Samurai Last Exam

#34

It seemed like kind of a fun concept, but became tedious fairly early on. I played the first "Way", thinking that after it was finished, I could play the others and they'd be different, but after I slogged my way through all the levels and went on to the next Way, I found it was just the same. Didn't bother.

It needs more choices. Maybe some power ups that are under player control -- YOU decide when/how to use them. Also needs some kind of mechanism to make more than one sushi item at a time -- doing 3, 4, or 5 in a row of exactly the same thing just feels like hard labor, not a challenge.

Reply | Comment by Dale – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#33

Late note added just to commend poster #32 for his Gen. Smedley Butler info - one of the few, true American patriot/heroes! I second every word; everything Gen Butler wrote about was or came true, and he foresaw the messes we're in clearly, from a patriot's perspective. Too bad he didn't get the attention his work deserved, because heeding his warnings would have made the world a very different, and MUCH better place! Amen, brother, and thank you for what you wrote - if anyone ever sees this, go look up and read, you will NOT come away unchanged.

And thanks for the M*A*S*H* quote, Stephen - as a big fan of the movie and series, I really appreciate both the quote and its meaning.
John

Reply | Comment by JL – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#32

Morning all. Installation was perfect. However, when starting this game in M$ Vista, it reported an "appcrash." On the third attempt, I tried running the game "as administrator," and it started immediately. Although I never install GOTD / GGOTD setup files "as administrator," I have had to start a few programmes "as administrator" to make them function. Perhaps one of those M$ Vista things.

I don't care for sushi, however a TM (time management) game making it is rather interesting. Perhaps the negative votes are from those who just do not want anything to do with it. Too bad for them because the developer did some NICE WORK on this. I absolutely loved the idea of customers with a big "?"

My Scoring:
Download and installation - 10
Registration process - 10
Graphic Appearance in Game – 10
Background and Colour - 10
Audio – 9
Game Play - 7
Replay Ability - 5
Originality - 9

Total 9 out of 10.

Thus far I don't see much opportunity for replays. Just a problem with TM games perhaps. As someone wrote earlier, the routine seems rather fixed, not much room for variation. These are the main reasons for game play and replay ability being low on my score.

The graphics and music are awesome.

Thanks to Stephen - WhiterabbitUK, GGOTD, posters to this page and to Vasilek Games.

Stephen, you are truly wonderful for being so devoted to your daughter and taking time to manage this site as well. I loved your M*A*S*H Col. Potter quote, and it sounds much like what a real live USMC general wrote and lectured about. His name is General Smedley Butler, the highest decorated officer in USA history. His books are now in the public domain and really worth downloading because it explains the real reason for the cockup we're in today. If everyone followed Col. Potter and Gen. Butler, a true hero, there would never be another war.

I hope your daughter makes a very speedy recovery.

Mr. Snoozles

..................................Moderator Comment...................................

Thank you for your wonderful feedback. I'll have to check out General Smedley Butler's books sounds like a man after my own heart.

Morning all. Installation was perfect. However, when starting this game in M$ Vista, it reported an "appcrash." On the third attempt, I tried running the game "as administrator," and it started immediately. Although I never install GOTD / GGOTD setup files "as administrator," I have had to start a few programmes "as administrator" to make them function. Perhaps one of those M$ Vista things.

I don't care for sushi, however a TM (time management) game making it is rather interesting. Perhaps the negative votes are from those who just do not want anything to do with it. Too bad for them because the developer did some NICE WORK on this. I absolutely loved the idea of customers with a big "?"

My Scoring:
Download and installation - 10
Registration process - 10
Graphic Appearance in Game – 10
Background and Colour - 10
Audio – 9
Game Play - 7
Replay Ability - 5
Originality - 9

Total 9 out of 10.

Thus far I don't see much opportunity for replays. Just a problem with TM games perhaps. As someone wrote earlier, the routine seems rather fixed, not much room for variation. These are the main reasons for game play and replay ability being low on my score.

The graphics and music are awesome.

Thanks to Stephen - WhiterabbitUK, GGOTD, posters to this page and to Vasilek Games.

Stephen, you are truly wonderful for being so devoted to your daughter and taking time to manage this site as well. I loved your M*A*S*H Col. Potter quote, and it sounds much like what a real live USMC general wrote and lectured about. His name is General Smedley Butler, the highest decorated officer in USA history. His books are now in the public domain and really worth downloading because it explains the real reason for the cockup we're in today. If everyone followed Col. Potter and Gen. Butler, a true hero, there would never be another war.

I hope your daughter makes a very speedy recovery.

Mr. Snoozles

..................................Moderator Comment...................................

Thank you for your wonderful feedback.  I'll have to check out  General Smedley Butler's books sounds like a man after my own heart.

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by Mr. Snoozles – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#31

The title is misleading. It makes it sound like a fighting game. It really should be called something like, "Last Sushi Chef Exam." Samurai really aren't known for their cooking skills.

I'm not interested in these sorts of Diner Dash type games so I'll pass on it.

Reply | Comment by Patrick McNamara – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#30

Hi Stephen, just got here, hope your daughter is feeling better soon. I know what it's like, having raised 3, and having sat for a total of 6 grandkids - been up all night many times! All my best...

