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megakill
1+2= SoMuchBlood

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Frontpage Spotlight: Toys Vs Nightmares

Posted by megakill - September 8th, 2011


Toys Vs Nightmares

Overall Score: 7/10

"Night-time mayhem. Can you keep your cool?"

Toys Vs Nightmares captures all our bedtime fears from when we were young, and gives us an imaginative and strategic way to battle the creatures that go bump in the night! That being said, lets see just how this experience has been pulled together.

Presentation/Graphics: 7/10

Immediately when the game loads up, you're presented with an eye-pleasing title screen, prompting you to dive straight into the action. The colours are bright, and everything is drawn with a cartoon flair. You wont find yourself being blown away by the graphics, but they are somewhat unique to the author, and have a certain charm about them.
Special effects are unfortunately rather understated. Some toys may crumble apart, or enemies will disappear in puffs of smoke, but its nothing amazing.
All in all, its got a charm about it and is pleasing to the eye, but this clearly isn't a piece of artistic brilliance.
The story behind the game isn't spectacular; you're a kid in bed at night with various monsters advancing on you. You set up base and fend them off using various toys and such. It's by no means the most inspired concept in the world, but it passes with flying colours, simply because we can all relate to it, and it invokes a sense of nostalgia for many.

Gameplay/Control: 8/10

Lets start with the control. It's all simply point and click, which is appropriate, and you'll find you're not often zipping your mouse franticly around the screen, when trying to make your selections under pressure; everything is grouped sufficiently. One thing that you might wish you had is hotkeys. Granted, you aren't constantly in a frenzy trying to make your selections, but I just think it's always nice to be able to jump straight to the item you want at the press of a button.
The game gradually increases its difficulty, by introducing new nightmares with varied skills and attributes. At the same time, you're given new toys to fend them off with, again, each with their own special abilities and stats. I found constantly clicking the storybooks to generate energy for new toys quite tedious, and would have much preferred that you earned your energy from killing the nightmares, however it still isn't a bad way to execute this kind of game; I guess that's just more of a personal preference, but I'm sure some of you will feel the same.
Sometimes I felt that the difficulty made a sudden jump between levels, but it soon evens out after, so it's nothing to worry about, and actually keeps the feeling of challenge alive and present throughout the game.

Sound: 6/10

The music in this game is uninspired. It's typical of its genre, and it's repetitive, so instead of helping to immerse the gamer in the games atmosphere, it becomes more of a drone in the background. Now it's not exactly crucial in this kind of game, but it can be annoying, or disappointing to gamers expecting something more. The sound effects are also minimal, and unimpressive. It doesn't add any satisfaction for taking down a particularly touch nightmare.
That being said, the sound isn't exactly bad either. It's not choppy, or of poor quality, but it isn't going to be giving the audiophiles any orgasms.

Number Of Glitches: 1

I tested all the buttons and features, and as far as I could tell, there was only one glitch: when you bring up the settings screen on the toy select menu between rounds, clicking different settings will also select or buy toys from the menu. Not a huge gaming flaw, but sometimes annoying, especially when you accidentally buy a toy you didn't want yet.

On the whole, it's a fun game that has been delivered in style, with minor drawbacks. Dive under the blankets and load it up!


Comments

Have you considered joining the Review Request Club on the BBS yet? This is incredibly well thought out and constructed! :3

I have not, seeing as I don't really know much about them, and this column is only really for the main featured game on the front page, but now that you mention it, I will probably go ahead and check them out.

Also, if you want a review like this done for any of your own work, I'll be happy to oblige. Just send me a PM!