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tangaroaThe simple name of Stephen Orlando's Treasure Adventure Game does nothing to express the richness of the game's world. There are numerous islands with distinctive graphic features, new interactive features on most major islands, different art themes for the different dungeons, a day and night cycle and NPCs that react to it, weather that changes how fast your boat can sail, and three backstories in the player character's search for his missing father and the missing treasures, a corrupt company polluting the world and causing strife, and a world creation legend that influences level design and NPC conversations.
The gameplay crosses Mario-style 2-D platform jumping with Zelda-like exploring and acquisition of treasures that can be used to enter the next dungeon. Like the original Zelda, you have the option of attacking some of the dungeons out of order.
The fun gameplay, level design, and attention to detail might make this the best freeware game since Iji. It is all topped off with a fairly good soundtrack by Robert Ellis; there are several musicians with that name on the web, so I can't tell you which one. The game has at least 20-30 hours of game play with plenty of save points so it can be played in chunks of 2 hours or less.
Certain points in the game are difficult, but not too difficult. For jumping puzzles and boss fights in particular, there are many jumps where small fractions of a second count and you have to get a running start and be partly off of the platform to make it to the next. Players without honed NES-platformer reflexes will need to acquire them quickly. For experienced players, the difficulty level is enough to make the game challenging and success satisfying without being too hard. The player will also need good vision at a few points in the game where platform shapes are obscured by an overlay.
The game's biggest flaw is that several logic puzzles are unsolveable until you get an item later in the game, and there is no obvious sign that this is the case. Here are a few hints that won't spoil anything other than a half hour of aggravation: if there is a small mushroom that you cannot jump on, it will grow after you have accomplished some goal which is usually on a different island later in the game. Some jumps actually are impossible to make until you get the Boots later in the game, but there are only a few of these. If you need to use an elemental power like wind, water, or fire and you can't get it from the environment, you will need to wait until you get the Magic Jar. You will need to abandon some of the most prominent puzzles in the first few missions, and you will not be coming back to them for a long time.
Parental concern: the game has positive references to hallucinogenic drugs.
The game crashed a few times, but they were probably platform-related bugs. There was one unrepeatable crash when loading a scene, and several crashes when closing the program. I recommend heading for the nearest save point after any major accomplishment. I only lost progress once, but it's good advice in general.
The gameplay crosses Mario-style 2-D platform jumping with Zelda-like exploring and acquisition of treasures that can be used to enter the next dungeon. Like the original Zelda, you have the option of attacking some of the dungeons out of order.
The fun gameplay, level design, and attention to detail might make this the best freeware game since Iji. It is all topped off with a fairly good soundtrack by Robert Ellis; there are several musicians with that name on the web, so I can't tell you which one. The game has at least 20-30 hours of game play with plenty of save points so it can be played in chunks of 2 hours or less.
Certain points in the game are difficult, but not too difficult. For jumping puzzles and boss fights in particular, there are many jumps where small fractions of a second count and you have to get a running start and be partly off of the platform to make it to the next. Players without honed NES-platformer reflexes will need to acquire them quickly. For experienced players, the difficulty level is enough to make the game challenging and success satisfying without being too hard. The player will also need good vision at a few points in the game where platform shapes are obscured by an overlay.
The game's biggest flaw is that several logic puzzles are unsolveable until you get an item later in the game, and there is no obvious sign that this is the case. Here are a few hints that won't spoil anything other than a half hour of aggravation: if there is a small mushroom that you cannot jump on, it will grow after you have accomplished some goal which is usually on a different island later in the game. Some jumps actually are impossible to make until you get the Boots later in the game, but there are only a few of these. If you need to use an elemental power like wind, water, or fire and you can't get it from the environment, you will need to wait until you get the Magic Jar. You will need to abandon some of the most prominent puzzles in the first few missions, and you will not be coming back to them for a long time.
Parental concern: the game has positive references to hallucinogenic drugs.
The game crashed a few times, but they were probably platform-related bugs. There was one unrepeatable crash when loading a scene, and several crashes when closing the program. I recommend heading for the nearest save point after any major accomplishment. I only lost progress once, but it's good advice in general.
