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Cubic Lode Runner
  GCPlatformerJ  
  opened by paleface at 04:52:19 06/25/04  
  last modified by paleface at 18:48:14 07/03/24  
  paleface [sys=GC; cat=Platformer; reg=JPN]
           
This wasn't quite my thing. The old Lode Runner had one button as far as I can recall and the simplicity of the control kept you playing even as the levels grew more and more maddening and complex. Now they toss in the third dimension and suddenly you've got not one but four buttons, since in an unusual decision they've made you aim your acid carving or whatever by pressing the button corresponding to the four cardinal directions around your character--this would be unintuitive even on a pad with a regular button layout like a DualShock, but it's even less user friendly on the GC's funky arrangement of face buttons.
 
And actually there are a couple more buttons used to rotate the level around you, since now that it's gone 3D they figure that they can hide stuff away inside the level design itself and this will be fun somehow--haven't they given you the COOL "Slice" function on the Pause menu where you can Cat-scan your way block layer by layer through the level, looking for that one elusive stash of gold? Excuse me, I thought this was an action game, not turn-based strategy. Control is overly sensitive somehow and I was always plunging off the side of the platform I was trying to run along, especially if I had to grab a rope "above" me. Ugh. Perhaps I'm just naturally clumsy but it sure felt like they didn't really think this 3D control scheme through very well, at least not with me in mind. Bastards.
 
Not to mention that the graphics are literally as plain as can be. "Should we make the point readout a little eye-catching and pleasant to read?" "No comrade, keep it real!" "How about some kind of graphical background?" "Nyet! A plain color gradient level after level will do those bourgeois pigs good!" Graphical fascism, that's what it is.
    
references:
· Battle Lode Runner (PCE)

 
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