As for the game, I installed it before, could not understand why this was so much larger until I read your notes, wish developers would make languages an option to keep file sizes smaller.

Remember a few things I didn't like about the game, it's almost too repetitive in the beginning, and can be touchy as far as where you must click, plus they don't explain all the controls - as someone above noted, how do you remove an item from the tray? For an old guy, these things can make the difference between enjoying a game or giving up on it.

All in all, it wasn't what I expected when I first looked at it - it's name made me think it might be a Samurai battle-type game and I was disappointed to just be slingin' hash - well, slappin' sushi, ok. Same diff. I'll give it another go, but expect to remove it unless I can get something more out of it this time, same as last time. Only 5 of 10 from me, not a keeper, too bad, nice colorful game with some promise, but I think they didn't take it far enough. Shouldn't you at least be able to carve up something with that blade - besides raw fish?!?!?

So you take care there, Dad, and take good care of your family.
John

.............................Moderator comment............................

Thank you for both your feedback and concern.

Reply | Comment by JL – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#29

I got the "Failure to Connect" also but then remembered that some time ago one of the suggested 'fixes' was to make sure Internet Explorer was not Offline. I opened IE and, sure enough, Offline was checked. Unchecked it, closed IE, reran setup and all went well. Hope this works for anyone else encountering the problem.

Belle

............................Moderator comment...........................

Yes, its a common problem; especially now with IE not being as popular as it used to be. I'm still using it, but also use Waterfox and Chrome when they suit me.

Reply | Comment by Belle – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#28

@Trucker, Noname, OneNut & WR: thanks for the help.
After arriving home, I did just that and all works fine now, peace of cake. Thanks again.

............................Moderator comment...........................

Nice one Alf, glad you got it t work.

Reply | Comment by ALF – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#27

Win 7 64, did get a msg after install that the app may not have installed properly, clicked the option that it did install ok and all is fine. Like that the windowed mode isn't tiny like other apps and that I don't have to change video resolution for it to be an acceptable size that doesn't kill my eyes (run at 1600 x 900). Graphics are good.

Don't like that every time you restart you have to click through or click to skip through the intro -- there should be a saved option to skip this.

Turned off the music and sound, but on opening still have the intro sound -- options should be in effect on open. Also getting sound or music, not sure which or if it's both, when finishing a level even though both are turned off.

It is a bit picky on accepting clicks on items, the acceptable click area for items may need to be adjusted.

Have only played a few levels so far, but as far as game play itself, does seem to be a bit repetitive but perhaps that's by design to give users an intro to the game and get you used to the controls, etc.

Like the brief instructions on start, one thing missing was how to deselect an item that you add to the board in error.

............................Moderator Comment.......................

Thank you very much for your feedback, it was much appreciated.

Reply | Comment by Deb – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#26

I downloaded it and gave it a try. The voice acting is quite suspect and doesn't coincide with what is on screen. I didn't have the Russian language problem others experienced. I think this was actually quite a bit of fun and could easily enjoy it in small doses. The music is nice and the depictions of people in traditional Japanese art was also a nice touch. I'm not quite sure why the voting on this is so bad either.

............................Moderator Comment..............................

I agree with you on the art and music, both positive points. As for the voting who knows?

Reply | Comment by Brian – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#25

#8 #9 #13 Most sushi is not raw. Maybe you are thinking of sashimi.

............................Moderator comment...........................

and thank you also for clearing that misunderstanding up. ;-)

Reply | Comment by h1stdoc – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#24

In reply to comments 8 and 9: of course o-sushi is cooked! O-sushi is NOT raw fish, as so many uninformed people think; it's rice cooked in a particular way involving vinegar and konbu, which is often served WITH raw fish. It can also be served with cooked seafood, vegetables, or even egg.

What that has to do with being a samurai, though, is beyond me.

--H

............................Moderator comment...........................

Thank you for clearing that misunderstanding up. ;-)

Reply | Comment by Hamachi – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#23

I hate time management games so I won't be downloading this but did want to say to Whiterabbit, I hope your daughter is feeling better soon.

Thanks for your efforts here!

................................Moderator comment...........................

Thank you for your thoughts. :)

Reply | Comment by jboy – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#22

Now, let me state upfront I adore TMGames. They are my favorite of all of the genres. This one I do not like. I didn't even go beyond the first level. There is something about it, i don't know what, that is just not appealing. It might be that the tutorial is basically non-existent and how the ingredients have to be picked up in a very precise way but it wasn't enjoyable at all, more frustrating than anything else.

..........................Moderator comment.............................

Thank you for your feedback.

Reply | Comment by DAMyst – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#21

Thank you for the opportunity to have another game but I tried TM games before and the are not fun to me nor will I play them again after the first time when I download them. I play games to calm down..certainly not to raise my blod pressure. LOL! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Reply | Comment by Teri – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#20

Thanks Whiterabbit for the rundown on this TM game. Not a TM fan so passing, esp since nothing special added to the concept unlike yesterday's Wild West. Still playing great 4 Elements. (5 Elements plz just to round it out!). That list of free/cheap games is great touch too - will check out a few.
Only could wish we had yet another shot at greatness for Monday's Holiday but prob have to wait for new weekend. Thanks guys. Do give a thought to those who paid the ultimate price.

...........................Moderator comment...........................

