Universal Wars
Reviews by Mari Online and Willy Elektrix
Download Here



Mari's Review

"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.