OK, if it were 32 levels, or if the levels were longer and more complex, then absolutely, yes -- it would be tedious as hell and something would have to be redesigned. But c'mon! It's only 16 short levels, and the planets are small. The only way it becomes tedious is if you're effing up a lot and have to keep re-starting the level -- and that's not Bonte's fault. ;-) If anything, the real Christmas present here is that it's a pretty easy game to solve, relative to some of Bonte's other brain twisters. And it's cute.
In the original version of CT2, level 20 was considered to be harder than level 21. That's definitely no longer the case. Level 20 is easier in this version, and I even got Brilliant for the Night mission on my first attempt. Level 21 is absolutely nuts in this version, and I haven't been able to get Brilliant for the Day or Night missions, despite multiple attempts and spending a lot of Skulls. I'm not sure yet if there's a strategy I haven't tried yet, or if the difficulty spike is just too extreme. I'll give it a couple more tries, but it's quickly becoming more frustrating than fun -- and having to grind for skulls when I've already maxed out every skill is something I'm not willing to do.
I cleared level 30, but I have no idea how or why. I shot at least 3 rockets up the poor chief's backside, only to discover that he's pappy's old buddy? I was trying to kill him, but he only got a little singed. (OK, a lot singed. Maybe charred, even. But lightly charred.)
So then the game suddenly ended, and I have no idea if I was supposed to do that or if we were supposed to go have mai tais together. After that adventure, I could sure use one!
Is there any way to tell if your gems have been touched *other than* the laugh? The laugh does not trigger reliably, and I usually prefer to play with the sound off anyway. It really sucks to be on wave 9 or so and you think you got the guy in time, but he basically died right on top of a gem... Do I re-start the level again, or play the next 21 waves not sure if I'lll finally get my Brilliant.
Cute game. I was expecting the dire warnings about the silly humans doing "something stupid" would lead to my exorcism. But why would I care if one jumps out of the window and dies? One less mortal to disturb my peaceful home.
I love the attitude, graphic style, and even the music (which I'd probably hate in a different context, but fits perfectly here). However, the difficulty curve relative to your ability to upgrade your ship made the grind unbearable for me halfway through. And, as others have noted, your field of vision is so tiny that you never even see half your enemies before you've destroyed them.
These games are all exactly the same, and they're all terrible. I don't know why they keep getting badged (and especially Badge of the Day), but if Arus51 thinks we can make a difference by giving them all one star ratings, I'm on board.
The difficulty jump between level 23 (super easy, just like all the ones before) and level 24 (quite challenging, and requiring different skills) makes no sense.
There are lots of positive reviews for this game. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them. For starters, the look of the game. I know that the low-res retro look is in, but it makes this game ugly and difficult to play. It literally hurt my eyes. The level of detail is a bit much. I appreciate thoroughness, but I do not want to grow my own sesame seeds so I can make a hamburger bun in the kitchen that we've just built. I just want my character to consume edibles so I can go about the more interesting business of the characters and story. I don't want to have a job in a game. I don't want to do housework, mining, cooking, gathering ingredients, etc... That's work, and there's plenty of it in our real lives. It's not fun, and we play games to get *away* from all that. The sad thing is that I'm actually intrigued by the story. I got far enough in to see that the developer has a cool concept, and I would like to know more -- just not enough to torture myself by playing this non-game.
Edit: The game clearly isn't working properly for me either. I checked out the walkthrough, and it didn't match my first attempt. The level I got was completely blank, and the tutorial didn't launch. After seeing that, I gave it another shot. This time, the tutorial (which is still pretty bad, but at least it's there) did launch, but the level wouldn't register as complete, even after the blue tile was lit. Original assessment remains at one star. Definitely not worth my time to help debug further for a game that doesn't even look fun.
The UI is terrible, and SOME kind of in-game tutorial is absolutely necessary. If you haven't played the first one and/or you don't have some kind of coding experience, don't even bother.
The basic concept is fun, and although it feels kinda wrong, I really enjoyed throwing the sheep and wolves over the cliff to be eaten. HOWEVER, everything else was a major letdown. I kept expecting the dragon to get up off his a$$ and fly or fight or anything. And then it was over and I'd won. Not a very exciting win, since I felt like the game never really got started in the first place.
Mediocre game play coupled with nearly useless instructions = not worth the time to figure it out. It might make sense if you'd played the earlier games in the series (giving them the benefit of the doubt here), but coming at this from the perspective of a non-gamer whose spent years in web & software usability, this was a perfect storm of bad design, and the translation issues didn't help.
 "Flagstaff: Chapter Two"){kind=icon}
 "A Bonte Christmas"){kind=icon}
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 "Gragyriss, Captor of Princesses"){kind=icon}
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