Christmas 2004 Dualstream Day of Zeux Judging Sheets:WildWeasel

Christmas 2004 Day of Zeux Scores
Written by WildWeasel at 12:14 PM 12/28/04
Formatted by Kurushimi at 12:36 AM 12/29/04

PRERAMBLE

At last I am granted a seat with the Judges, albeit amidst much controversy (ie. Nash and Nadir). But I am not one to hold grudges. Alas, at this point the DoZ games this round have finished downloading, so it's off to the judging.

Game #17915: "They Hide In The Dark" (FEAR)

GAMEPLAY This one is an MZX-style shooter, which gives you a minimal amount of health and unlimited ammo with which to take down some enemies. Amidst the shooting you get some story sequences consisting of staring at an unchanging view of the world, and some message-row text. I must admit that the game is decently fun they way it's handled here (since most MZX shooters insist on giving you lots of enemies and lots of health, instead of placing the emphasis on self-preservation). After so much of the story, you're introduced to The Big Bad Guy(tm) who challenges you to a duel. He teleports around and shoots a lot of shots that are easy enough to dodge, if you can see where he goes quickly enough. I didn't beat him, however, because he managed to teleport right next to me. On game over, the game merely freezes the player without any messages. Sure, it's obvious that you're out of health (the meter at the top), but maybe a message would make it more effective.

On a replay, I beat the boss (which after you learn the trick to beating him, it really friggin' easy) and realized this was the end of the game. Really short. I'd guess they didn't put a lot of time into the game.
Gameplay Score: 40/75

GRAPHICS When the title screen first appears here, you're greeted with a letterboxed picture of somebody's eyes (assumedly the main character's), and the name of the game. I guess the team forgot to pack one of their custom palette files, because the guy's face is purple with red and green shading. It does not look natural, and no amount of mental reasoning could interpret this picture properly. The eyes look cool, though, and the face itself looks nice; it just needs a different palette to work. Now we cut into the game. It has a small screen size, plenty of new tiles and stuff, nice grass characters, and 1x1 animated players and enemies. The "dungeon" area looks vaguely convincing, adequately rocky and uneven, but it could really use a bit of "flavor" elements (like bloody patches on the floors, maybe some torches on the walls). Another nice little touch is that the player will raise his gun when the space bar is held. The dark palette may make this game a bit difficult to see, but in my opinion, it helps reinforce the "fear" aspect. Now, there are some shortfalls to the graphics - the 1x1 nature of the characters makes things a bit hard to see on occasion, and it would have been nice of the screen size were doubled and all the characters changed to 2x2 sprites. It would have allowed for more detail, and given how much of the charset space is being used already, it wouldn't have been too hard to implement. On beating the game, I'm presented with the same strangely colored face, and an epilogue text.
Graphics Score: 45/60

INNOVATION There's nothing truly innovative about this game. It's a shooter (which is probably the easiest genre to make in MZX), it has message row text, it uses the default bullets, it has a "kill the monsters" plot...gee, what is there to call innovative? It does, however, place an emphasis on low health and running from enemies, so I'll at least give it 15 points out of pity.
Innovation Score: 15/45

PLOT This town is really afraid of monsters, apparently, and since you're just passing through, you've been appointed as the lookout for the night. After jumping down the well and finding a secret passage, you fight some bad things and come upon The Big Bad Guy(tm) who, after seeming relatively harmless, shows you that he has kidnapped a girl from the town. Then you fight him. After you beat the thing, the monsters stop attacking the town, the girl is returned, and your character leaves town. Original? No, but it's hard to make an original plot these days anyway...not that this section would get too many points. I'd say at least 20 points out of 40, because it at least HAS a plot.
Plot Score: 20/40

AUDIO The game has one music track that plays through the game, a calming little number with a jazzy style to it. After beating the game, a more upbeat track plays, which is still very calm. I won't say the music is very effective, but at least it's nice to listen to. The game has no sounds whatsoever (not even the PC speaker sounds).
Audio Score: 25/35

THEME I s'pose the game follows the FEAR theme well, since after all, the townspeople are really scared of monsters. The fear comes in to play for pretty much the whole story.
Theme score: 30/30 (not too hard to get, really)

DISCRETION Game overs should have been presented with more anti-fanfare instead of freezing the player. I died twice in the playing of this game, and I frantically pounded my arrow keys wondering if the keyboard had come unplugged. For this reason, Discretion loses 5 points. Nothing else seemed to be wrong with the game.
Discretion Score: 10/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #17915: 185/300 (before Rank Weight)

GAME #1799: "Dungeons Down Under" (ANCIENT RUINS)

GAMEPLAY This is a role-playing game, which starts with a character creation phase. You can pick from 4 races, 4 classes, and 4 elemental affinities. The Elements are quite interesting - you can pick from Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Dark. The first three follow the standard elemental triangle that you see in most RPG's (Fire beats Ice, Ice beats Lightning, Lightning beats Fire). Dark gives you an advantage against all three of the others, but takes down your stats by three points. I'd guess some D&D style rules were put in place here, especially the initial statistics rolls. On getting in to the game, I'm presented with a realtime Rogue-like dungeon crawler with an Aussie vibe about it ("Crikey! You found 2 gold!"). It is incredibly easy to die. I never seemed to get any real gold (all the pickups gave me 0 gold). The RPG statistics are a bit pretentious considering the simplicity of the game. This could have been really cool, but sadly, it is far too difficult. Most of the levels are empty, lulling the player into a false sense of security, then a snake spawns randomly and attacks. Whilst attacking the snake, I catch the lightning-fast whirl of messages saying that I did no damage to the thing while it quickly hammers down my HP until they are through the floor.
Gameplay Score: 5/75 - It looked promising, and the random dungeon was fun to romp about, but those darned snakes ruin the whole thing for me.

