Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: May 11, 1998

Sometimes, if you are really lucky, you encounter a computer game that feels like it was made just for you. The graphics, music, sound effects, and gameplay all seem just right, and no matter how much you play it you simply cannot get enough. Even if you suspect deep down that nobody else in the whole world likes this game nearly as much as you do, you feel like hugging the designers and programmers and saying to them, “Thanks for making one for me!” Such is the case for me with Astrorock 2000. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: May 4, 1998

In an era of high-powered computers, 3D accelerated video cards, and 3D surround sound, the action puzzle game has largely been cast aside by major computer game companies. Over the last few years, if we ignore clones of existing board games transported to the computer, there has only been a handful of games of this type released, and of those only a few — such as Lose Your Marbles, Gubble, and Icebreaker — have really provided high-quality entertainment. None of these has made a significant splash in terms of consumer sales (even Microsoft’s entry into the fray last year with its Puzzle Collection did not have a big impact), and indeed one would have to go all the way back to the emergence of Tetris in the late 1980s to find a real market winner here. While in the shareware world action puzzle games still emerge with great regularity, in the retail game world the preponderant assumption has been that buyers expect and demand more realism, immersion, and bells-and-whistles than this type of game can possibly provide. ( read more… )

Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: January 5, 1998

Some games try to do just too much. It is quite easy to forget the very basic axiom that no matter how hard you try you cannot please everyone, a premise that is particularly true when applied to the increasingly diverse pool of computer game consumers. With less expensive and more widely available storage capacities, many game developers are tempted to throw everything including the kitchen sink into their products, rather than focusing on being truly excellent in one area, in the hope that everyone will find something appealing. In the field of racing games, especially, it seems a lot more dangerous to try to encompass all types of racing then to execute one type really well.

( read more… )