Canundrums Starring the Inklings
On the game you start out playing as me (because I don't know what it's like for the other inklings when they leave for school!) and you end up meeting with the other inklings.
When Aaron joins, he becomes the leader, since he is highest in Inkling power.
When Aaron joins, he becomes the leader, since he is highest in Inkling power.
Link
Last modified 2012-04-13 16:03:53
Canundrums Starring the Inklings is one of the lengthier newbie games I've played, clocking in at a whopping 141 boards. It's also one of those games some high or junior high schooler made about himself and his friends, and thus is chock full of inside references and jokes that nobody else is going to get, ever (ie. fighting some evil teacher or something that keeps coming back from hell).
As for the gameplay, the first half of the game is a standard MZX shooter where you running around blowing things up with your gradually increasing "peanut gallery" who stand way too close to you at all times. Your allies all have health bars that you can't see in any possible way, and they "die" if they get shot at enough, which prompts a built-in text box to pop up informing you of such; unfortunately, their "shot" label isn't zapped when this happens, so the box keeps popping up every time they get hit. Every. Single. Freaking. Time. Thankfully, after about a third of the way through, your group gets split up and you all spend most of the remainder separated from each other, so it henceforth becomes somewhat more tolerable. The author also decided to borrow a bunch of engines straight out of the MZX Encyclopedia, including a bunch of cheat codes, that one 80x25 darkness engine on boards too large to handle it, and new weapons for everyone that are inexplicably tossed into the last third.
On the one hand, I want to give this game an A for effort, but I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone or rate it higher than two stars given how nonsensical and annoying I found it.
As for the gameplay, the first half of the game is a standard MZX shooter where you running around blowing things up with your gradually increasing "peanut gallery" who stand way too close to you at all times. Your allies all have health bars that you can't see in any possible way, and they "die" if they get shot at enough, which prompts a built-in text box to pop up informing you of such; unfortunately, their "shot" label isn't zapped when this happens, so the box keeps popping up every time they get hit. Every. Single. Freaking. Time. Thankfully, after about a third of the way through, your group gets split up and you all spend most of the remainder separated from each other, so it henceforth becomes somewhat more tolerable. The author also decided to borrow a bunch of engines straight out of the MZX Encyclopedia, including a bunch of cheat codes, that one 80x25 darkness engine on boards too large to handle it, and new weapons for everyone that are inexplicably tossed into the last third.
On the one hand, I want to give this game an A for effort, but I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone or rate it higher than two stars given how nonsensical and annoying I found it.
Link
Last modified 2025-05-07 18:03:57
It has an evenly paced flow and it's not poorly landmarked what the player is supposed to do at each point, but it's full of potential softlocks-- mostly movement-based into stairs/caves, if the wrong party member is facing inwards-- and quality of life issues with the party system-- mostly KOed party members repeatedly popping up teh dialog box that they got KOed when hit again while already KOed, as well as no longer being able to be commanded to stay put, which then causes them to get hit again more easily...
Graphics aren't really my main focus with MegaZeux but this game seriously needed some non-repeating textures as well.
I beat it in 3+ hours (and 64+ saves)... it was extremely satisfying winding up beating the final boss' second stage with 10 health... and the ending actually made me giggle. :) However, I found myself immediately commanding all 3 other party members to stay put at the start of each board in most sections just so they wouldn't be in the way and I could do most of the shooting myself. Overall this could have felt like a relaxing bus trip-- easy enough to follow along with, just having to pay attention and not run out of health, with mildly amusing jokes sprinkled throughout-- but it was marred by making the player have to micromanage a lot to make it from point A to point B.
Graphics aren't really my main focus with MegaZeux but this game seriously needed some non-repeating textures as well.
I beat it in 3+ hours (and 64+ saves)... it was extremely satisfying winding up beating the final boss' second stage with 10 health... and the ending actually made me giggle. :) However, I found myself immediately commanding all 3 other party members to stay put at the start of each board in most sections just so they wouldn't be in the way and I could do most of the shooting myself. Overall this could have felt like a relaxing bus trip-- easy enough to follow along with, just having to pay attention and not run out of health, with mildly amusing jokes sprinkled throughout-- but it was marred by making the player have to micromanage a lot to make it from point A to point B.