Sometimes I think it should be a rule of war that you have to see somebody up close and get to know him before you can shoot him.

from ~M*A*S*H, Colonel Potter

Reply | Comment by beergas – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#19

When editing in notepad can't save the xml file in the same folder. So, saved it in another folder and pasted in the games' folder - delete the original... Thanks OneNut and NoName for the feedback, thanks you all. Good game =)

Reply | Comment by Gg – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#18

#4 ALF - I got the same result as you, but it is very easy to change...

Open the Config.xml file in notepad and change this:
ru

to this:
en

In the line DefaultLocale

or any other of the suppported languages...

......................Moderator Comment.........................

Thanks Trucker.

Reply | Comment by Trucker – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#17

How disappointing, Sushi Samurai! :( I was expecting swords and mega fighting. Oh Well! guess some might like this, or is Sushi an acquired taste?

Reply | Comment by Sparkles – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#16

I'm not a huge fan of time management games, but I had to comment on the game description. "Cook Sushi"? That alone is enough keep me away from even trying the game, lol.

Reply | Comment by gb – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#15

@ moderator or anyone - can extra 60 mb
languae packs be deleted! My 160 gb computer
is almost full due all stuff I GET FROM GOTD!
Need that 60 mb space used by language packs,
I wouldn't use, for more games from gotd! To
moderater - hope your daughter feels better!
A song dedicated to your daughter -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwsABJEiTfg

.......................Moderator comment........................

Hi Dido, yes they can. You mustn't delete the EN version though, only the ones that weren't there before. i.e. RU, Fr, Es and De versions. Thanks Dido, my daughter may very well appreciate that later. I though it may have been the inordinate mount of sweet stuff she ate at a party we went to yesterday, but she's continued to be sick throughout the day. Looks like its something viral. Definitely wont be going to school tomorrow.

Reply | Comment by Dido – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#14

I downloaded it last time.
I agree with the overall rating from Whiterabbit, having the game at about a 5+. While not a great game I am confused as why the voting so bad (at this time 25%like to 75%dislike) My kids liked the game, so it is a kid friendly game. I kind of like TM games, but more when they aren't so linear and have goals than do this exactly.
I played it for a little while when I first downloaded it, but have to admit when I am looking for a game to replay this is not one of them.
I do like the variety of games to try, and you have given us many types over the years. Many I would not have tried if not for the Free Giveaway.
So I would say not as bad as the voting shows, but not a have to have game either(like I felt about Aveyond)

...........................Moderator Comment.........................

Thak you for your feedback.

Reply | Comment by Char – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#13

Just pointing out that in America at least "sushi" means UNCOOKED fish.
Prepare, yes; cook, impossible.

Reply | Comment by promytius – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#12

On the Dutch local GOTD site a screenshot has been provided for those not sure what to change it can be found at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1122113/giveawayoftheday/openbaar/Russian%20switched%20to%20English_game_20120527.png
When editing in notepad make sure you save the xml correctly as xml file and not as text file, you need to switch the save format from "txt" to " all files" before clicking yes to save it

.........................Moderator comment.........................

Thank you noname

Reply | Comment by NoName – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#11

Thank you, Vasilek Games, for contributing your Samurai Last Exam game to GGAOTD. I am not an avid player of time management games but I am sure you will put smiles on many of the members faces. Looking forward to visiting your website to see what other games you have to offer. Maybe we will see another of your games in the near future at GameGiveaway!
dar

Reply | Comment by darNky – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#10

Tnx, oneNut and WR. I'm not in the position to investigate it anymore by myself right now nore to follow your advice yet. That will be late at night, but I will get there, no worries. For now thanks again (just to let you know I did notice the feedback) :)

............................Moderator comment..............................

:)

Reply | Comment by ALF – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#9

You don't cook sushi. Sorry, this is a flop.

Reply | Comment by AtiTude – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#8

"Cook sushi"?

Comprehension: FAIL!

/Make/ sushi, sashimi, yes. "Cook"? Right after the gazpacho....

pgf

Reply | Comment by pgf_666 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#7

My posts are not working with the xml I've pasted. Look for Version and under that you will see DefaultLocale. Change the ru to en on that line only. Sorry for the extra posts but my pastes were not showing after I hit submit and I can't edit them.

...............................Moderator Comment...........................

Not a problem OneNut. Thank you for the feedback. I'm sure Alf will be much obliged. :)

Reply | Comment by OneNut – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#6

Sorry I didn't paste it in previous post:

ru

Reply | Comment by OneNut – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#5

There is a config.xml file inside the same folder, open it up with notepad and change the setting there. You can see its set to RU. The one you want to change is:

Change ru to en

A MickeyMouse job would be to copy the en pack overtop the russian one but I don't recommend that route.

...............................Moderator Comment...........................

Thank you for your feedback OneNut. Just came to the same conclusion myself after checking the installed games file content. :)

Reply | Comment by OneNut – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#4

I hope we get an English version, This is a Russian only version I think. I Think, because I cannot even properly find the way to close the game (well that is a puzzlegame too :) )

....................................Moderator Comment.............................

Hi Alf. The game comes with several language options. It started in English for me. Strange that it should start in Russian for you; though it is a Russian game developer (I think). I'll check to see where the language options are and report back.

