Graphically, the game has a pre-rendered quality; it looks kind of like a game from that awkward period of the transition from 2d to 3d in the mainstream. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the game (especially the characters) has uniqueness to it that many games fail to capture. On the other hand, due to this graphical style, some objects look a little strange, especially the gliding animation for Ovid; it just rotates the sprite 90 degrees and adds a flapping animation… it just looks a bit out of place.

Of particular note in Ovid the Owl is the music. All composed by the game’s Author, it’s pretty good. I would make a note that perhaps holding the microphone a little further away when recording “wolves” howling could be a good idea. That can probably be applied to any voice recording, actually.

The game controls pretty well, Ovid could move a little faster… and I’m not a fan of “control” and “alt” being used as main buttons, but it’s not bad. Customizable controls would be nice.

The game-play of Ovid the Owl consists of a mix between platforming action and puzzle solving. Throughout the game, you will also encounter a flight and submarine section. These parts are great, and really help break up the game. Some of the level design can be a little on the bland side, but it’s not terrible.

None of the puzzles in Ovid are particularly hard (but do require a little thought), although due to really sloppy hit detection, the platform sequences can be extremely frustrating. This is disappointing, because the game has a lot of potential, and hit detection is a really important game-play aspect that can break a game if it isn’t done well. Something else of note … I have noticed a few glitches, the main one being where no dialogue or enemies appear in the starting area (although the enemies were still there, you just can’t see them). I don’t know if this is a common glitch, but it’s only happened once.

Ovid the Owl could be a great game, if it were not for the glaring faults. The story is interesting, the music and graphics are well done, the Author is quite talented, and obviously a lot of effort has been put into the game, but it’s far from perfect. Hopefully Act 2 will fix up the issues, especially in the hit detection department, but at the moment the game feels a little mediocre.

So, it’s an asteroids game, but it doesn’t really feel like one… particularly the controls, where the “ship” (a small circle) is controlled by the mouse (which works extremely well in my opinion), and the direction of shooting by AWSD. This setup takes away that somewhat sluggish inertia-based game-play of Asteroids and turns it into a fast-paced shooter. There are a few other options for control (such as AWSD movement and mouse aiming) that have their uses, and may feel more comfortable for some players.

The enemies, while perhaps not as varied as in other games, do react and behave differently, such as the Black Hole, which will suck in smaller objects and spit them out when destroyed, or the meteor storms that cross the screen with such speed you’ll basically not know what hit you. Speaking of being hit, Echoes doesn’t have a “life” system, but a HP one. Whenever you get hit, rather than exploding and losing a life, your shield is reduced, as well as your weapon degrading by one level. You can collect health and weapon power-ups to counter this. What this means is the flow of the game is not disrupted, yet it still remains challenging.

And the game is quite challenging. Although it’s not too hard to reach level 10 (the final level), the game includes an achievement system, similar to that found on “Xbox Live”. This gives huge replay value, and provides the challenge for those seeking it. Some of the achievements are quite hard to attain, such as getting “175k points without moving”, even on easy, but if you can manage to get 50% of them, you unlock a nice mini-game. Unfortunately, there’s no internet based high-score table.

The game is extremely colorful and pleasant to look at, especially the back-grounds. There are some cool special effects, such as reflections and sparks. It really is quite nice to look at, but there’s not all that much happening on screen, so it may get a bit boring to look at after a while. Overall, the graphics are quite impressive.

The game’s music is pretty good, not ultra catchy, yet not annoying. Sound effects aren’t anything special, but they get the job done. I’d say the sound is kind of average in Neverball, but it’s by no means bad.

Ahh, controls… the strong point and weak-point of the game. The mouse controls offer you more precise control of the game board, but they’re pretty hard to use for a beginner. The keyboard controls, on the other hand, are much simpler to use, but don’t give you the flexibility of using a mouse. It’s a bit of a toss up and ultimately comes down to what you feel more comfortable with. The other option is using an analog game-pad, and although I haven’t experienced it myself, reports are it’s the way to go. If, with an analog pad, it controls anything like Super Monkey Ball, then it is indeed the way to go.