GRAPHICS The title screen features the team number made with partial block characters, then fades to a strange ASCII Steve Irwin lookalike and some all-caps text. In game, the graphics are barely modified from the default MZX char set, with a new palette and Rogue's signature "typable characters for items" look. The player is, of course, a smiley, and the screens are scarcely interesting to look at.
Graphics Score: 25/60

INNOVATION This is a member of a minority in MZX, a genre that has tried and tried to gain acceptance, yet all the members in this minority have either died before getting off the ground, or have failed so miserably on release that Zeuxers all over the net dare not speak their names ever again. That may have just been an exaggeration (at least that last part), but this is the second of only a handful of random-dungeon games in MZX (the others include Randomize!, Kill the Joshachus, and Dungeons of Dismay). That being said, this one scores high points for simply being a random dungeon game, RPG elements boosting this nearly to the top. The fact that it involves an Australian protagonist may potentially be another innovation.
Innovation Score: 45/45

PLOT The most plot you get here is on the title screen, which reads in all-capital letters, "Explore the long-forgotten ANCIENT RUINS of Ayer's Rock and find bonzer treasure, mate! Crikey!" Stereotypical treasure-hunt plot, involving Australian stereotypes (forgive me if the author is actually from Australia). So, in essence, ACK.
Plot Score: 10/40

AUDIO The first thing heard is a cheesy chiptune of "Those Chosen By The Planet" from Final Fantasy 7. It was rather annoying and I wanted to get ot the game as fast as possible. Then, silence, while I roll my character stats. When I get into the game, the FF1 battle theme starts playing. On game over, a cheesy Popcorn MOD plays in the background. Incredible music cliches, and very annoying by now. No sound effects to speak of (thank goodness, I get the feeling if there were any, they'd all be Darkness ripoffs).
Audio Score: 15/35

THEME Eh, it fits the theme, and this is one of the few scores this gets highly on. The whole "ancient ruins" thing is evident through the whole game, and it works. Ancient Ruins + Dungeon crawl + FIND TEH TREZZURE = appropriate enough.
Theme Score: 30/30

DISCRETION The random dungeon generator, more often than not, tends to generate single-room, empty dungeons with stairs right next to the player. You can go very far down if you just run for the stairs, ignoring the snakes (hard to do later on). The "game" is not very much like a game when you think about it. The rest of the game wasn't too annoying, though, and at least the game that doesn't glitch out.
Discretion Score = 8/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #1799: 138/300 (before rank weighting)

GAME #22947: "Team 22947 made a game about fear. and this is it." (FEAR)

GAMEPLAY I guess this is a joke game. I ended up looking at the game through the editor, and learned that there is only one playable board in the game. This board is an invisible maze in which you must find the lightswitch. On hitting the switch, the game is over. Hooray. Excessively annoying.
Gameplay Score = 5/75 - At least you can interact with it. Not like you'd want to.

GRAPHICS Dull, dull, DULL! Default palette, only a few edited characters, and the "dark board" is truly pitch black. Bleah. The title screen consists of nothing but text.
Graphics Score: 5/60

INNOVATION See gameplay. Anybody who's seen or heard of an invisible maze before, raise your hand. I guess that's everybody, huh?
0/45

PLOT Bob, the player, is afraid of pretty much everything, and this amounts to him being shot out of a cannon into a dark room with a glow in the dark lightswitch. It HAS a plot, just not a very good one!
Plot Score: 1/40

AUDIO None whatsoever. By default I give this 15 points out of 35, because anything lower means that what audio WAS there hurt my ears.
Audio Score: 15/35

THEME All about fear. Fear of the dark. So I guess this gets SOME points. I don't get the whole "get shot out of a cannon" part, though...
Theme Score: 30/30

DISCRETION It's a joke game, which means that no consideration was taken to making this pleasing to anybody. It's not even a funny joke game.
Discretion Score: 0/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #22947: 56/300 (before rank weighting)

GAME #323: "Voyage of Fear" (FEAR)

GAMEPLAY Had to play this through the editor because the start board was not set properly. It's a sidescroller with large sprites, and no evident way to kill enemies. Jumping on them didn't do anything. Touching them killed me. Space bar did nothing. There was no help file around here. After skillfully avoiding the enemies, I was presented with a boss. A werewolf. I had no clue how to fight, and ultimately ended up dying. Several minutes later, I discover that the mouse is enabled, and that it controls some kind of free-aiming flamethrower. With this information in mind, I plow through the game like it's nothing, and I have a bit of fun while doing it. The instructions should have been made far more obvious than they are, however.
Gameplay Score: 40/75

GRAPHICS I wish I could say these were great graphics, but even they have their flaws. They are skillfully made ASCII scenes, in normal MZX mode. The robots that control the game are clearly visible on all boards which detracts from the visual aspect. The game does look good, don't get me wrong, but these flaws prevent it from getting a higher score. The title screen has some raster-style effects (the wavy logo), which is also kinda cool.
Graphics Score: 50/60

INNOVATION It's a sidescroller. Hoo boy. It has that free-aiming, a la Abuse, which helps the score a bit because I haven't seen this yet in an MZX sidescroller.
Innovation Score: 30/45 - The flamethrower is neat and interesting.