Edit:

That's strange. There's definitely language packs, or what i presume to be language packs in the installed folder, but the user has no control over the language. I'm really not sure what to do with this.. check over the previous comments from last years giveaway to see if this issue was evident and whether there was a fix. Ah you can fix it by opening up the configuration file that is found in the installed folder (Config.xml)

Reply | Comment by ALF – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#3

Sorry for the lateness of today's review; my daughter was really sick all night. I'd come to the computer to post my previous review and had fallen asleep at the keyboard. (She kept us up all night).

Today’s game, 'Samurai Last Exam', is a Japanese based time management game with a a sushi restaurant theme. It has colourful graphics and (as with all Time Management {TM} games) the need of a fast clicking hand and a relatively fast mind. Unfortunately of all arcade games, TM games are the ones that I play the least because I prefer games that let me unwind; whereas TM games tend to instil a feeling of unrest and manic movement and always leave me mentally exhausted, :lol: You can be assured though that I will be giving today’s game giveaway an unbiased review. The following review uses images and other information taken from the developers site (though I have uploaded over 70 of my own images to my photobucket account and linked it in the Images section). I've written the installation section and most of The Game section (apart from a section of the game summary), and the conclusion. The developers contribution has been referenced to Vasilek Casual Games, that is the introduction, the images that you can see in the post and part of the game summary as well as the features list.

Installation:

Today’s game, Samurai Last Exam was given away last April 2011 where it received a very poor reception with only 38% of voters giving it a positive vote out of 255 voters. You can see the 37 comments via the following link:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/samurai-last-exam/

The game downloads to a 88.7Mb zip file (almost 3 times larger than the previous time this was given away). The game unpacks to a read me and a dual activation/set up file.

The game installs to C:\Games\Samurai (previously this was Samurai v1.3) by default, but you can change the install path during the installation wizard if you wish to install the game to another path. The installed game is 91.3MB. This is much larger than the previous time this was given away (35.3MB) but can be explained by the fact that different language options are now included, though you can't access these via the main menu or options menu.

For those new to the Game Giveaway project, you have to install the game within a 24 hour period starting on the 27th May 2012, at 12 midnight Pacific time (1am Mountain time, 3am Eastern time, 8am GMT, 2pm Dhaka, 6pm Sidney/Melbourne, 8pm Fiji) and ends at the same time on the 28th May 2012. Simply click on the dual activation and set up file and follow the on screen prompts to receive a free fully activated arcade game.

The installed game is 35.3Mb in size. There is no shortcut installed to either the desktop, or the start menu programs list, and there is no uninstaller; however that doesn't matter because the game is free standing, which amongst other things means it can be uninstalled simply by deleting the installed folder. There should be no registry entries to bother about either. You can find a short tutorial in the Giveaway game discussion forums that tells you how to create a start menu/programs list shortcut; however that was written for XP users. The game works in Win XP, Vista and Win 7.

Introduction:

What is a dream of every young Samurai, after finishing training in the temple of Sakura? Of course to beat the dragon! And to prove his loyalty to the teacher. Also, to serve people (while scoring off the dragon). And here is the long-awaited moment! The teacher is sending his disciple to the Last Exam. But what is it? There is no dragon, but, there are people, who want to get … sushi! You can’t disobey your teacher, so, there is only one thing to do: to cook sushi. The exam is divided into 4 stages. At the beginning of each next stage a pupil receives a message from his teacher, containing the key to successful passing. The samurai is to develop more and more new qualities to pass the Exam. The number of customers is increasing and your exam is not limited only to cooking sushi, you must be polite and tactful when talking to the customers!

Reference http://vasilek-games.com/index.php/en/products/windows/9 accessed 29th April 2011

The Game:

The option menu is fairly basic, with a toggle for full screen to windowed mode, a custom cursor toggle and the usual music and sound sliders. The music gets very repetitive quickly, so you may want to turn it right down at some point in the game. Unless you are adept at editing executables, there is no easy way of changing the music except for turning it off and playing your own music via your media player.

When your first customer arrives until you recognise the various images of sushi meals, or until you can buy and use power ups you just need to hover your mouse button over the meal that the customer is thinking about. It will briefly list what you need as a pictogram. You then have to click on the ingredients and drag them to the preparation board. If you have time you can prepare spares which can be stored in the container next to the preparation board. Once you’ve completed the meal drag it to the customer, who will then leave the Sushi bar leaving behind a small pile of money. You can use the recipe book that is situated just above the green pause button too see what is required as an alternative to hovering over each customers thought bubble. Clicking on the recipe book will show you all the available meals and what ingredients are needed. At the start of the game there are only three meals available , but this list increases as you progress through the levels and unlock more recipes.

