A somewhat gay review of Wizorb (PC and XBLIG)

Game: Wizorb

Genre: Brick-breaker

Developer: Tribute Games

Publisher: Tribute Games

System(s): PC, Xbox 360

Release date: 2011

In pretty much every post I've published about Wizorb thus far, I've described it as "Breakout with a smidge of an RPG." After spending some quality time with this downloadable title over the last week or so, though, I've come to the conclusion that I should have been calling it a Legend of Zelda-inspired brick-breaker instead.

Why? Because while the bulk of Wizorb's gameplay brings to mind titles like the aforementioned Atari release, its graphics, setting--named, ahem, "Kingdom of Gorudo"--and soundtrack bring to mind the game that's known in Japan as The Hyrule Fantasy: Zeruda no Densetsu. Wizorb's main town/hub area, the decimated Tarot Village--which the player can help rebuild by donating gathered gold--also recalls that Nintendo classic. (Said village is the only location players are able to explore freely, by the way. The game's five other locations, each of which houses 13 block-busting stages, are accessed via a board-game-esque world map.)

At the end of the day, though, this basically is a gussied-up Arkanoid clone, so how does its bat-and-ball action stand up to its predecessors-cum-competitors in that particular genre? Pretty darn well. Although Wizorb features a par-for-the-course paddle--although here it's supposed to be a wizard's magic wand--and ball, players can do more with the former than they can in most such games. For example: clicking the left mouse button (while enjoying the PC version, obviously) launches a fireball into the play area, while clicking the right one produces a gust of wind that blows the ball in the direction of the wand. Also, though most destroyed blocks drop coins, gems and potions that refill your magic gauge, some drop curses that shrink your wand or slow it to a crawl.

Another of Wizorb's inventive additions to the brick-breaker oeuvre: many of its stages include bonus rooms and shops that more often than not prove to be life-savers. All in all, Tribute Games' maiden release is refreshing, remarkably polished and well worth the price of admission (a measly $3) whether or not you're bonkers for Breakout and its ilk.

See also: Previous 'somewhat gay' reviews and previous Wizorb posts

Second Chances: Fantasy Zone

I know a lot of people who absolutely love Fantasy Zone. Until recently, though, I didn't share their adoration of this arcade classic.

Oh, I wanted to. After all, it was made by the folks at Sega (always a positive in my book--well, as long as we're talking pre-2002 Sega) and it's chock-full of color. Also, I've always been fond of the game's oddly named protagonist, a sentient spaceship who answers to Opa-Opa.

So, what's kept me from lusting after this pastel-soaked shmup? Its controls were the biggest hurdle--in particular, Opa-Opa's odd sense of gravity and momentum that takes some getting used to if you were brought up, as I was, on more traditional side-scrolling shoot 'em ups, like Darius, Gradius or R-Type.

Another control-centric issue that has long impeded my ability to accept Fantasy Zone into my heart: Dealing with the aforementioned gravity and momentum issues while taking out the game's thieving enemy forces is the definition of challenging.

A few weeks ago, after reading through The Brothers Duomazov's review of the PC Engine version for what must have been the hundredth time, I decided to erase my previous opinions of the game from my memory and give it a second (maybe third) chance.

Although I'd be lying if I said this latest experience with Fantasy Zone was smooth sailing, er, flying, from the get-go, I'd also be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the title a lot more than I had in the past. Sure, I died a lot--I'm pretty sure I saw the "game over" screen too many times to count before I made it to the second stage--but I didn't much care thanks to my newly minted appreciation of the game's uniqueness (not to mention its odd, and other-worldly, assortment of environments and enemies).

Can it now be said that I, too, adore Fantasy Zone? Yes, I think it can. As for whether it also can be said that I'm any good at it, though, is another conversation entirely.

See also: Previous 'Second Chances' posts

Ten questions with one of the main dudes at Dudedle Studio

I had such a blast playing through Dudedle Studio's Sugar Shooter a few months back that shortly after I finished my review of it I reached out to Punipen, the studio's chief designer, programmer and scenario writer, in an attempt to get to know the guys behind this boss-rush, bullet-hell shmup that's aimed at the bara-loving set a bit better.

Thankfully, he wasn't at all turned off by my (completely honorable, I assure you) advances and graciously agreed to answer a handful of questions--I know only nine appear below, despite the promises of the headline above, but the first one originally was split into two--about the company's background, what prompted him and his colleagues to create the sexy Sugar Shooter and why they make gay games in general.

The Gay Gamer: Can you tell me a bit about Dudedle Studio's back- ground? When was the company founded, for instance? Also, why was it founded? What were your goals for the company?

Punipen: First of all, I think we're more of a studio or group of indie developers than a company. We started making games as a hobby, just for fun. And since we're all gay, we [decided we] would develop erotic games for gay people.

If you know about H-games, you'll see that there are literally tons of them on the market in Japan. Many of them are very good and were turned into animation afterwards, such as Air, Kanon, To Heart, etc.

Sadly, the gay audience is neglected [by the makers of these games]. If you're talking about gay games that feature manly men, they hardly exist. The only company that stands out [for making such games] in Japan right now is Underground Campaign, which is led by Senga Migiri-san.

When we checked [the availability of these kinds of games] outside of Japan, we found that the scenario wasn't so different. While there are Flash games that target gay people who prefer manly men, none of these are big games like the ones Underground Campaign has made. Also, there are many people who wish these kinds of games were available for English speakers.

So, you could say that we've been toying with the idea of making a gay game [for a worldwide audience] for a while.

We didn't actually start making one, though, until Takezamurai-san, the main artist for Sugar Shooter, tweeted me saying that he wished he could make a game. He's a great artist, and I've always been a big fan of his, so I was like, 'Why not?' I got in touch with him and that's when we started working on Sugar Shooter.

So, you could say that our group was founded on November 14, 2010--which is when Sugar Shooter was first released in Japan.

The world's greatest tennis player is now promoting Wii Sports

No, I'm not talking about Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or even Serena Williams. I'm talking about the peerless--and often ponytailed--winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, Steffi Graf.

Admittedly, the blond, leggy German stopped playing the sport more than a decade ago, but I'm a firm believer that if she re-entered the pro game today she'd quickly return to the top of the rankings--despite being 42.


Stefanie Graf on WhoSay

That's all well and good, but you'd probably like to know how Graf is, as this post's headline suggests, promoting Wii Sports, right? Well, she's doing so in a series of TV ads--including the one above--that will be aired inter- nationally (which I'm guessing means throughout Europe and not in the US), according to a recent post on her official website.

Although I think it's a pretty by-the-numbers Wii commercial, I can't help but like the smile and wink the mother of two--and wife of Andre Agassi--aims at viewers in the ad's waning seconds.

Manual Stimulation: Guru Logi Champ (GBA)

In the review I published earlier today of Compile's Guru Logi Champ, a wacky little puzzler released (in Japan only) for the GameBoy Advance in 2001, I described the game as both fun and silly. Unfortunately, its rather long-winded instruction manual is neither of those things.

Actually, I take that back. A select few of its 38 (yes, you read that correctly) pages are well worth shining a spotlight on--such as the manual's front and back covers that can be seen below:

After that, though, you have to flip all the way through to the manual's 30th page to see anything that could even remotely be described as fun or silly.

So, what appears on the 30th page (below)? As far as I can tell, Guru Logi Champ's "good guys." They also appear on the 31st page, by the way.