Review Information
Game Reviewed Luigi's Island, by skisbit
Review Author FoxGuy
Created Jun 30 2014, 11:02 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview
It's been a LONG time since I've been here, yet alone review.

In any case Luigi's Island Demo is certainly has a solid foundation. Essentially replacing the Yoshi in Yoshi's Island Luigi has his work cut out for him.
 
Pros +Gameplay is solid
+Level design isn't too shabby
+Small file size
+Yoshi's Island SPC soundtrack
+Sound effects are mostly complete
+Controls are straight forward.
 
Cons -Collision is subjective
-Character gravity and speed is high (can be a pro, but...)
-No full screen
-Aside from unique levels it stays too true to Yoshi's Island.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
7 / 10
This is your typical run, jump & stomp. Similar to SM64 you have life, however Luigi can only take 4 hits. One interesting thing is if you happen to fall off you'll restart to your last checkpoint and lose a hit point. This certainly saves time but if you lose a life you're going to need to start from the beginning. Strangely though if you happen to fall without a checkpoint the behavior of the game breaks. You are either stuck at the bottom or might miraculously teleport to a earlier spot (this happened to me in lava when I was testing the scenario.)

The first order of discussion is collision. It doesn't seem possible to jump on Koopa shells that are in motion. In rare instances jumping on 2 enemies can get you hurt and most importantly the white little eggs (whatever they are, found in level 4) have odd collision boxes. It requires you to jump more "on top" of them than the Koopas and Goombas so it's easier to get damaged by them.

In this Luigi seems to have high gravity, more than most games I've played and not to forget he is also quick. This makes tight platforming sections a bit difficult since his quick acceleration makes fine adjustments a chore. Certainly not a problem as of yet but perhaps in more difficult levels. While the level design thus far has been solid, it hasn't much to offer.
 
Graphics
8 / 10
The graphics are mostly taken from Yoshi's Island from what I can see. One of the benefits is this game runs at a higher resolution (640x480 it seems) than the console inspiration. Backgrounds are fully animated and it certainly embodies Yoshi's Island. However there doesn't seem to be a full screen option. Running on a 70" 1080p I dropped the resolution just to increase the size of the box. I'm skeptical to say the game runs at 30fps (hard to tell on a box that doesn't fill the screen) but in either case the parallax effects can be blocky at times. Further more aside from more layers, the game looks like Yoshi's Island and nothing more per-say. However it is still a solid presentation.
 
Sound
8 / 10
Sound effects are complete as far as I can hear and the music is the SPC soundtrack of Yoshi's Island. While this demo is ahead of most others in the sound department it also means little room for improvement. It's polished which is good, but doing more will be a problem.
 
Replay
4 / 10
There doesn't seem to be any unlockables or reasons to play this again. Then yet it's a demo so naturally replayability is a concept to be saved for a finished product.
 
Final Words
8 / 10
This is what you may end up with had you replaced the Yoshi in Yoshi's Island with Luigi. Fundamentally it's very solid however potential for this game has a low ceiling. It's like Yoshi's Island, that much can be said, but can the author turn it into something more?

Comments
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skisbit
Jul 2 2014, 10:29 AM
Thanks for the review!

You brought up interesting points, some of them already fixed though:
-The engine has been reworked into something with better acceleration and gravity.
-Everytime you lose a level you get the option to try again (from the start or last midway flag touched).
-Midway flags have been reduced to one per level.
-Graphics are now 100% Yoshi's Island or edited into that style.
-Fullscreen option is available by pressing alt+Enter in the latest version.

As for the fps, It is set to 60 frames per second, and I am unsure what you mean by your "skepticism". :P

(By the way, I appriceate that you put some work into testing the game thoroughly, and not pointing up things like clashing graphics which already has been brought up. :))
 
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FoxGuy
Jul 2 2014, 4:49 PM
Generally I could see 30 fps vs. 60 fps very clearly but I was playing on a 70" 1080p display. So it through me off a bit, not to forget the parallax scrolling (hard to fix, if even possible) was choppy. The skepticism was the frame rate which ended up being incorrect (forgive me for being out of touch.

Seeing as though you made plenty fixes since this demo's release it's certainly a good thing. Good luck on your progress :)
 
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AsteriskX
Aug 18 2014, 6:04 PM
Nice review!
 
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