PLOT What I gathered from the cutscenes told me that the main character fears that he has become a werewolf or something, then discovers that he's actually a vampire. I didn't see much else, nor did I see what became of the guy because it's a maze to navigate the boards in the editor the way they're arranged. Upon beating the werewolf boss, I see "I am no longer afraid of my true self." I guess that's as good an ending as any, right?
20/40 - Some kinda intro would have been nice, I guess. I have little idea as to who this guy is, nor why I play as him.

AUDIO No music, but a few sounds. An explosion that plays on every enemy death, a whoosh sound for jumping and attacking, and nothing else. It was nice to hear my speakers working, but the sounds were just boring altogether.
Audio Score: 15/35

THEME The game is somewhat horror-themed, taking place in some very not-horror-like environments (a bio lab and a warehouse). The creatures fit, though, and the cutscenes make the mood a bit.
Theme Score: 30/30

DISCRETION Needs a help file! I was confused for ten minutes as to how I was supposed to play the game.
Discretion score: 9/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #323: 194/300 (before rank weighting)

GAME #35974: "Are You Afraid?" (FEAR)

GAMEPLAY The introduction is very long and takes forever to advance the text. Once it's finally over, you get to walk around - but the story is still going on. After THAT is over with, you get to cross an ice path! With bottomless holes in it! JOY! I skipped this part through the editor and continued. There still wasn't much in terms ot real playability at this point. Then I found the ice puzzle. These guys sure like their ice. This one is harder, because you can't maneuver on the ice, and have to jump between stop points to make it to the end. I could not solve this one because I grew impatient, and so I skipped through the editor to find the next board. Then there was a very long fade-out, and we came to another friggin' story sequence. This would be better if it wasn't so boring. Now we're on to a sequence button puzzle, which gives you vague clues to beat the thing. It's forgiving enough to solve the puzzle for you if you take too long, and the last puzzle, while intimidating, is easy (the sign states that the last barrier is just made of custom floors). After getting past THAT crappy puzzle, I found the skeleton of Gregory Janson (MZX Cliche #147...check). And then, the game's over. I had no fun whatsoever playing this game.
Gameplay Score: 10/75 (out of pity)

GRAPHICS The title screen is kinda spiffy, showing me a pyramid in the desert. But then the game goes to default palette, with Big Empty Room syndrome, very little onscreen activity. The default message scrolls are used here to about as good effect as any other game that uses them. There's obvious wasted space on the messages (they're half as wide as the scrolls), but at least they don't go off the edge.
Graphics Score: 25/60

INNOVATION Very little originality to be found here. It's an MZX puzzle game, with Ice Mazes, Ice Puzzles, Cryptic Puzzles, and lots of Story Sequences. The "Kill The Monster" plot doesn't help much, nor does the appearance of Greg Janson (why does everybody put him in their games?).
Innovation Score: 10/45

PLOT Starts out really boring, but works its way up. A group of people are going into the pyramid to defeat this monster that apparently resurrects every so often. Little by little, the people in this group die for various reasons, from accidents, to suicide, to outright murder. Then, in the end, one person is sent ahead to fight the monster (you don't see this happen) and the two that remain speak to each other as if they do this every time the monster appears, and talk of "taking souls" and the like. It's very confusing and strange, and I didn't get it much. The characters are interesting.
Plot Score: 25/40 - Unclear in parts, confusing in the end.

AUDIO The game has a few music tracks that you may have heard before, and don't really fit the mood (they're just there, really, not annoying, but not outstanding either). There are two sound effects that would be better removed, but they're not really intrusive either.
Audio Score: 20/35

THEME This entry occasionally seems to follow Ruins more than Fear, though it hits on that Fear aspect pretty well in the dialogue.
Theme Score: 30/30

DISCRETION The intro took WAY too long and I ended up skipping it through the editor. The "gameplay" also was not very well thought out.
Discretion Score: 5/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #35974: 125/300 (before rank weighting)

GAME #4865: "Scottish Adventure" (ANCIENT RUINS)

GAMEPLAY This one's an inventory based adventure game with a Scottish protagonist (go figure). The puzzle solutions are not very obvious (who would have thought of cutting a plastic plant into pieces to use as a pen). Some of the item descriptions are incredibly long strings of message row text, that lock that player in place while they are being read to you. I ultimately got frustrated with the puzzles and played the game through the editor. I'd guess anybody would at this point.
Gameplay Score: 30/75 - Illogical puzzles hurt this game.

GRAPHICS At least it LOOKS good. The title screen shows a furry Scotsman, complete with kilt and raccoon tail. It's nice and brightly colored. Upon entering the game, I'm greeted with a real estate office with REALLY crappy floors. Everything else seems to look okay aside from the floors. Then there's the Castle Lamershire, which looks much better. The color palette is appropriately drab and dark, with some interesting architectural ideas and some really useless stuff for good measure (the suits of armor look particularly good, as do the bricks). I award this a high score in Graphics.
Graphics Score: 60/60 - A shining example that normal MZX can look good.

INNOVATION The first MZX game to star a Scotsman, and probably the simplest inventory-based game there is. No extra fluff, just a simple adventure game.
Innovation Score: 9/45 - Just for having a Scottish dude in it.

PLOT Oscar (the Scotsman) is buying a new house with a budget of only 2,000 pounds. So the Bremax realtor gives him Castle Lamershire, practically a ruin that's too hard and expensive to demolish. Oscar arrives and just wants to sleep, but his bedroom door is locked and he needs to open it. So, he embarks on an epic (cough, cough) quest to find out how to open the darned thing. It's a simple plot, not that a silly game like this needs much of a plot to be coherent.
Plot Score: 20/40 - Not for those who like the literary aspect of a game.