If you don’t serve a customer quick enough you will lose that customer and valuable money. The blue dragon to the left of the screen is the indicator as to how near the end of the level you are. As you make more meals and collect the money, the dragon will gradually turn red. When the dragon is fully red the level will end. Each level is timed. If the dragon is still partially blue when the time ends you lose the level which fails to unlock the next level. Thankfully the time to complete a level is generous. You can win the levels with one two or three stars. Three stars is the best. You get five minutes to complete the three star win, 20 minutes to complete the two star win and a lot more time to complete the three star win (I didn't bother to check the third setting)

The quicker you serve customers the higher your score will be. This is important because this will determine what power ups you can purchase at the end of a level. Initially at level 2 you are introduced to three power ups, but there are twelve to unlock. The first power up is called ‘Quick Memory, which allows you to view a recipe without looking at the recipe book. The first power up costs 1000 credits to purchase. My first level score was 1500 credits, which was relatively low, but I was taking screen captures and taking notes for the review, so you can expect to score more in the first round. The other two unlocked power ups are ‘Retentive Memory ‘ which gives you the option of viewing recipes from the book for several seconds. The power up is activated when you first click on the customer’s order and appears to remain active for the rest of the game . The cost of this second power-up is 2000 credits. The third power up is called ‘Super-Eyes’ which when activated causes all the ingredients to vibrate so that you can see them easily. You have to click on the customer’s order first. All power-ups activate will continue to work. Super Eyes costs 3500 credits.

Occasionally you will get a customer asking a question. To see what they want to ask, click on the question mark. You’ll get a dialogue box opening which gives you several responses. Depending upon which you choose, the customer will be happy and remain, or will leave in disgust. (I’ve captured several of these, which can be seen via the images link below. For example the customer may say:

“It’s a nice day”

To which you can respond by clicking one of the following:

Um
Get off of me!
It’s really tasty!
Yeah fine.

The levels are interspersed with more story dialogue which can be skipped by clicking on the story board.

As you progress through the levels more ingredient’s appear as well as more complex recipes. If you place an unwanted ingredient on the preparation board, you’ll get a message telling you that you can’t cook any sushi due to an unnecessary ingredient. You must remove the incorrect one before the meal will complete.

You can restart a level by clicking on the green pause button to the bottom right of the screen, or you can quit. If you want to return to the main menu click on the pause button and select quit. This opens up a second menu that allows you to either return to the game, go to the main menu or quit the game completely. If you want to create a new profile, of which there is space for 10 you have to return to the main menu.

There are five difficulty levels.

1)...Ashigaru Way (Easiest)
2)...Onna Bugeisha Way
3)...Kensei Way
4)...Daimyo Way
5)...Shogun Way (Most difficult)

I'm not a lover of TM games, but I found the easiest level easy to cope with and was attaining the best results for each of the levels I completed. that is three stars. The difference between difficulty levels is the number of meals you have to prepare. The harder the level, the more you have to prepare to complete the level.

Summary:

• Choose ingredients, dressings and tools, put it on the board and make sushi. Don't know a recipe? Look at your cookbook.
• Don't keep your clients waiting.
• Talk to your clients politely. Don't be rude or you'll lose them
• Power up your samurai by developing his skills! It will not be easy to finish the game without these power-ups as some recipes are quite complex.

Suggestions:

The collision mesh is too precise, you have to click on an item exactly right to pick it up. When you are rushing to complete a meal, this can be very frustrating because it's easy to miss the item.

Power-ups once activated appear to last for the rest of the game, not just one level. Maybe change this so that they last only for a specific number of levels. You'd have to make them cheaper as well.

Images:

You can see a slideshow of around 70 images via the following link:

http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/Samurai%20Last%20Exam/?albumview=slideshow

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNDhDESg2ek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgidYmad5Zs

Features:

• 5 difficulty levels

• 40 game levels

• The hero skills improvement

• 30 kinds of sushi

• Original Japanese style of music and art

• The clients are talking to you. Be tactful!

Reference http://vasilek-games.com/index.php/en/products/windows/9 accessed 29th April 2011

System Requirements:

32-bit OS Windows XP/Vista/7
Intel or AMD 1500 MHz or more processor.
DirectX 9 compatible video card with 32 Mb video memory
Screen resolution: 1024x768 or more.
DirectX 9 compatible sound card.
DirectX 9.0 runtime installed.

Conclusion:

The game has a charm of its own; you'll certainly pick up a few sushi recipes if you play this game, lol. In my opinion it's a game for those who love time management games; I think it's too narrow in its game play for anyone other than the TM enthusiast to like a lot, but that said, it's still playable. I am not into these games at all, but I did find playing it on the easiest level tolerable. You get a generous amount of time to complete levels, so there really is no need to manically click away. With the power ups I think it's far to easy a game and soon becomes a little tedious. I do like the simple Japanese graphic, but that's not enough to hold my interest for long. I’d give it a go without the power ups; though I think that it may not be possible because you were forced to take a power up when they were first offered after the second level. Not sure about later in the game. I gave up after level 7. :)

• Graphics, I like the style so despite it looking fairly simplistic I give it a 7 for graphics.
• Music is very repetitive, and although it’s got a Japanese flavour, I’d liked to have heard some mellow Japanese tunes in the background instead of the manic drum beat that we get. 4 out of 10 for the music.
• For game play I’ve scored it a 6 out of 10. It’s passable, but not memorable.
• So… averaging out the scores to one decimal place we get a score of 5.7

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problemsl>:

If you have any problems installing today's game please go HERE for help.

If you're looking for something other than today's game check the didimatic site via THIS link for some brilliant deals.
There are several other deals available from Steam as well as many more from Gamersgate, Gamestop, Greenman Gaming and GOG; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site, which I've linked to above (apart from Greenman gaming.

