1 Adventure 2 Many by dragonpup Review by: Swordrown - 5.4/10
One Adventure Too Many?Introduction:
1 Adventure 2 Many is hard to review, as it is a small "ROM-hack" of an already small game. It modifies Adventure, as clued in by the title, an early and fundamental adventure game, by changing the cosmetic look of dragons and other on-screen items, while also replacing the Easter Egg room with a more personal message from the "hacker". That is all there is to the hack of this game, so drawing the line between reviewing the hack and the base game is slightly uncomfortable. Except for the obviously changed graphics, I will review the rest of the game as if I were reviewing Adventure.
Graphics:
The graphics have been improved a small bit over the vanilla game, but the differences are sometimes even negligible. Dragons share the same body structure as before, the smaller items almost seem unchanged, and wider graphical changes are not made. Finally, Adventure has a glitch where if there are multiple entities of the combined types of enemies and or carriable items are on the screen at once, carriable items and even walls can suddenly disappear. This even eliminates the entity's collision detection. This very glitch allows for the Easter Egg to exist. I don't think the ROM hack detracted from the graphics at all however, and Adventure still has above graphics compared to many Atari 2600 games. Colors stand out and are used very effectively for level design. (The themed labyrinths, especially the orange labyrinth's limited light, was very masterful for this period in game design.) The enemy types are clearly differentiable. The use of a pixel as the protagonist aids the immersion. This leads me to believe that this game deserves a 7 for its graphics.
Sound:
Quite honestly, the sound is average. It gets the job done of notifying the player that an items has been picked up, or that an enemy is attacking, but otherwise there is no flourish. There was never much room for flourish, but I think the game's sound effects could be better. I'll give it a safe 6 in this department, as there isn't too much room to expand upon when it comes to sound on this system.
Addictiveness:
This category could be very subjective, but I do not see this game being one I replay again. The bat made the second and third modes simply frustrating for me, as exploring for the item I desperately needed would take up time and potentially put me in danger. The bat also cannot be killed, meaning you can't stop the bat from stealing and perhaps dropping your item somewhere on the map, you have to find some way to deal with it. I have heard of ways of carrying the bat with you through something that almost seems like a glitch, but it conflicts with the freedom of using items how you want as carrying them anywhere to use them risks losing them and then wasting your time. I understand a lot of work went into making Adventure, but that didn't prevent flawed game design choices. It has the capacity of being freshly played (I'll explain later), and I do suppose I might revisit a classic (perhaps not this specific ROM-hack though). I'll give this part a 3, as it does have the capacity to be addicting and rewarding upon more plays, but I don't think it is worth it, at least for me.
Story:
If you were to have the manual, you would have the understanding that a malicious wizard stole a chalice from the Golden Castle, and hid it somewhere in the tri-castle kingdom to be guarded by three dragons, Yorgle, Grundle, and the fastest one, Rhindle. That's it. Even if you had the manual, you didn't have much to go on, or much attachment to the conflict, other than "Hey, this maze is a cool place to explore." The graphics don't aid the story either. Even in this hack of the game, the items and "dragons" (more like ducks!), aren't completely recognizable as what they are meant to be. The most recognizable items are the one's you see the least, the keys, chalice, and magnet, and those items alone do not spell out a medieval themed adventure. I'll give this game a 3 for its story. It is there, but it definitely could be improved.
Depth:
One thing I'll give this game is that it has very strong replayability for those who are interests. The modes are scaled on a very good difficulty curve, and the third mode being a randomly generated hard mode is a big plus. The game was going for being able to adapt to your situation and use items freely to get to your objective how you want to. The magnet, bridge, and sword, once understood, are fun to use, and can each be used your adventuring in the absence of the others (thanks to our little flying friend). If you can get past the annoying bat and the slight glitchy nature of collision, you come across a very replayable game. I'll give this an 8 for it's depth, at least compared to other games on the system, not only for the third mode, but the well designed items.
Conclusion:
The difficulty shouldn't be taken too much into account, but I did find this game pretty difficult. At first, the weirdly shaped items, the slightly disturbing enemies, and the brain-bending labyrinths make this game almost inhospitable upon the first try. The first mode does help this greatly, but it still is prominently difficult for the first twenty to thirty minutes.Adventure was a cornerstone for video-gaming, but despite that, it still has many flaws. Adventure should be recognized as having complex and mostly well designed gameplay for its time, but otherwise falling just around the average for other parameters. It may be harsh, but I give this game a 5.4, as does display aspects of simply annoying gameplay, and the tone and story are pretty badly portrayed through the game. Otherwise the game is average. The graphics are boosted a little bit by this ROM hack, so it is above average in that department. Despite the perhaps low score, I do think this game is worth a try, if not for too long, as Adventure should be played just to understand why it was so important, and the graphics are subtly improved by this ROM hack.
Graphics
7 Sound
6 Addictive
3 Depth
8 Story
3 Difficulty
8
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