AUDIO The music is good, it doesn't get annoying, and it's the stuff I'd listen to outside of the game. It doesn't fit the environments, but it's good music. No sound effects to speak of.
Audio Score: 30/35

THEME Since after the Bremax board, the entire game takes place in an ancient ruin (the castle), this gets the Theme Score at the highest.
Theme Score: 30/30

DISCRETION Wait times between message row text take far too long (90 cycles? 65 will do for as short as the text is). I guess the game needed to be played at a higher speed (like 3), but since I'm a firm believer in Speed 4, I didn't think about turning it up. The puzzles have totally obscure solutions that you would have to read the code to figure out.
Discretion Score: 8/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #4865: 187/300 (before rank weighting)

GAME #5349: "Massachussetts Jones in Unearthin' Egypt" (ANCIENT RUINS)

GAMEPLAY It's a sidescroller and it starts a lot like Donkey Kong, then changes to a bit of Montezuma's Revenge or Pharaoh's Tomb (ie. find the key!). It is not immediately obvious what the keys are (use Z to whip, X to fire your gun, C to reload). It's actually quite fun after the initial Donkey Kong stage, and it warrants several play throughs (even if you die). Up to a certain point, though, it's impossible to advance to the next room. Upon continuing through the editor, the levels continue to be the same jumbles of passages and find-the-ley stuff. Whipping things is pretty fun to say the least. Even further still (after the third boss), a yellow door doesn't open properly, forcing me to cheat through it with the F8 key (I'm playing through the editor). Finally, the fourth boss is impossible to defeat (he seems to have infinite hit points) and upon beating him, you get a You Win screen. Fun, but buggy.
Gameplay Score: 50/75

GRAPHICS The light brown palette fits the game's environment very well, as do the characters. The heiroglyphs on the walls work pretty well, and the whip is well represented. Enemies also work pretty well, with some super-deformed mummies and lasers and barrels and ankhs and stuff...the title screen is also pretty nice considering that it's just a logo. The characters are all 1x1's with animations.
Graphics Score: 45/60 - Hard to see on occasion (the 1x1 characters don't help), and robots are visible sometimes.

INNOVATION Well, this is a unique game in the MZX community. I haven't seen a sidescroller quite like this one - sure, other scrollers come with the same Find The Key, Shoot The Guys gameplay, but this one has a whip and a unique environment to boot.
Innovation Score: 25/45

PLOT You are an archaeologist who seeks his fortune. You hear of an unexplored temple just a few miles from Cairo, so you go find the treasure that lurks within. A simple intro, a plotless game, and it would have been best if the plot was left out entirely because it's merely a distraction.
Plot Score: 5/40

AUDIO The music is appropriately Egypt-themed, and is not intrusive at all. The boss battles come complete with NES-style boss music, which adds to the old-school feeling of the game. There are sound effects (the usual affair of MZX PC Speaker stuff, plus a couple of digital sounds that never seem to play in anything but one of the boss rooms.
Audio Score: 30/35

THEME This one fits really well and is exactly what I would have expected a game about ancient ruins to look and feel like.
Theme Score: 30/30

DISCRETION There are quite a few bugs around. In the second boss battle, there is message row text, but it's unreadable because the status bar is constantly updating on top of it. The robots that control the boards are visible in a few of the boss battles, there's glitches in the overlay on occasion, doors won't open correctly sometimes, one level is impossible to complete because the edge-of-board isn't configured right, and the final boss cannot be defeated.
Discretion Score: 5/15 - Just careless. Why not spend some time testing your game?

TOTAL SCORE FOR #5349: 190/300 (before rank weighting)

GAME #548: "The Infernal Fear" (FEAR)

GAMEPLAY Aargh! It's an MZX sidescroller, with default enemies, limited ammo, box-pushing puzzles, trainer guys that explode in your face, Pile Of Monsters Syndrome, a boss that opens a scroll box just to say Ouch every time you shoot him, very frustrating jumping puzzles, more or less the default character set...this is every MZX cliche come to life! It is not fun at all. You would be better off playing a different sidescroller (like Unearthin' Egypt, above) instead.
Gameplay Score: 5/75 - It plays. Just not well.

GRAPHICS Pretty much the default char set, with maybe three of the characters edited. The palette was not even touched. Big Empty Room Syndrome abound, and the "boss" you fight is really not menacing at all. I know it's hard to be menacing in MZX, but this is ridiculous! It's a friggin' smiley with a nose!
Graphics Score: 10/60

INNOVATION Nada, zero, zilch. Absolutely nothing. Even the so-called "Chaos2 Physics!" mentioned on the title screen (which, by the way, looks like a ZZT game) is just a side-scrolling engine that makes everything but the enemies fall to the ground.
Innovation Score: 0/45

PLOT FIND TEH TREZZURR!1 is the phrase that best describes the plot of this game. The boss is referred to as "Voodoo 5" which makes me question this author's writing ability. T'would be best if there were no plot here.
Plot Score: 5/40

AUDIO Only one WAV file is present here, and it plays when you're inside the pyramid. Apparently it's the boss's evil laugh sound that plays randomly. I guess it's a good evil laugh sound. The MZX PC speaker sounds are still present here in full force - including that stupid Game Over ditty!
Audio Score: 5/35 - Oh boy, things aren't looking up for this game...

THEME The most relation to ancient ruins this has is the fact that you enter one to get the treasure that you want. Which is as good as anything else entered in this DoZ.
Theme Score: 30/30

DISCRETION Somebody school this team on the What Not To Do's of MZX. Let's run down the list here...

