid of any object you have by pressing ALT.

extremely difficult to control. movement was not fluid and the caracter walks by increments. basicly each touch of the keyboard will put you in exactly the same place, a few steps forward.
there is no way to hold and stop the the caracter on a given place, if its not one of the "step" locations.

@ #10, they have had both of those before.

After reading comments I decided not to install this one. I have already got some really good games since I found out about this site. I am very sad about the last 2 games. Please release some
PRE-TESTED games that have the bugs worked out already.I look forward to more great games to come.Thanks.
tamarra25

This is by far the worst game to date - free or not.
looks like they spent all there time making there own logo instead of beta testing the game. Controls are not explained very well and objective is also not explained. You can't drop anything once you pick it up to use ( must time out )so you can't jump or climb while you have it, so you get trapped very easy.

Hmmmm .... I read the bad reviews for Barkanoid 2 but downloaded it and did find it to be as poor as people had suggested. With the comments here for Jack's Crazy Cong suggesting that this one is in the same league for poor gameplay, plus with a file size of 32+ Meg, I'm afraid I'm not going to bother. I do enjoy a large percentage of the games offered here and am very grateful for the service, but I think I'll save my disk space and ride out the wait for tomorrow's offering by playing some of your previous offerings.

I put a thumb up for this game.It is a very good one!

This Donkey Kong clone would have been considered acceptable 10-12 years ago, but doesn't measure up to modern requirements. The graphics are nice enough, but as others have commented, the controls are clunky. Beyond that, the MOVEMENT is clunky. This is one of those games where when it registers (after a slight but noticeable pause) that you've pushed "Move Right," you WILL move an ENTIRE step to the right. For a platformer game that requires precision jumping, this quickly leads to an exercise in frustration. Modern platformer games allow for "partial" steps in order to adjust and give control over where the character is moving and jumping from. That is the main thing this game is missing.

Wow great game, but i hate the sounds :@ :)

I think I'll pass on todays game but thanks for the offer as usual...still love this site, great idea and great site!

Just a really useful hint and link for the people who want to play ANY GAME with their gamepad...even if the gamepad does NOT have configurable buttons...this program will make it so. It is simple, you run the program and it intercepts the keyboard controls and remaps the gamepad controller to the keybord. Thus you use the gamepad but the game is 'thinking' you are using the keys!
So in effect ANY game can be controlled the way you wish it to be...
And it is FREEWARE!
Xpadder
Check here:
http://www.xpadder.com/
Have fun!

Very cool to see a well-made clone of an old classic. Kids these days need to play those old games to understand and appreciate what they have now! *g*

Game pad controls as an option would have been WONDERFUL for this one, especially this sort of game. I was thinking the same thing for the old Bubble Bobble Nostalgie the other day too, it's not complex on KBD, but game pad controls would allow two to play a lot easier in that one... This one would be a lot more easily played with them too, I tend to dislike the keyboard and it's "unnatural" arrangement for gaming of this sort.

Not even gonna try it :) Thanks anyway GGAOTD and the attempt at a good game Mangussoft will be back again tomorrow:)

Dino Dave:
The dinosaur has poor movement and convulses all about the screen and turns all over the show pushing blocks you did not want.
- dahood

It is very glitchy, controlling the dino is very sensitive.
- shetaz

But the controls once again interfere in game play (...) which makes for an incredible unexpected dificulty for an unintuitive way to control the character.
- RMSM

Barkanoid2:
Whether the ball goes left or right when hitting the paddle seems random, and the lack of control is especially frustrating when trying to hit the last couple of bricks.
- bovi (yeah, me)

Little or no control over ball return direction and angle.
- scott

Jack's Crazy Cong:
Poorly explained controls (use Alt to drop an item, use Ctrl to use the lever). Clunky controls. The guy will keep walking after you release the button.
- bovi (me again)

The controls on this game are very bad just hope you don’t get hit by a barrel while holding a tool.
- Bud

Magnussoft, there is a recurring pattern here. You are unlikely to get many new customers through GOTD with your current selection. While the original Donkey Kong may not have been better per se, the competition is somewhat bigger now than before. This is simply not good enough.

