Empires of the Middle AgesTabletop Tuesdays: Medieval Grand Strategy | Submitted by costik on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 19:22. |
Jim Dunnigan is one of a handful of designers to have published in excess of a hundred games (it helps to run your own game company for a decade), and in my opinion, Empires of the Middle Ages is one of his best designs -- possibly the best of them all.
When you first up Astro Miner, your first thought is, Okay, it's a sidescroller, but with a crispness and a level of graphic effects you don't see in, say, Flash games. And then you start to play a bit, and it doesn't take long before you say -- wait... What the hell was that power-up? I can do what? What is that monster and -- oh crap... I can fly now? I can use dynamite? Jesus there's a lot of stuff in this thing...
Fundamentally, it is a conventional sidescrolling platformer, but one for people weaned on Mario and Sonic; it's fast (and the need to grab oxygen to keep it from depleting keeps it so), it's not easy, and surprises are almost continuous. Nicely responsive controls (and joystick support) as well.