• Big Pile Of Monsters Syndrome - the snakes in the pyramid.
• Big Empty Room Syndrome - the pyramid itself.
• Board is too big - the pyramid's board boundaries extend past the end of the board, and it's possible to walk out when you're not supposed to.
• Poor Message Formatting - Should have used message row text instead of message box text for your boss! It just makes it harder to fight when you have to hit Enter every split second to dismiss a box.
• Random Explosions - What's the point of making your tutorial guy blow up in the player's face? Move him off to the side, or make him Die.
• Built-Ins - Need I say "ACK!"? They're so predictable and harmless. I needn't go any further to warrant a big fat zero.

Discretion Score: 0/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #548: 55/300 (ouch...I'd understand if it was a joke entry, but it doesn't look like one...)

GAME #6168: "Judgment of the Immortal" (ANCIENT RUINS)

GAMEPLAY An action RPG of the coolest kind to grace MZX. While the overworld is just that (an overworld), you enter the Tainted Forest and start thwacking on things with your sword like this was Link To The Past. Whack stuff with your sword, open chests and drink potions. A handy message box at the bottom tells you how much damage you're doing (and taking), and when you change screens, it tells you how many more are left before you can exit. It's simple and fun. The fact that you can name your hero is another plus - it adds to the immersion. Regrettably, though, upon exiting the forest, the game ends rather abruptly. I hope this game is continued post-DoZ, because I want to see more!
Gameplay Score: 70/75 - Balance issue - see Discretion.

GRAPHICS Wow, this looks good. The understated title screen and intro didn't prepare me for this wonderful overworld. Upon entering the Forest, I'm graced with wonderful 2x3 sprites and tiles that work well together, and nicely designed monsters. The motion blur on the sword swipe is pretty cool too, and this is yet another shining example of how awesome normal MZX mode games can look. Since the player character appears asexual (could go either way, really) you can feel free to use whatever kind of name you want. The only graphics unchanged were those for the font and boxes, because if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I suppose a less bold font would have done this game some good (instead of the IBM ASCII default) but whatever works, I guess...
Graphics Score: 55/60 - Would have been nice to see a new font.

INNOVATION Well, large-scale action RPG's are few and far between in MZX (considering how difficult they are to make), especially ones with this kind of fun sword-slashery and potion-quaffery. So I hereby award this game a high score in innovation.
Innovation Score: 35/45

PLOT Apparently your hero is looking for treasure in the Shrine of Suralno, but you never do make it there in this game. Instead, you loot through the forest on the way and get cut off by the abrupt "THE END" screen. Little plot to go by.
Plot Score: 5/40

AUDIO The music fits its given environment (forest) quite well, and there are no sounds to speak of. Better than nothing, good music, but little flavor. Maybe some slashing and thwacking sounds, squeaks for the chest...but eh, why am I complaining?
Audio Score: 25/35

THEME Seeing as the player never really makes it to the Shrine to get the treasure, this game really doesn't fit its theme too well. The forest isn't considered an Ancient Ruin (unless the laws of common sense have been changed), but there is treasure.
Theme Score: 15/30

DISCRETION One major bug to exploit - when you're swinging your sword at an enemy, you can keep holding the attack keys down to swing at where the enemy used to be, to continue gaining gold and items from them. Monsters, upon walking over treasure chests, will destroy the chests, but this hardly matters, since you can more than make up the benefits from the chests by constantly thwacking the monsters. Alas, I'll have to dock some points here because of this easy exploit.
Discretion Score: 7/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #6168: 212/300 (potential winner here!)

GAME #723: "The Temple O Ketera" (ANCIENT RUINS)

GAMEPLAY This one is an action game with several weapons and some grenades to throw. It's really not as fun as it sounds, because the enemies are no fun, and I couldn't figure out the first "boss." I ended up playing this one through the editor so I could pass the boss. But on continuation, it wasn't really worth it. The jumping physics are really awful and hard to control, and the ending is truly disappointing.
Gameplay Score: 25/75

GRAPHICS Enemies are well-represented at the very least, but everything here is 1x1 characters, and your character just looks strange. The game suffers muchly from Big Empty Room Syndrome, and despite an interesting-looking first board, the rest of the game fails to live up to it.
Graphics Score: 25/60

INNOVATION The multiple weapons and grenades are new and interesting, considering the Side Scrolling Nature of this game. That's really all there is, though.
Innovation Score: 10/45

PLOT In the near future, researchers unearth an ancient ruin in India that bears exact directions to Atlantis. Some other researchers discover a way to bring Atlantis back to the surface. However, Atlantis is filled with all kinds of magic and undead monsters, so the US sends a bunch of special forces to go and take care of things. You're the sole survivor. So you're charged with the task of sending Atlantis back down, to save the world. Some old guy tells you that Atlantis is actually the heart of the world, and that you have to destroy it to save the entire planet, but you don't have the weapon that can do it. So the Earth explodes, and you are given an abrupt ending screen. Joy.
Plot Score: 25/40 - It's a realized plot, with plenty of coverage. And you get to name your character in this one.

AUDIO Music is intermittent (not active everywhere) and there are no sounds. The music is unintrusive and not too fitting for an action game. It's just too calm.
Audio Score: 15/35 - Just as good as if there weren't any sounds at all.