Steam have a great sale on at the moment with prices slashed on many indie games. The 24 hour deal is Sky Drive an arcade flying game and 75% off both Civilization V and all DLC's as well as Red Orchestra 2.

You can get Ozzy Bubbles for free from Realore this weekend and the usual monthly free game from Alawars game box called Discord Times. (You need to install the free Gamebox from Alawar to access the free games, which for newcomers change approximately every month). If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals. For example, Epic Inventor, Mecha World, Miners Warfare, Re:Alistair++, OGS Mahjong, Desolate Hope, Zombie Grinder, Insane Zombie Carnage, Oolite, as well as others i mentioned last week for example a superb 3D space game called Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn which is totally free. There's also updates to games I've posted over the last three years as well as several other new postings that include I shall Remain, Counterstrike 2D, a SAM Missile simulator, Arx Libertatis, SCP- Containment Breach (horror), Speed Dreams (motorsport sim), Battlemass (strategy game), Naev (space arena shmup) and a cartoon like shooter called bullet Train, plus many more (well over 2000 free games). Tx posted a FPs game based on the Crytek engine called Wreckage. Basically a free standalone of Crysis which I highly recommend.

There is yet more indie game bundles (at least four more since last week ) You'll find details over in the Game discussion forums HERE. I highly recommend the Indie Gala V bundle that has 12 games included worth over $170. you only have to pay around $6 to get the whole bundle or less and get 9 of the games.

You’ll find over 40 time management games over at MyPlayCity, including todays game giveaway, just follow the link below:

http://www.myplaycity.com/free_time_management_games/

Do be aware that MyPlayCity have reintroduced toolbars and home page hijacks to their games, but these can be avoided by un-checking the appropriate boxes during installation, however everytime you open up the game you will need to un-check the boxes again as they are presented at every game start-up. Also when you close any of their games down, your browser is opened and directed to MyPlayCity's home page. This is innocuous so don’t worry. Closing the page ends any connection and nothing is downloaded.

A Request for helpl>:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of 'potential' cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

=================================================================================

Sorry for the lateness of today's  review; my daughter was really sick all night.  I'd come to the  computer to post my previous review and  had fallen asleep at the keyboard. (She kept  us up all night).

Today’s game, 'Samurai Last Exam', is a Japanese based time management game with a a sushi restaurant theme. It has colourful graphics and (as with all Time Management {TM} games) the need of a fast clicking hand and a relatively fast mind. Unfortunately of all arcade games, TM games are the ones that I play the least because I prefer games that let me unwind; whereas TM games tend to instil a feeling of unrest and manic movement and always leave me mentally exhausted, :lol: You can be assured though that I will be giving today’s game giveaway an unbiased review. The following review uses images and other information taken from the developers site (though I have uploaded over 70 of my own images to my photobucket account and linked it in the Images section). I've written the installation section and most of The Game section (apart from a section of the game summary), and the conclusion. The developers contribution has been referenced to Vasilek Casual Games, that is the introduction, the images that you can see in the post and part of the game summary as well as the features list.

Installation:

Today’s game, Samurai Last Exam was given away last April 2011 where it received a very poor reception with only 38% of voters giving it a positive vote out of 255 voters. You can see the 37 comments via the following link:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/samurai-last-exam/

The game downloads to a  88.7Mb zip file  (almost 3 times larger than  the previous time this was given away).  The game  unpacks to a read me and a dual activation/set up file.

The game installs to C:\Games\Samurai (previously this was Samurai v1.3)  by default, but you can change the install path   during the installation wizard if you wish to install the game to another path. The installed game is 91.3MB.  This is  much larger than the previous time this was given away (35.3MB) but can be explained by the fact that different language options are now included, though  you can't access these via the main menu or options menu.

For those new to  the Game Giveaway project, you have to  install  the game  within  a 24 hour period starting on the 27th May 2012, at 12 midnight Pacific time (1am Mountain time, 3am Eastern time, 8am GMT, 2pm Dhaka, 6pm Sidney/Melbourne, 8pm Fiji)  and ends  at the same time on the 28th May 2012.  Simply click on the dual activation and set up file and follow the on screen prompts to receive a free fully activated arcade game.

The installed game is 35.3Mb in size.  There is no shortcut installed to either the desktop, or the start menu programs list, and there is no uninstaller; however that doesn't matter because the game is free standing, which amongst other things means  it can be uninstalled simply by deleting the installed folder.  There should be no registry entries to bother about either.  You can find a short tutorial in the Giveaway game discussion forums that tells you how to create a start menu/programs list shortcut; however that was written for XP users.  The game works in Win XP, Vista and Win 7.

Introduction:

<blockquote>What is a dream of every young Samurai, after finishing training in the temple of Sakura? Of course to beat the dragon! And to prove his loyalty to the teacher. Also, to serve people (while scoring off the dragon). And here is the long-awaited moment! The teacher is sending his disciple to the Last Exam. But what is it? There is no dragon, but, there are people, who want to get … sushi! You can’t disobey your teacher, so, there is only one thing to do: to cook sushi. The exam is divided into 4 stages. At the beginning of each next stage a pupil receives a message from his teacher, containing the key to successful passing. The samurai is to develop more and more new qualities to pass the Exam. The number of customers is increasing and your exam is not limited only to cooking sushi, you must be polite and tactful when talking to the customers!</blockquote>

Reference http://vasilek-games.com/index.php/en/products/windows/9 accessed 29th April 2011

The Game:

The option menu is fairly basic, with  a toggle for full screen to windowed mode, a custom cursor toggle and   the usual music and  sound sliders.  The music gets very   repetitive quickly, so you may want to turn it  right down  at some point in the game.  Unless you are adept at  editing executables, there is no easy way of changing the music except for turning it off and playing   your own music via  your media player.

