Epicmafia

By: Guest Reviewer

On: February 10th, 2010

[This is a guest review by Cosmic Fool. If you’d like to write a guest article for TIGSource, go here.]

I live in Australia, and that means 2 things primarily; I’m lazy and no matter where I live, American ghettos usually have better internet than I do.

This makes it incredibly hard to play new games and when I do hit the bandwidth cap halfway through the month, it’s easy for me to get bored. Luckily, there are games out there for the man with dial-up speed net and I find it’s my duty to share this joy that’s accessible at 8kbs with the world.

Epicmafia is a nifty little game that streamlines and refines the popular forum game into something quite wonderful. If I were to market it to the fratboy, I would call it an online multiplayer class-based thriller in a mafia setting. For everyone else, it’s a game of wits and psychology as all sides of the match attempt to root out the others.

The multiplayer suite itself is quite robust for a browser-based game. Once you register (a free, quick, and easy process) it’s easy to jump into a match from the lobby or create your own match once you’ve learned the ropes. Quite quickly you’ll begin to understand both the game-specific slang and the easiest methods of beguiling your opponents.

The community is vibrant and very much alive and you’ll soon begin to recognize ‘famous faces’ around the community. Players are encouraged to play by the rules and not throw away matches carelessly due to an online high score board and one of the world’s only well-implemented karma systems.

In short, this game manages to create interesting and incredibly entertaining gameplay in a lightweight and easy-to-understand package. It is entertaining not on the basis of its amazing new engine but because of the variety of people and strategies you’ll come across. To get started will take you less than 5 minutes, so why not give it a shot?

This Is How Bees Work

By: Guest Reviewer

On: January 21st, 2010

[This is a guest review by Cosmic Fool. If you’re interested in writing an article for TIGSource, please go here.]

I think I’m going to have to meet bento_smile.

This Is How Bees Work is from the creative minds of Jasper ‘superflat’ Byrne and bento_smile, and I know right now its a game I’m going to remember. The passive and relaxing gameplay of bento_smile’s games has never failed to bring a smile to my face, and This Is How Bees Work is no exception.

You open the game to be greeted by 2 simple instructions (Move and Plant) and a pleasantly relaxed queen bee resting on quite a comfy looking plant. The contented smile on its face is a sign of things to come.

The joy of growing and harbouring a home for the bees made me feel like a good person. When I would see the first forest I had created on the horizon I felt happy simply to see it from a distance as a measure of my achievement. It also amazes me the sense of reward I got out of subtle graphical changes. When I would spawn a purple tree or begin to collect red bees I began to genuinely feel like I had created something beautiful in this strange and weird magenta land.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not a game for everyone. Its lack of a superobjective and general endlessness might not appeal to those approaching it as a traditional game. Its beauty lies in a desire to excel on your own terms. If you got joy simply out of traversing the new environments in Knytt and Knytt Stories or seeing the new friends appear on your map in Tanaka’s Friendly Adventure, I’m sure you’ll garner some enjoyment out of this game, hampered only the brevity of the experience.