Review of Halo Gallant Girl

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Leonheart

Halo Gallant Girl Review
By Leonheart on 25 October 2009


Pros: Excellent coding, tight controls, player can respawn when he dies, well-made graphics/sounds to emulate a GameGear game.

Cons: Too oldschool, lack of save game feature, graphics/sounds could've been so much better, extreme low resolution literally hurts my eyes.

A solid, polished game with retro appeal

I understand the author wanted to go for an "oldschool" look and gameplay, but to me going back to the GameGear/Gameboy level is taking this 'nostalgia' factor a bit too far.

I can sort of understand the 'NES feel' the people want(me being a retro gamer as well) but downgrading the graphics and the sounds to GG level sounds like an insult to current modern technology and what Game Maker is capable of.

It was a bit disappointing to see a talented developer making a very limited game when so much can be done with modern graphics/game mechanics and so on.

That said, this was a very tight, well-made game with solid gameplay, even with a gaping flaw that is the lack of save game feature.

Yes, it's true that oldschool games had no save features, but that was likely because of technological limitation than intended design.

Lack of save feature wasn't the charming part of the old gaming era and it will probably never be. For example, even Megaman 9, with its true-to-retro graphics/sounds/gameplay and all that, had a save game feature. That should tell you something.

It was nice to see that when the player dies, he doesn't have to start the level all over again. This does make the game much less frustrating.

All in all, a solid polished game. Keep it up!

  1. kain_kusanagi

    kain_kusanagi said over 2 years ago

    Thanks for the insights. I thought long and hard about the save feature, I even implemented it and then removed it after I decided it made the game far too easy. In the end it was an artistic decision. I wanted it to be more than just a retro game, I wanted it to BE an old game. This is what I believe a Halo game would be like if it had been made in 1989 for the handheld technology at the time.

    It was a fun project and a good test for my little game engine. My upcoming games aren't as retro :)

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