THEME Fits pretty well, and is probably the only DoZ entry this time that takes place in Atlantis.
Theme Score: 30/30

DISCRETION The first boss is too hard to figure out how to beat (if there even is a way to beat him). Jump physics are wacky and hard to deal with. With a bit of fixing, this would have been playable to the end without much annoyance.
Discretion Score: 10/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #723: 140/300

GAME #7486: "Zeeb's Interplanetary Adventure" (ANCIENT RUINS)

GAMEPLAY An adventure game. This one constantly shows you your inventory, and seems to be much more logical than Scottish Adventure. Upon boarding the rocket to planet Sarnia, though, I got stuck. After loading the game up in the editor (geez, I hate doing that), I determined that this game was never finished. There are a bunch of boards that, while they have names, are completely blank.
Gameplay Score: 20/75

GRAPHICS Decent graphics - flatshaded, somewhat well represented, consistent style, generally not overly eye-hurting. Which is good.
Graphics Score: 30/60

INNOVATION Ehh, not really much new here, aside from the on-screen inventory (which is kinda buggy if you try and select past what you have). There's an MP3 player in the inventory, but it never got implemented.
Innovation Score: 10/45

PLOT Zeeb's life is down the drain. His planet is at war with another one, he got evicted from his apartment, he's dead broke, he's in love with a girl who doesn't know he exists...so he goes to join the army and go steal some treasure from the enemy planet's Ancient Ruins(tm). This isn't any ordinary treasure - it has the potential to power nearly anything. Upon launching in your rocket with the rest of your regiment, you're hit by an incoming missile and crash on the planet. You're sent on alone to find the treasure. Sadly, that's where the game stops. Disappointing to say the least - it had potential.
Plot Score: 15/40

AUDIO It has music. The music doesn't suck. The music fits. It's not annoying. There are no sound effects. It's about like every other game's audio track, really...
Audio Score: 20/35

THEME Yes, the ancient ruins are worked in to the plot, but to what extent I don't know, because the game is not finished. Ah well...I'll give it some pity points, though.
Theme Score: 20/30

DISCRETION Inventory system has a vew glitches, like trying to move the highlight past the items that you have in your inventory. It's also possible to break the rocket sequence by talking to Deacon while the explosions are going off. It's for this reason that I had to play the game in the editor.
Discretion Score: 10/15 - Be more careful with your touch labels.

TOTAL SCORE FOR #7486: 125/300

GAME #812: "Jeff Kenny: Secret Agent - Rise of the Kyken Ruins" (ANCIENT RUINS)

GAMEPLAY An overhead action game with punches, kicks, and rolls. Very very frustrating, though, unless you know where all the guards are, because the viewport is slow and the guards are really fast. You have a fatigue system that you have to work with, in which you regain 1% stamina every few cycles. The kicker is this, however: you get below 10% stamina, you have to sit down and rest until it climbs up to 30, so if you run out of stamina fighting a single guard, expect to die. You're a friggin' secret agent - why not take along, I dunno, a GUN or something? The second mission, for some reason, gives you a Grabbo Arm ("The grabbo arm has what it takes...and what it takes is Marzipan's purse!") and sends you into the Ancient Ruins to find some Trezzurr. (*SIGH*) At least at this point it takes fewer hits to kill guards. And then once you beat the leader and take the gem (really friggin' easy, just kick him in the nads like every other guard in the game) the game ends. Once you discover that the game solely consists of kicking guards in the nads, and ultimately administer the same punishment to the leader, it may seem more boring, but I enjoyed it overall (just to kick those guards in the nads). I know, I'm a sick freak.
Gameplay Score: 40/75

GRAPHICS Simplistic. Stick figure style characters, animated, 1x1. Strange placement of characters on occasion (MZX's Whirlpool character for no apparent reason). Title screen is put together pretty well, and evidently Jeff Kenny is an African-American secret agent.
Graphics Score: 30/60

INNOVATION Not since Tae Kwon Do Joe has there been a hand-to-hand combat system. This one's pretty dull by comparison, but it's fun to roll around everywhere until Jeff gets tired. Kicking guards in the nads is a brand new form of wholesome family entertainment and should be in every MZX game worth its salt.
Innovation Score: 30/45 - It's not the most ingenious design in the world, but kicking guards in the nads (am I ever going to get tired of typing that?) is just plain awesome.

PLOT You're immediately spat out on the air field. Talk to the guy in front of your jet and he tells you what to do, how to do it, and then you're spat out into the next board. Shut off the security systems, burn the note and steal the boss's gem. Then the guy in front of your jet tells you the leader is at some kind of Ancient Ruin(tm) looking for a gem of power, so you get a Grabbo Arm and you can go to the Ancient Ruin(tm) and kick the leader in the nads (that's six times now I've typed that). Then the game ends. All that work of kicking dudes in the nads goes to an abrupt ending. People just aren't dedicated to these DoZ's anymore, I swear...
Plot Score: 10/40 - Boring. But it does justify kicking people in the nads.

AUDIO Music is here, it works, it ain't crappy, and there's no sounds (as usual). What would have been awesome is (you guessed it) sounds for guards getting kicked in the nads. What hurts this one though is the selection of a song from the Zeux games (FR_TOWER). Geez! Another unknowing Zeuxer who thinks we haven't heard enough of the Zeux music. I'll show this dude...
Audio Score: 15/35 - Lack of sounds notwithstanding...the presence of a Zeux song hurts this one. Blargh.

