A Different Kind of Fun
This is one of those games that you play but wonder why you're playing it, yet at the same time you know you can't stop because you're somehow enjoying it. I guess I just described addicting.
I notice a lot of people are complaining about the new camera deal in this one. This was the first version I played and upon reading reviews about the camera, I went ahead and played the first one to see the difference and what people were talking about. I've gotta say, despite what others say, I actually like the camera in this version a lot better and here's why.
We all played connect-the-dots when we were younger, yes? What was the funnest aspect about playing them in our coloring books? For me, it was to see what the picture ultimately was; what I was drawing. I loved not knowing what I was making until finished or closed to it and getting that "Ooooh!" inside that little kids do when they figure things out. This game did that. The fact that our perspective is so close, with bigger pictures, makes it harder to guess or figure out the objects, especially as you near towards the end, and it also makes you feel little again, drawing in a big book. When I went back and played the old version I could immediately tell what I was about to draw the instant I turned the page, "Oh..boat...dipper...sled.." etc. hence taking all the fun out of it. Why do it when there's no element of surprise? Very boring.
That's just my take on the whole thing though. You're thrills and reasons for playing might be different than mine. So I suggest next time the artist makes a compromise by allowing the user to set the camera on fixed or pan. That could mess up gameplay though because if you fix it to zoom out all the way the dots may be too small, along with your cursor. If you fix the dots to scale in size as you're in fixed mode, that too could be an issue because dots that are close together will overlap each other with their size. Surely there's some way around it but I'm not going to try to hard to figure it out because its not my project.
The other attributes of the game were very good especially the recap at the end where we got to see all the pictures we drew and you let us know what they were or what they were supposed to be (mine all looked accurate except that coat hanger, hah). That was another huge difference. Not all the scribbles in the last version were actually anything, they were just...scribbles, heh. Which makes sense considering the title of the game, but still, not nearly as fun.
Awesome game! I'd love to see a 3rd one!
-Darkend-