When your first customer arrives until you recognise the various images  of sushi meals, or until you can buy and use  power ups you just need to hover your  mouse button over the meal that the   customer  is thinking about.  It will briefly list  what you need as a pictogram.  You then  have to click on the  ingredients and drag them to the  preparation board.  If you have time you can prepare  spares which can be stored in the container next to the preparation board. Once you’ve completed  the  meal  drag it to  the customer, who will then leave  the Sushi bar leaving behind a small pile of money.    You can use the recipe  book  that is situated just above the green pause button too see what is required as an alternative to hovering over each  customers   thought bubble.  Clicking on the recipe book will  show you all the available   meals and  what ingredients are needed.  At the start of the game  there are only three meals available , but this list   increases as you progress through the levels and unlock more recipes.

If you don’t serve a customer quick enough you will lose that customer and valuable money.  The blue dragon to the left of the   screen is  the indicator  as to how near the  end of the level you are.  As you  make more meals and collect the money, the dragon will gradually turn red.  When the dragon is  fully red the level will end.  Each level is timed.  If the dragon is still partially blue when  the time ends  you lose the level which fails to unlock the next level.  Thankfully the time    to complete a level is  generous.  You can  win  the levels  with one two or three  stars.  Three stars is the best.  You get five minutes to complete the three star  win, 20 minutes to complete the two star win and   a lot more time to complete the three star win (I didn't bother to check the third setting)

The quicker you serve  customers the higher your score  will be.  This is important because   this will determine  what power ups you can purchase at the end of a level.  Initially  at level 2 you are introduced to three  power ups, but there are twelve   to unlock. The first  power up is called ‘Quick Memory, which allows you to view a recipe without looking at the recipe book.      The first power up costs 1000 credits to purchase.  My first  level score was 1500 credits, which was relatively low, but   I was taking  screen captures and taking notes for the review, so you can expect to score more in the first round.  The other two unlocked power ups are ‘Retentive Memory ‘  which gives you the option  of viewing recipes from the book for several seconds.  The power up is activated when you first click on the customer’s  order and  appears to remain active for the rest of the  game . The cost of this second power-up is 2000 credits.  The  third power up is called  ‘Super-Eyes’   which when activated  causes all the  ingredients to vibrate so that you can see them easily.  You have to click on the customer’s order first.  All  power-ups activate will continue to work.  Super Eyes costs 3500 credits.

Occasionally you will get a customer asking a question.  To see  what they want  to ask, click on the question mark.  You’ll get a dialogue box opening which gives you several responses.  Depending upon which you choose, the customer will  be happy and  remain, or will leave in disgust.  (I’ve  captured several of these, which can be seen via the images  link below. For example the customer may  say:

“It’s a nice day”

To which you can respond by clicking one of the following:

Um
Get off of me!
It’s really tasty!
Yeah fine.

The levels are interspersed with  more story dialogue which can be skipped by clicking on the  story board.

As you progress through the levels more ingredient’s appear as well as more complex recipes. If you place  an unwanted  ingredient on the preparation board, you’ll get a message telling you  that you can’t cook  any sushi due to  an unnecessary ingredient.  You must remove the incorrect one  before     the meal will complete.

You can restart a level by clicking on the green pause button to the bottom right of the screen, or you can quit.  If you want to return to the main menu click on the pause button and select quit.  This opens up  a second menu that allows you to either  return to the game, go to the main menu or quit the game completely.   If you want to create a new profile, of which there is space for 10 you have to return to the main menu.

There are five  difficulty levels.

1)...Ashigaru Way (Easiest)
2)...Onna Bugeisha Way
3)...Kensei Way
4)...Daimyo Way
5)...Shogun Way (Most difficult)

I'm not a lover of TM games, but I found  the easiest level  easy to cope with and was  attaining  the  best results for each of the levels I completed.  that is three stars.   The difference between difficulty levels is the   number of meals you have to prepare.  The harder the level, the more you have to prepare to complete the level.

Summary:
 
•	Choose ingredients, dressings and tools, put it on the board and make sushi. Don't know a recipe? Look at your cookbook.
•	Don't keep your clients waiting.
•	Talk to your clients politely. Don't be rude or you'll lose them
•	Power up your samurai by developing his skills! It will not be easy to finish the game without these power-ups as    some recipes are quite complex.

Suggestions:

The collision mesh is too precise, you have to click on an item exactly right  to pick it up.  When you are rushing to complete  a meal,  this can be very frustrating because  it's easy to miss the  item.

Power-ups once activated appear to last for the rest of the game, not just one level.  Maybe  change this so that they last only for a specific number of levels.  You'd have to  make them cheaper as well.

