Sid's Disaster by Commodore

Title Screen

September saw the influx of a lot of newbie games, some interesting, others rather shoddy first attempts. But two games shined out from the rest; Scribbit's much-anticipated Z-Wonk 2, and Commodore's third game Sid's Disaster. The former had more of a degree of plot, but the innovative engine techniques and tidiness of the latter made it this month's choice.

Opening

First Level

Commodore has done it again, with a complex puzzle game with a basic but appropriate plot, tidy graphics, and some rather neat new twists to the side-scroller engine concept. You are Sid, and your plane has crashed into a volcano; climbing around, you must escape before the lava blows.

Wisely, Commodore included an option allowing you to practise the game without the impending threat of the rising lava. I found this useful. You are capable of a variety of moves, including swinging left and right, shooting at well-designed enemies in the caves, throwing ropes (a slightly buggy aspect of the game), and grabbing rock when falling.

Lava

Escape

As previously explained there are a couple of avoidable bugs; in particular, throwing ropes at spikes. This could have been solved by a simple process of #putting a referrable type and checking for the presence of a yellow object of that type before #endgameing.

There are no art boards and there is (to my knowledge) no music, although for a puzzle game these are not particularly important.

I'm impressed. I'm normally not a huge fan of puzzle/sidescroller games, but this one was well-executed and a lot of fun to play. Congrats to Commodore for winning twice in a row!

7 / 10