Please take the time to let a couple testers at the game before releasing it. I'm positive that these issues would have been pointed out by them so you could have done something about it. I hope you are taking the lesson to heart, and that we can see an improvement in later titles.

i was hoping this would be a good game having played games like this back in the 80's but what the hell went wrong ?

controls useless (as everyone else is saying)
clicked help and ended up back at the desktop (ctrl+alt+del) to kill program as it won't recover
clicked options ended up back at the desktop (ctrl+alt+del) to kill program as it won't recover

started playing and 15 seconds after starting ended up back at the desktop (ctrl+alt+del) to kill program as it won't recover

uninstalled

windows xp pro

Controls too slow and sluggish. Press the keys and he walks verrrryyyy slowly (and I have a fast computer), Pentium III required? Yeah right...

Nice idea, but horrible game play.

This game actually made me angry...
You cant control the charecter, for example i picked up the extinguisher and couldnt drop it... and with it you can jump or climb?!?!
the gaphics are sub-par.
the music (a.k.a sound track) is repetitive and annoying...
And its a lousy clone of a classic game... who ever made this should pay a fine for discrasing the name of Kong!

BTW... "Crazy Cong"??? thats like buying "Nkie" and expecting the real deal...

Thanks for all of the precise info on how the game handles. I am choosing not to download for many of the reasons stated. Looked like a nice little time waster but i prefer to be entertained not frustrated.

Crappy game controls, poorly thought out progress save system (passwords? come one guys, it is the 21st century!), 17 MB for an intro video (? who cares ?), due to crappy game controls and not poor playing, one can easily get trapped.

My 5 yo grandson played for about five minutes, got frustrated that dropping objects is so difficult, got even more frustrated at the clunky movement controls, siad "go aheady, uninstall that one".

Some remnants I had to go in an delete manually after uninstall.

Put ten of these on a CD and together they might be worth 10 eurodollars. Hardly worth wasting downlaod bandwidth.

i totally agree with #2, this is complete crap. the controls are terrible. the graphics are bad, and the sound is grating, and the game play sucks. 0/10

I can't help but wonder what we will see appear first on here : a Pac-Man clone or a Pong clone. Whatever it will be of one thing we can be certain, it will have bad controls and the only thing original will be the price tag which will be ridiculous.

Another game from Magnussoft; and it looks like another great game (if you’re into platforms); however like ‘Barkanoid’ from the other day, there’s something just not right for a commercially available game. I think it’s nothing serious and nothing that, with a few tweaks from the developer, couldn’t be put right. :) So if you’re into platforms don’t let me put you off.

The game itself installed easily. No problems activating because the activation module is incorporated in the set up module. However, I spent several minutes (after reading the help menu) trying to work out how to drop the items I’d picked up, because, as already mentioned by bovi comment #2 (which I should have read before installing, or at least before I started the game) you can’t climb the ladders or jump while holding an item. :( Worse still, when you do drop an item it disappears forever, so if you fall off the platform, back to the next level, that’s it, end of story; start again. I found myself starting over again and again because of the poor “clunky” controls.

If your one of those people who multi-task, having lots of windows open and occasionally taking a break from it all to play a game (especially when at work), there’s no windowed mode, so if you want to return to your work you’ll have to finish a level first to get your access code because trying to minimize the game using the Alt. + Tab shortcut crashes the game and the only way to cancel the game is to use our old friend Ctr. + Alt. + Del. to get to the task manager, (assuming you’re reasonably up to date with your OS); which if you’re at work is just not practicable.

Using access codes to get from one level to another seems a rather outmoded way of doing it. I seem to remember most games during the 90’s had that sort of system, but things have moved on. Maybe the developers could update the game so that it’s just a point and click to save the game? If you’re anything like me, hastily scribbling a code in between levels, usually on a post it or a scrap piece of paper inevitably ends in losing it and having to go through the tedious task of starting from the beginning again and again. :( If you’re at work, this is just not practical. Okay with some arcade games this isn’t a problem because the level is different every time you play it. But this game has prescriptive levels that never change, so you don’t want to be starting over and over again from the beginning.