Images:

You can see a slideshow of   around 70 images via the following link:

http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/Samurai%20Last%20Exam/?albumview=slideshow

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNDhDESg2ek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgidYmad5Zs

Features:
 
•	5 difficulty levels

•	40 game levels

•	The hero skills improvement

•	30 kinds of sushi

•	Original Japanese style of music and art

•	The clients are talking to you. Be tactful!

Reference http://vasilek-games.com/index.php/en/products/windows/9 accessed 29th April 2011

System Requirements:
 
32-bit OS Windows XP/Vista/7
Intel or AMD 1500 MHz or more processor.
DirectX 9 compatible video card with 32 Mb video memory
Screen resolution: 1024x768 or more.
DirectX 9 compatible sound card.
DirectX 9.0 runtime installed.

Conclusion:

The game has a charm of its own;  you'll certainly pick up a few  sushi recipes  if you play this game, lol.  In my opinion it's   a game for those who love time management games;  I think it's too narrow in its game play for     anyone other than the TM enthusiast to  like a lot, but  that said, it's still playable.  I am not  into these games at all, but  I did find playing it on the easiest level tolerable.  You get a generous amount of time to complete levels, so there really is no need to manically click away.  With the power ups I think it's far to easy a game and soon becomes a little tedious.  I do like the simple Japanese   graphic, but that's not enough to hold my interest for long.  I’d give it a go without the power ups;  though I think that it  may not be possible because  you were forced to take  a  power up when they were first offered after the second level.  Not sure about later in the game.  I gave up after level 7.  :)

•	Graphics, I like the  style so  despite it looking  fairly simplistic I give it a 7 for graphics.
•	Music is very repetitive, and although it’s got a Japanese flavour, I’d liked to have  heard some mellow  Japanese tunes in the background instead of the manic drum beat that we get.  4 out of 10 for the music. 
•	For game play I’ve scored it a 6 out of 10.  It’s passable, but not memorable. 
•	 So… averaging out the scores to one decimal place   we get a score of 5.7

Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problems:

If you have any problems installing today's game please go <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/11647#post-101133" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> for help.

If you're looking for something other than today's game check the didimatic site via <a href="http://didimatic.com/dd/en/onsale/steam/" rel="nofollow">THIS</a> link for some brilliant deals. 
There are several other deals available from Steam as well as many more from Gamersgate, Gamestop, Greenman Gaming and GOG; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site, which I've linked to above (apart from Greenman gaming.

Steam have a great sale on at the moment with  prices slashed on many indie games.   The 24 hour deal is  Sky Drive an arcade flying game and 75% off  both Civilization V and all DLC's as well as Red Orchestra 2.

You can get <a href="http://www.realore.com/games/free_game/" rel="nofollow">Ozzy Bubbles</a> for free from Realore this weekend and the usual monthly free game from Alawars game box called Discord Times. (You need to install the free Gamebox from Alawar to access the free games, which for newcomers change approximately every month). If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> for details of other games either free or on deals. For example, Epic Inventor, Mecha World, Miners Warfare, Re:Alistair++, OGS Mahjong, Desolate Hope, Zombie Grinder, Insane Zombie Carnage, Oolite, as well as others i mentioned last week for example a superb 3D space game called Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn which is totally free. There's also updates to games I've posted over the last three years as well as several other new postings that include I shall Remain, Counterstrike 2D, a SAM Missile simulator, Arx Libertatis, SCP- Containment Breach (horror), Speed Dreams (motorsport sim), Battlemass (strategy game), Naev (space arena shmup) and a cartoon like shooter called bullet Train, plus many more (well over 2000 free games). Tx posted a FPs game based on the Crytek engine called Wreckage. Basically a free standalone of Crysis which I highly recommend.

There is yet more indie game bundles (at least four more since last week ) You'll find details over in the Game discussion forums <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. I highly recommend the Indie Gala V bundle that has 12 games included worth over $170. you only have to pay around $6 to get the whole bundle or less and get 9 of the games.
 
You’ll find over 40 time management games over at MyPlayCity, including todays game giveaway, just follow the link below:

http://www.myplaycity.com/free_time_management_games/

Do be aware that MyPlayCity have reintroduced  toolbars and  home page hijacks to their games, but these can  be avoided by un-checking the  appropriate boxes during installation, however everytime you open up the game you will need to un-check the  boxes again as they are presented at every game start-up.  Also when you close any of their games down, your browser is opened and directed to MyPlayCity's home page.  This is innocuous so don’t worry.  Closing the page ends any connection and nothing is downloaded.

A Request for help:

<blockquote>Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of 'potential' cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.</blockquote>

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by Whiterabbit-uk – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#2

Very strange - this game was given away on April 30, 2011
and was 32.6 MB! Today it is 88.7 MB! Is there changes
from last time? Didn't donload last time, becus didn't sound interesting! Stll doesn't sound interesting!

..................................Moderator comment...............................

The game has extra language packs for German, French, Russian and Spanish that account for around 60Mb.I haven't checked the original installation yet. I ened up keeping a copy of this game for my daughter who liked the Japanese themed game.

Reply | Comment by Dido – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#1

hallöchen,
es ist gar keine datei zum runterladen da - no file, no download.

.............................Moderator Kommentar...............................

Bitte versuchen Sie es erneut. auch versuchen, den Spiegel vor Ort.