THEME The Ancient Ruins(tm) don't come into play until the latter half of the game, so this one gets a slightly diminished score.
Theme Score: 25/30

DISCRETION This would have done well with a larger viewport in some sections of the game. I got totally owned by some guards in the security room in the first mission because I didn't see them coming. The presence of a Zeux song hurts this score too. Ack.
Discretion Score: 10/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #812: 160/300

GAME #84865: "Fear Nothing" (FEAR)

GAMEPLAY This is an action/survival game with multiple guns (including a pipe) to attack with. Attack zombies, explore a hospital, follow trails of blood, and find out about your past. It has all the makings of a good game, but there are some serious bugs to be found (it's possible to get the game stuck by re-reading one note during your character's monologue - ZAP YOUR TOUCH LABELS so this doesn't happen!). It is a very involving game despite the obvious lack of atmosphere. It's heavily plot driven, though not so much so as "Are You Afraid?" above (the story isn't the sole element of the game). You get some guns to fight off the zombies around the place - a pistol, a machine gun, and a shotgun. The shotgun is pretty neat, in a Resident Evil kind of way.
Gameplay Score: 50/75 - Glitchy.

GRAPHICS Minimalist, and potentially eye-hurting graphics. Smileys, heavily contrasting colors, and things that are hard to identify (like, what's the difference between a fuse and a keycard, shape-wise?). It's mostly just white and dark red, with some grey and light red thrown in on occasion. The title screen is kinda spiffy.
Graphics Score: 30/60

INNOVATION Multi-directional, multi-weapon shooting, and an emphasis on fear and plot. It's a survival horror game with an engaging plot, within the confines of MZX. Wow.
Innovation Score: 40/45

PLOT Here's where this one shines. You are Eva. You wake up in a hospital, with blood stains everywhere. Upon finding a weapon, you run about the hospital defending yourself, and are greeted with a series of flashbacks that tell you that you're not quite the innocent young girl you thought you were. A tale of abuse, mass murder, and revenge...it's so involving I wish it were a real game and not a DoZ entry.
Plot Score: 40/40 - It's one of those like Memento, or Spartan - you have to watch it several times to get the full meaning of it.

AUDIO No music, just sounds. This would have done well with a nice ambient track, maybe some more sounds. What sounds there were didn't even work too well (aside from the thud sounds of whacking zombies with the pipe).
Audio Score: 10/35

THEME Fits perfectly, and [gump]that's all I gotta say 'bout that.[/gump]
Theme Score: 30/30

DISCRETION Needs major bug fixing. In dialog exchange, it's difficult to tell who's talking because the text colors are the same.
Duscretion Score: 10/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #84865: 210/300 (Serious contender for first place)

GAME #9532: "RUN! RUN! RUN!" (FEAR)

GAMEPLAY Run around and find keys to get outta the place, while avoiding things that you are afraid of. The game psyches you out a lot by showing messages like "PRESS C TO ENTER HYPER MODE!" and "UP DOWN B START!" The viewport is small, but this is made up for by a rather nifty mini map in the upper right corner. You are a 2x2 sprite, and you can run diagonally (which is a serious plus in this game). There doesn't seem to be any serious penalty for dying (aside from being sent back to the start of the level). You don't lose lives, you don't run out of time. The pace is very frantic, and it works pretty darn well. Upon beating the three levels you're given, it tells you how many times you were caught (I was caught 11 times, most of them on Level 2). Essentially this is a really elaborate stealth game. I like it!
Gameplay Score: 70/75 - The game is too short and needs more levels - but I guess the 24 hours were spent finetuning what game was there. And for that I award this team.

GRAPHICS Also very impressive. You are a 2x2 kid with a bowtie, with some nice animations. Your moth opens when you run, and you look appropriately scared...of hotdogs, Earthquake, and Sam's Club, all three of which are well represented. The three levels are a department store (complete with different shelves full of nondescript goods, neckties, cutlery, and the have-a-fit rooms), a space station (very much tech-based and it looks really neat), and a Pac-Man maze (with power pellets that serve as the level's keys). It looks impressive, and is yet ANOTHER example of how Normal MZX Graphics look good.
Graphics Score: 55/60

INNOVATION Never before has an MZX game been all about running from things to my knowledge (and finished). The way this handles the running, and the keys, and the mini-map (which still rules), makes this easily one of the best this DoZ.
Innovation Score: 45/45

PLOT You don't get a plot. The moment you press P, you're presented with the following epic introduction: "HOT DOG. YOU ARE AFRAID OF HOT DOG. RUN!" That's enough explanation for anybody.
Plot Score: 20/40 - No plot is better than bad plot, eh? This really doesn't need one.

AUDIO Music is appropriately cheesy and fast-paced to go with the frantic gameplay. It's all in XM format, so we see full advantage taken of 2.80f's sound system (which absolutely rules). We have silly sound effects for when you get caught (including a lower-pitched Homer shouting "AHH BOOGEYMAN!"). We have voices shouting "RUN!" It's all here and it all rules!
Audio Score: 35/35

THEME What better way to take advantage of the Fear theme than by making a chase-action game?
Theme Score: 30/30 (the easiest one to place in for me)

DISCRETION I didn't find anything wrong with this game, really...this is the work of a truly dedicated team. I bet they used all 24 hours, too!
Discretion Score: 15/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #9532: 270/300 (absolute number 1 winnah!)

GAME #962: "We didn't have enough time to make a good title screen. Sorry!" (ANCIENT RUINS)

GAMEPLAY It's a sidescroller. You are a zombie, and as such, you can run around and take bites out of other zombies. Whoot! Except that I didn't find a very clear point to play through this game. I don't know if it was just that I didn't know where to go or what, but after encountering Es in the tower, I didn't know what to do. There was a crown that I could pick up, but apparently it was a fake. I didn't see any obvious conclusion to the game in the editor. Maybe they just didn't have time to finish. There is a boss, but he's just annoying.
Gameplay Score: 40/75 - Eating chunks from zombies' heads is fun for a while, but the game doesn't seem to end to my knowledge.

