"On Planet Earth, in a near by city, a
bunch of strange events are about to take place."
That's how the game starts, and well...'strange events' is no
exaggeration for those events that are to happen!
The whole story begins with Hero, Friend and Girl meeting in the house
of Hero to stay there over night. After watching TV and leaving the
house, they are attacked by a bull running wild on the streets of
Hometown.
After fighting the bull, three other bulls come rushing down the
street, ready to attack, luckily the three friends are saved by an
unknown guy, who speaks in riddles and disappears soon after doing so.
The next morning: That's then the quest starts!
The three friends are heading to Farm in search of adventure, trying to
solve the mystery behind the appearance of the bulls.
First, before they reach Farm, they have to travel a forest,
or, to be more precise, a street through the forest.
You can't turn left or right, only walk forth or back. Seems like the
author wants to make fun of forest design. That's was the part I liked
most about the game, because there were different enemies. It wasn't
boring at all.
Back to the story, soon after arriving in Farm, Friend is bitten by a
cow that was infected by mad cow disease. He will turn into a mad cow
himself, like many of the residents of farm before him!
To find a cure, Hero, Girl and Friend have to battle lots of mad cows
and in the end Moolar, the archetype of a mad..ahem...bad cow!
After solving the mystery of the mad cow disease, the story isn't over,
as one would expect.
The friends go to the harbor and end up on a pirate ship of Captain
Greenbeard!
After battles on board and underwater, they return back to the harbor,
in possession of an blue orb and magical powers. Luckily there's a wise
man living in a house in the Forest, who can give some answers to them.
Et violá, what started out as a very ridiculous quest for
adventure and fighting mad cows became a quest to stop evil and save to
world! But sadly, the game ends quite soon after you realized
this...
Playing the game is fun, as long as you are not very picky regarding
the graphics simple stile. If you want a serious, dark, deep and
complex story I'd rather recommend other games. If you just want to
take a break and play a game instead of reading a book or watching TV,
this game is rather made for you and you should give it a try. The game
can be played during one day, but it's not finished.
- The Graphics are very simple, sometimes too simple, but the fit the
story very well.
- The Music is quite good, but after a while it gets annoying.
- The Story is funny. It doesn't take itself serious.
- The Characters, quite simple but therefor easy to identify with,and
you can name them.
- The Battles are interesting because of many different enemies. Later,
they get rather boring, because the enemies are too hard to kill.
- Items: You can equip the characters with different items, who effect
their stats. You can buy or sell the equipment.
- The World is, especially later on in the game, nicely done in very
simple drawing stile!
Willy's
Review
Universal Wars is John Coates
Jr.’s (JCEnterprises on Slime Salad) entry in the 2012 Heart of
the OHR contest. It’s reasonable to suggest Universal Wars is
greatly inspired by EarthBound (SNES, 1995). Universal Wars’
quirky stream-of-consciousness plot pits 3 kids against martial
artists, pirates, and wizards on quest to cure super-powered mad cow
disease. There’s even a barn dungeon.
Universal Wars sounds great! Unfortunately, the wacky fun is marred by
wacky gameplay. Universal Wars exhibits classic amateur mistakes.
Battles are overlong and over frequent. Heroes aren’t balanced.
Spells are underpowered. Maps are linear and featureless. Nearly the
entire 3 hour demo is spent in tedious combat. But don’t dare
run; level grinding is necessary for the tough foes.
At least Universal Wars occasionally
requires strategy. In a brilliant battle, a kung-fu warrior destroys
training dummies to buff his attack. Destroy them first or be rapidly
outclassed. In another, a pirate repeatedly calls cronies unless you
target his peg leg. Later, you’ll benefit from a stun spell,
which can cripple powerful monsters if timed well. Still, the battles
never feel too easy since the enemies have bundles of HP and hit plenty
hard.
But Universal Wars’ graphics will
scare away players faster than any wonky mechanics. Personally, I find
the graphics’ naivety to be charming, and suspect some of their
ugliness is intentional. Regardless, they are messy and rushed.
It’s always a bad sign when heroes are palette-swapped. However,
Universal Wars has an original soundtrack, and that’s
commendable, even if the music isn’t very memorable.
This review trashes Universal Wars
pretty hard, but only out of necessity. Universal Wars needs a lot of
work before it’s in a playable state. Thankfully, the Heart of
the OHR deadline is far away! Ample time to overhaul Universal Wars
into the game it deserves it be. I look forward to exploring Universal
Wars’ surreal zany world and actually enjoying myself.