Video Game Review:
Various Unity Games
First posted in December, 2008

Apropos of my last review, Unity is a plugin for your browser, sort of like Flash, except that it handles 3D and physics in a way that Flash can't. It's not new, but it's mostly for browser gaming, and thus not terribly common like Flash. A friend asked if it was worth installing the Unity plugin. I recently explored Unity games a bit more after enjoying Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, because I wanted to see what else the engine could do.

That having been said, I came across a lot of experiments which wouldn't be worth the bandwidth to download them, but I also found some stuff that's pretty fun. If you download Unity and want some more games to try out, here are a few that I've enjoyed:

» Circuit Defenders:	A fairly simple but shiny tower defense game (granted, this is the first tower defense game I've ever really played, so there might be better ones out there which are also free). I had a little trouble getting started, but once I did it became pretty simple and fun fairly quickly. Kickin' little Matrix-esque soundtrack, which was fun once but then I shut it off. Lots of explosions due to lasers and flamethrowers and lightning and ... yeah, it's a game written by boys for boys but it's pretty darn good.
» Tumble Drop:	This one is very girly, sort of reminiscent of Hello Kitty, but it's a fun puzzle game. There is a pink star which is on a platform in the middle of the ocean, and it evidently can't swim (it has no arms, so that's not surprising), and it is unfortunately perched atop a variety of oddly shaped blocks. Your goal is to remove the blocks one by one, until the pink star rests safely on the platform. Every time you remove a block, the other blocks shift, and hopefully the pink star does not go for a swim. This one only has 20 levels, but they were very enjoyable. Sam and I had a good time taking turns on this one.
» WolfQuest:	This is one of the few games on this list that you can download to your computer and play outside a browser. It's an educational game in which you are a (fully customizable) wolf who lives in Yellowstone National Park. You can hunt, interact with other animals, and the goal in this game is to travel the countryside, meet other wolves, communicate with them, and find a mate. Then the two of you can go take down larger prey through cooperation. There's an online mode I haven't tried where you can form packs with other players. And later this year they plan to do a second release which has more goals, such as finding a pack (offline) and rearing pups.
» Rasta Monkey:	This one's an interesting platformer with some unique movement. It's a little tricky to get the hang of it, and I haven't played very far yet so I'm not sure how many levels it has, but it's pretty fun. If you like platformers, or reggae, or gratuitous references to marijuana, or monkeys, then this would be worth your time. Sam and I would like to know why the monkey has no tail.
» Super Volei Brasil:	This is cool, as free volleyball games go. Unfortunately, I just never really got the hang of it, but if you're into sports games, this two-on-two street volleyball game is shiny and cute. It's entirely in Portuguese, but you can probably muddle your way through it.
» Downhill Bowling:	Yeah, I'm not a fan of bowling games, either, really, but this one is fun and pretty. I won't probably replay it much, but Sam and I enjoyed playing the ten levels and had some good laughs. Watch out for raccoons.
» Nuddz:	This is the other game on the list that you can download to your computer and play offline, but it's honestly just an experiment. A fun experiment, mind you. Unfortunately, it's just one level which you can play using one of three difficulty settings. You are an orc or somesuch creature, and you've got bombs, and you have to light the bombs, wait for the fuse to get to the right length, then hurl the bomb across the water at a tower, where another orc is perched on a tall platform; the other orc is hurling both bombs and insults at you. The Unity engine's advanced game physics impressively model the result of every explosion on the rocks in the tower, until such time as you topple the other orc (or are killed by being hit with too many bombs). I'd really like to see this person come out with more levels, a slightly improved interface, and give the PC a bit more speed... this was amusing and challenging and pretty. I understand from reading some Unity forum posts that it only really runs on pretty high end systems (we ran it on our fairly new PC that was just built this summer), but if you have a fast system with a good video card and some fairly ample bandwidth, it's worth a look.
» Flip Sorter:	This one is really only for the hard-core puzzle gamer. I had some trouble understanding what to do at first, then I got it, but never got to where I enjoyed it. I think there are some people reading this, though, that like really hard brain teasers, and if that describes you, this might well be your thing.
» Hordes of Orcs:	Another tower defense game, though radically different in style and design than the aforementioned Circuit Defender. This one would have been pretty cool if (A) I hadn't already played Circuit Defender, which was free and (b) the game didn't cost $20. There is a one hour demo, and it does a couple of novel things that I liked, but not enough to put down cash.

So those, in addition to all but one of the Blurst.com games I mentioned in my last review, are worth a spin.

I also downloaded quite a few which were just experiments or alphas, or otherwise not worth the bandwidth (which is limited for me). If bandwidth's limited for you, let me save you some time and GBs... Keep in mind that some of these might get upgraded at a later date, but as of the date of this post, don't bother downloading Chicken Target, Mars Explorer, Pirates and Dragons, or Sperm Racer.

Lies & Seduction (Mac only) might be okay if you have a super new Mac, but was clunky on our G4. Turtle Trap was functional, but sort of slow (as in boring) and I didn't see anything too novel about it. And Project Cloudwitch wasn't at all what I was expecting from the title, and I died horribly very quickly, and I wasn't intrigued enough to try again, but if you like floating around in space in a space suit being attacked by things, it might be worth a look.

If you know of more Unity games I might be interested in, please feel free to drop me a line using the e-mail address provided at the bottom of the page. Thanks!

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