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Best Shareware Games Of 2003 Explored
Thanks to AVault for their feature discussing the best shareware PC titles for 2003, as the writer points out: "As software stores stock fewer new computer games, shareware titles and Internet releases offer an alternative for those who want to play on their PCs. Most of my favorite recreational offerings from the past year never made it into retail outlets." Picks include Chain Reaction ("Remember the old Dynamix game The Incredible Machine? Even though the company is defunct, its creators have developed a new 3D version"), Ultraball ("combines the fun of a Breakout game with all the action and excitement of a pinball game"), and Dr.Blob's Organism ("...a fast-paced shooter in which you blast gelatinous one-celled organisms as they try to escape from a Petri dish.")
The illegal cracking community for shareware games is just as prolific for shareware games as it is for commercial games, and I think I kinda of see the reasoning.
People don't really want to pay $20 every time they get another Arkanoid clone. Some authors really do deserve money for years of hard work, but some really don't. They spend about a week shitting out a game in C or some other language and expect the world to pay their bills in $20 increments. The excrement that they put out doesn't invite people to pay for it.
What in the hell was Avault smoking when they put games like Ratinator and Clash into this list of Shareware games of the year?
Or more aptly, how much were they PAID to do so?
Those games are AWFUL!
Ratinator has terrible controls and collision detection. The weapons look like solid color spheres with no texture. The powerups are solid color cylynders! The sound effects are boring, and the music is repetitive.
And Clash is really dull. It has pretty graphics, but they're too busy and confusing. The ball moves WAY too slowly, and the control of the paddle is INCREDIBLY sluggish!
Again I ask... how much were they PAID to put THESE games on the list of games of the year?
Just because the bricks move about in Clash, that doesn't make it a game of the year. Sure it's creative. But Jardinians is a hell of a lot more clever and a lot more fun. I guess Avualt gives 50% of it's score for GRAPHICS alone, because both these games SUCK but have pretty graphics wheras Jardinians has poor graphics but is really fun to play.
The only game on their list which I could say belongs there is UltraBall which is a truly creative breakout game with nice graphics, and gameplay to match. It's very original, as it looks, sounds, and plays a lot like a pinball game instead of a breakout game.