The other factor affecting controls consists of the camera. The default (F1) has the camera locked behind the ball, and it’s not too bad, but may change too erratically. The second option “lazy” (F2) is still locked onto the ball, but doesn’t follow it quite as fast… meaning the view changes less erratically, this is the camera I prefer. The last option (F3) is “Manual”, but I haven’t really experimented with it.

Well, the game is good… but Super Monkey Ball does some things better, especially the sequel, which has some really interesting levels; some of them in Neverball seem a bit bland in comparison, but they’re not bad, and are sometimes very challenging. The controls can be a bit of a hurdle, but everything else is done well.

So, Neverball isn’t for everyone, but it’s pretty fun. If you like Super Monkey Ball, a challenge, or something a bit different, then you should definitely give Neverball a shot.

Note: links to download page, includes OS X and Linux versions.

Note 2: The download also includes a mini-golf game based off the game’s physics engine which is a nice diversion, includes multi-player.

So, the game is in a “Search and Destroy” style, you have a radar display in the bottom right, showing you the location of enemy ships, of which you must destroy to advance to the next wave. Every three waves you will have the opportunity to upgrade your ship, which includes basic repairs, a shield upgrade (which also grants you a full repair), weapon upgrades, turning upgrades and more. The problem is, if you take too much damage in the preceding fights, you’re forced to repair the shields instead of buying the more useful upgrades such as better turning. This is where the learning curve takes place; in order to get the maximum out of your limited upgrade points, you must learn how to best not get hit, it really requires a bit of practice. If you can get the hang of this, StarCage is a very rewarding shooter, presenting an excellent challenge and interesting game-play.

Graphically, StarCage takes on a somewhat retro look, with low resolution graphics and sparingly used special effects save for the odd explosion, but that doesn’t mean the graphics are bad. It feels like you’re playing a shooter from the early 90’s, and generates a feeling of nostalgia. The rotating field of play is interesting to look at, and quite effective, but because of this, enemy sprites may look slightly skewed because of the low resolution. Basically, if you’re not a modern-day graphics crazy who wants everything in Hi-Def, StarCage won’t look bad.

The sound effects aren’t anything special, they get the job done. You’ve got your generic blaster fire sounds, explosions etc. The music is pretty good, but there’s only one track for battles.. I haven’t really noticed it, but it does have the potential to get boring. At any rate, you can probably just listen to your own music.

How does it control? Well... I wouldn’t call the controls bad, but I’m not a fan of the “Enter” key being used to fire (directional arrows are used for movement). On many keyboards, such as my own, it conflicts with other keys, meaning you can’t press multiple keys down at once. At the start, you’ll find the ship moves and turns a bit slowly, but that’s what upgrades are for! If you can survive the first three waves without getting too badly damaged, I highly recommend you take the “turning” upgrade, at least until you’re familiar enough with the game to play without it.

The story revolves around a man convicted of murder and his attempted escape from prison. Interaction with the other characters is a large focus of the game, and the plot develops nicely along side this. As mentioned, the game deals with some issues not designed for youngsters, so keep that in mind. All in all, it’s quite an impressive narrative.

The “old-school” graphics, although low resolution, are really quite detailed, and it’s a testament to the fact that you don’t need 3d explosions and super hyper pixel shaders for a game to look good. I guess if you’re used to said explosions and shaders, you won’t enjoy the look as much as others might. It’s all a matter of preference.

The music is quite low key but not unpleasant, and sound effects are used sparingly. There’s no voice acting. I don’t find this to be a huge problem, but some people think it’s important.

The game controls with a left-click to move, right click to bring up the context options. Bringing the cursor to the bottom of the screen will bring up the action bar. Holding “control” will cause the game to run faster. All in all, it’s a fairly simple control setup.

The game plays similarly to most point-and-click adventures, with puzzles based around the use of items and logic. There are the extra “human” elements to puzzles, but other than that it remains fairly similar to other games in the genre. Most puzzles can be solved with a little thought and none come to mind that are particularly frustrating.