The help menu needs to be updated to include the (Alt) drop command. Also it would be helpful explaining how you end a level because once I’d caged Cong; I couldn’t work out how to finish the level. (I got fed up with the game so didn’t bother exploring it further as I have an unusually busy day today)

These games are “two a penny”, so to grab anyone’s interest you definitely need to sort the control issues as well as introduce something different such as more power ups or enemies and even a few boss levels. Maybe adding mouse control would be a step in the right direction. I know if you’re into this sort of game each will have its own nuances that make it worth collecting (much like I find with my favorite genre, arkanoids). But for those who find this type of game not that inspiring, the bugs really need to be ironed out as I think the game would certainly flop, which is a pity as there are some positives such as the colorful backgrounds and the constant action. Playing a demo with so many bug (I know they’re really just minor bugbears) is bound to put the majority of consumers off.

The file size is quite large for such a simple game. More than half of the download is taken up with the Magnussoft AVI intro (17Mb), which is very smart and professional, but not really needed for such a game. The inspiring start builds up to a disappointing climax when the game starts. I’d just use an image of the completed Magnussoft image and leave it at that. Also every menu (within the game folder) is repeated in German. (Okay multi language support is great, but again a large percentage of the file is images). I’m sure the size is going to deter many who are on dial up. I’ll stick with fireman’s adventure, (from January’s giveaway) which I’ve still got on one of the computers that has been retired from general usage. It had much more of a story line and was much quicker to pick up and play. That old computer was worthless until it became full of all those games from the giveaway project and loads of other freeware games that I’ve collected over the past few years (It only has two small HDD’s). Games are all it’s used for now. I’ve taken off all the ‘work’ orientated programs such as Office etc and keep it tucked away for the kids to use at the weekend). Don’t get me wrong. The best of the pick have all been purchased as I like to contribute to the gaming community. How else are we going to get original games like Gumboy Crazy Adventures (the demo comes with a freeware version of the game called Gumboy Crazy Features, that includes all the features of the game in one full level which can be downloaded from the developers home page, {see below for link}), or Gish (which is one of my favorite Indie games and also has an editor and loads of custom levels to download) and my latest acquisition that I mentioned yesterday (Atlantis Sky Patrol)

See images of the game below:


SlideShow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Jacks%20CRazy%20Cong/?action=view&slideshow=true


All at once…..only five this time :)

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Jacks%20CRazy%20Cong/


At your leisure:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Jacks%20CRazy%20Cong/?action=view&current=JCCrazyCongcaged.gif


Gumboy Crazy Adventures link:

http://www.gumboycrazyadventures.com/default.asp?page=about

link to some images of the game:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Gumboy%20Crazy%20Adventures/?action=view&current=Gumboy.jpg

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=Gumboy+Crazy+Adventures+&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2


Thank you Magnussoft and the Game Giveaway team for another potentially good game. Have a great day everyone: D

This game is probably played by 5-6 year old kids, but most of the people on this site, or all, are older than that.

Hi GGOTD,
You have been delivering great games so far and I fully appreciate it!
Could you also release the other games from the creators of R.I.P? I totally enjoyed their R.I.P series and perhaps their subsequent games would be of equal entertainment value too. Just my two cents worth; I'd really recommend it.
Thanks GGOTD for the wonderful service thus far.
Cheers,
"Me"

I spoke to soon. The controls on this game are very bad just hope you don't get hit by a barrel while holding a tool. Mario I do have a programmable game pad I just need time to learn how to program it.

Another reincarnation of LodeRun? :)

This is a classic









rip off of donkey kong.

Hi Bud,

There are gamepads that will emulate any key stroke and mouse movement. I have a Saitek's P2600 with rumble pad. There hasn't been a single game w/o gamepad support that the P2600 can't emulate. Every button (mine has 10) can be assigned to any key. It has 2 analog sticks and a directional pad.

I don't remember its price because I bought mine 2 or 3 years ago. There's probably much better and the old ones like mine should not be that expensive,

HTH,

-Mario

Poorly explained controls (use Alt to drop an item, use Ctrl to use the lever). Clunky controls. The guy will keep walking after you release the button. Stupid scheme where you can't jump or climb while holding an item, making them useless, especially when you fall down from where it is supposed to be used due to the poor control. Boring music and annoying sounds. Mediocre graphics.

Long lasting fun? Meh, short-lasting frustration. Thumbs down, way down. I can't understand why anyone would spend 10 euro on this.

Very nice Donkey Kong clone and it works in Vista. I give it a thumbs up . Just wish it had gamepad controls.