GRAPHICS Nice. Characters are only 1x1's, but the colors fit pretty well, your character (and others) look appropriately like zombies, and it's quite amusing to see a zombie with a chunk missing from his head. And at least the game uses the whole viewport.
Graphics Score: 45/60

INNOVATION There have been games where you're a zombie before (I think), but this one is fun because you can eat the other zombies. It's a new and interesting play mechanic and that at least gets this one some recognition.
Innovation Score: 20/45

PLOT You were once a human, but after a violent attack from a zombie, you became one yourself. And since your revolver is broken now, you have to use your teeth to fight. And you still have to jump into the Ancient Ruin(tm) and find the Crown. And the Crown is actually a fake. How disappointing - but the setup for the whole zombie thing is pretty silly.
Plot Score: 15/40

AUDIO MZX PC Speaker Default Sounds: 10 points docked. Overused Enter Sandman MOD Cover: 15 points docked. The realization that your favorite song really sucks: priceless.
Audio Score: 10/35

THEME At first I wasn' sure if this followed the Fear theme or the Ancient Ruins theme - for that confusion, there's a few points docked. Zombies don't typically associate with tomb raiding. But ti did try to fit otherwise...
Theme Score: 25/30

DISCRETION At some point there was a bug that made me jump incredibly high. No clue why.
Discretion Score: 14/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #962: 169/300

GAME #96234: "The Mindkilla" (FEAR) GAMEPLAY There is nothing to DO in this game! All you do is sit and watch the poor humor. You don't even have to press keys to advance the dialog. You could easily just hit P to start the game and go eat lunch, then it'd pretty much complete itself while you were gone.
Gameplay Score: 0/75

GRAPHICS The graphics are...well, decent. Flatshaded, somewhat people-like. The characters are 2x2's, likely not sprites (because nothing moves). Then the last two boards are just red lines, and a nice char-edit boombox, respectively. Nothing to get wowed over.
Graphics Score: 25/60

INNOVATION Anti-bush, racist, political humor. That's just REALLY original, isn't it? It's not even a new perspective on humor, and heck if it's even humor at all. I don't know who on Earth would find this funny aside from some very sick individuals.
Innovation Score: 0/45

PLOT Just a great big racial war that amounts after a lot of terrorism. Bush is involved, lots of John Ashcroft bashing, and of course, Iraq. If I wanted this kind of plot, I'd turn on the frickin' news channel!
Plot Score: 0/40 - This plot caused me physical pain.

AUDIO This game consists of some very unorthodox music, including rap, and other things that generally do not make me very happy. Only three music tracks and no sounds. In a way, I'm glad there weren't more.
Audio Score: 10/35

THEME This followed its theme, alright, but this is about the only score this does well in.
Theme Score: 30/30

DISCRETION This gets an immediate 0 for poor taste and controversy. It starts with lots of September 11th/Al-Qaeda material, then cuts into a lot of racial stereotypes, vulgar language...I was seriously tempted to just quit the game immediately from the intro. Then came the sexual talk. I have serious suspicions about who really made this game, but I will not speak them here.
Discretion Score: 0/15

TOTAL SCORE FOR #96234: 65/300

SUMMARY
1) #9532: 270/300
2) #6168: 212/300
3) #84865: 210/300
4) #323: 194/300
5) #5349: 190/300
6) #4865: 187/300
7) #17915: 185/300
8) #962: 169/300
9) #812: 160/300
10) #723: 140/300
11) #1799: 138/300
12) #7486: 125/300
13) #35974: 125/300
14) #2004: 78/300
15) #96234: 65/300
16) #22947: 56/300
17) #548: 55/300

ARRANGED ACCORDING TO JUDGE'S RANK WEIGHTING, FINAL SCORE NOT FACTORED:
1) #9532: 270/300
2) #6168: 212/300
3) #5349: 190/300
4) #84865: 210/300
5) #812: 160/300
6) #323: 194/300
7) #4865: 187/300
8) #17915: 185/300
9) #962: 169/300
10) #723: 140/300
11) #7486: 125/300
12) #35974: 125/300
13) #1799: 138/300
14) #2004: 78/300
15) #22947: 56/300
16) #548: 55/300
17) #96234: 65/300

LAST MINUTE ADDITION: #2004 "Afraid to forget" (FEAR)

GAMEPLAY Run around, hack people into bits, blow up buildings, burn a bus. There is nothing else to do because there is only one board in this whole darn game aside from the long-winded intro and the game-over board. It's not even fun to hack people up because the sword you get is really slow.
Gameplay Score: 25/75

GRAPHICS This follows a simplistic isometric style, that looks bad more often than not. MZX default explosions and fire are here too, which is just awful.
Graphics Score: 20/60

INNOVATION We've had plenty of slaughter games already - Snig's Quest, the Armageddon Sword engine...not to mention a lot of games that make buildings explode.
Innovation Score: 0/45

PLOT Your girlfriend is leaving you, so you grab a ninja sword and go kill stuff. The only end is when you die (from explosions).
Plot Score: 10/40

AUDIO There was no audio in this game aside from the PC Speaker sound effects (which were the MZX defaults, ack...)
Audio Score: 5/35

THEME Fear is only loosely tied in to this game - it would fit better if the theme were RAGE.
Theme Score: 13/30

DISCRETION The author obviously didn't realize how pointless this game was, because there's no obvious end to it, nor is there a sense of accomplishment from destroying everything.
Discretion Score: 5/15

TOTAL SCORE OF #2004: 78/300