Lode Runner v1.50a
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Kari Asikainen
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In Loderunner you are (again) placed in the boots of a intergalactic hero. This time, your task is not to save to whole world, but just get back stolen gold from "The Dark Forces". And again, somehow you are armed just with a tiny (water) pistol with just enough power to cut your way through walls, but you can't shoot your enemies! (Manual says you forgot to replace batteries to your weapon...) This game has well written manual with complete background for the game, and very easy-to-understand instructions. Playing is not very complex, all you need to do is kick up ZShell, and start playing. You are presented with a 2D-sideways perspective level. You task is to collect all the gold, and avoid your enemies. (Anyone remember BoulderDash? (in fact this is not "boulder" nor "dash", but who cares...)) F1 destroys the brick to your lower left and F2 surprisingly destroys the brick to your lower right. EXIT (you never guess what this does...) and F5 skips level. Arrow keys are used to move the hero around. In the technical side game features very many types of bricks (ladders, trapdoors, one-way bricks etc.) and due to ZShell speed is also good.
Everything right so far? I think so too, BUT, BUT... there's something missing. And that something is gameplay. The game is fast, OK but it's driving me nuts. First of all it's far too difficult, with very fast movement and very fast enemies. Also if you stand 1 pixel to the left from ladder, the hero won't climb up, and you get killed. Everything else is fine and well done. You can design your own levels with editor and you can watch a cool intro-picture (which can be deleted to save mem) from ZShell menu. But if I want to enjoy a good game and relax for a while after a hard class of maths, I definitely won't select a game which makes me angry like this one. Points are from very good programming. Rating: ** 1/2
Lode Runner is one of the most fun games I've played so far for ZShell. It's fun and challenging. It only takes up about 5k of space on your calculator, so it's easy to keep and play whenever you want. It's an awesome game, but it does have a couple problems. The collision detection used in the game is not very good, and you will sometimes die, even if you just came too close to them. There's also a bug I noticed (actually it may not be a bug, but it's definitely annoying). Sometimes, late it a level, the enemies will start moving bricks and ladders around. I know they're supposed to move gold around but it's annoying when they start moving the ladders so you can't get to a brick. Because of the collision detection problem and just that some of the levels are hard, Lode Runner is definitely not an easy game. But if you want a little bit easier board, just use the Load Runner level editor that comes with the game. And the game is easily expandable with more levels just like scrolls and Caves. This game will remain on my calculator for a long time, at least until I beat it, and I'll be enjoying math class with Lode Runner. Rating: ****
Overall I liked Lode Runner. I was not like many zshell games which bop a ball across the screen or flip odd blocks sideways or down. Sure I like tetris, breakout and even columns, but after a while those kinda games get dull. Now people have started with games like Lode Runner and Mutiny which I believe are more involved. I find Lode Runner I be a very good game for it works well when it works. The levels are hard (at least I think so) and you can make more of your own real easily. Downsides of this game? There are a few glitches, sometimes on the level screen garbage is displayed and the level editor does not work perfectly yet. Also at times the third and fourth levels may be displayed as jibberish which can be annoying but I'm sure will be fixed. I find Lode Runner a step up form scrolls but not comparable to caves. Maybe if you could jump and shoot, now that would be fun and not to hard to program. I give this game a rating of **** stars anticipating improvement, i.e., fixing the bugs. Then this game will be a load of fun. Rating: ****