NervOS v1.4

I was going to try out PiratakNervo's shell NervOS v1.4 and give a review but I was unable to get it to work. It just seemed to want to lock up my PSP. I'm not sure what the problem was but I guess I'll wait for the next version and try again.

Metal Blob Solid v1.04 Review (Port by Deniska)

Metal Blob Solid (Blob Wars: Episode 1) is a new port from Deniska. This game puts you in charge of Bob. Think of Bob as the Rambo of smilies. Metal blob is a platformer where you kill a lot, and I mean A LOT of other blobs. These enemy blobs are aliens out for world domination. Will you help save blob-kind?

MBS has many types of weapons to choose from: grenades, laser cannons, machine guns, etc. These weapons are dropped by the enemies you kill, along with cherries (health power-ups) and small red and yellow orbs which give you points. There are many kinds of terrains as well: land, water,ice, lava, green toxic waste, etc. which you will have to navigate to save the MIAs and collect keys and cards which unlock different areas. Be careful while around lava and the green toxic waste because one slip and it is instant death. The water is also dangerous because you have a limited supply of air which is displayed at the top of the screen between your health and current weapon.

MBS is an excellent and very deep game. There are over 25 missions. The levels are quite large and have many areas and objectives. The high number of MIAs and optional objectives means that you may want to replay each level to save/achieve each and every one. The graphics are quite good, as is the music, and sound effects. The particle effects for blood splatter and explosions are excellent. This game may look cute until you see the first spray of blood. The controls work well and the physics feel right. The only time the physics defy belief is when you are crawling across the ceiling or climbing walls; yes, Bob can do these things.

As always Deniska has done an expert job of porting this game over to the PSP. There is one problem that must be mentioned though: Deniska warns of an "Out of Memory" error in his release post. He tells me that this flaw is due to a memory leak in the PSP-SDL implementation and will take some time to sort out. I have gotten the OoM error many times. I had to replay the third level four times to get past it due to this error. Deniska is a pro and I have faith that he will resolve this issue. I have found no other problems with this port and continue to play it. I only play one level at a time and then let it auto-save and exit the game. I then restart the game to clear the memory for the next level.

If you enjoy platformers then this is the game for you. Just be aware that it is not completely bug free and you may have to play a level more than once due to errors. Can't wait for the next version.

Here is an online manual for the game and here is the wiki.

Here are a bunch of screen shots:

World Map:


Level Map:


Mission Cleared:


Blood and guts:


MIAs:


MIA escape:


More blood and guts:


Under water:


Lava and explosions:


Green toxic waste:

Ironman The Game Trailer

Could this be the first game made from a movie, made from a comic, that doesn't suck? The trailer looks pretty cool. I'll wait and see what the game is actually like.

Site Overhaul (UPDATE 3)

I am going to have to do a major site rebuild since Blogger saw fit to change something in their code base. I'm not sure what Blogger did but I am no longer able to edit/change the two columns on the right side of your screen. I'm sure you can see how this is a problem. If you compare my site to other Blogger sites you can probably see that I have done some major customization and I'm not sure how much of it I can salvage. I may just switch to a new template and customize it...haven't decided. I will be working on it in the coming days so my posts will have to be put on hold temporarily. Thanks for your patience/understanding.

Update: As you can see, I have done quite a bit of work on the new site template. Hope you like it. I still have a few things to add/change. Post any suggestions in the comments. Thanks.

Update 2: I have completed all the major site work and will now be getting back to adding new posts. Thanks for you patience. Hopefully Blogger won't make any more changes which require so much work to fix.

Update 3: I have finished several other small details which weren't quite right. The most notable issue was the difference between Firefox (which I use) and Internet Explorer. IE doesn't conform to web standards and therefore the layout was a nightmare to get looking right. It is still not identical to Firefox but it is much better. There are a few more small details I plan to address but nothing worth posting about. Hope you like the site.

jackal