Atlantis Review

At first glance, this game looks and feels very well made. And indeed, it is. The trouble lies in a few simple elements that at the moment cause the whole game to be difficult to play.

The first is movement. I know it technically makes more sense to have the ship pivot around the back, but it is incredibly hard to control, especially when keeping your eyes on different pieces of the screen. Also, the way your explosions push you around is beyond annoying, and is a leading cause of death. If you must keep it in, half the pushing power it has on you or something. On top of that, the amount of rewards feel very meager the first few frustrating plays. It takes six or seven tries to get a promotion, and then the powerup is incredibly worthless. Why bother using homing when you can just click anywhere on the screen with a proximity mine? I eventually got used to things after I figured out just clicking out of the corner of my eye instead of focusing on the mouse kept me alive longer, but at that point I think I'd played it a good 15 times or so (out of determination to actually see something, not addiction).

That said, there were many strong points. The interface, for example, was excellent. While the text was a bit small for my nearsighted eyes it did fit the style well (though I'd have made it a bit bigger, anyway). The online scores are absolutely brilliant. Enough said. I love pixel art, and you did a great job with the looks, down to the subtle pretty things that give a good game more depth. The music fit very well, good job in finding music that blended so well with the menus and gameplay. I also liked the idea of the gameplay (though I do think it needs a bit of work). It's not a terribly original idea, but tried and true, and you put a nice spin on it I haven't seen before with the bombs.

My suggestions to make this from a good game to a great game would be:
1) At least give the option for front steering instead of back.
2) Turn down the amount of push explosions have on you.
3) Get rid of homing in favor of something useful.
4) Take a page out of Garden Gnome Carnage's book and give gameplay advice at the end of each play. Especially advice about how to stay alive, like looking at your ship instead of the mouse.

Overall, eventually I really liked this game. I think with a few simple improvements and some spit and polish on the gameplay, this would be a really fine game. As it is right now, I recommend it to anyone willing to give a little effort to learn the controls, but highly suggest cyberdash give this a little update.