EmP's Last King of Africa review

Does this game still have voice work and the musical score? Or is it removed? Seems like a tough fit for the DS cart.

It does, though they are somewhat scaled back. Obviously, the BGM has taken a hit from the Paradise's CD quality, but it remains solid nonetheless. Voice acting is intact for the most part; when talking to others, it's all voiced but things like internal dialoge and the like are just text new.

Has to be said, the production values for this game are impressive. It really does squeeze a lot out of the DS.

That's a simile! ;)

Reviewing school has failed me once more!

Actually, it's a metaphor.

I said metaphor!

I hate you all with equal vile!

It would be a metaphor if you said Last King of Africa IS a best of album. If it is LIKE a best of album then it is a similie. That's my Reviewing School lesson for today.

While technically you're correct, Janus, people use 'metaphor' as a blanket term to describe both approaches. This has become common practice to the point where it's not really worth arguing about.

I said metaphor!

I was refering to Lewis, actually. And I thought he was referring to your comment in this topic, anyway, not the review itself.

This comment, specifically: It really does squeeze a lot out of the DS.

There are a lot of videos (and audio too) in Last King of Africa. But what do you think about its special interactions?
I think they're amazing.

Wow, another good review by EMP. I kept thinking I had other things to do while reading this, but it made me stay through to the end, and I'm seriously interested in checking this game out, now.

Sadly the DS is comprised mostly of a lot of short one-shot titles that it's hard to justify spending a bunch of money on.

One issue I had with the review is that you give away some of the puzzles. I'm not sure, maybe the game points you at those so obviously it doesn't matter, but if not... then what were you thinking?

I haven't played the game, but I'm going to assume that EmP picked the puzzle he revealed wisely. He's a good enough reviewer that such an assumption seems safe.

The problem with reviewing games that are heavy on puzzles is fairly straight-forward: if you don't give a good example from the game, then you can't really talk about the puzzle element convincingly. And if you can't talk about it convincingly, then why would you review a game that relies heavily on puzzles?

So yeah, I would say he had no choice but to reveal a puzzle. People who don't want spoilers sometimes scream that spoiling a puzzle in such a game is the same as a plot spoiler, but then they keep reading reviews anyway. While I don't advocate going around spoiling all sorts of puzzles and ignoring their complaints entirely, I do think that some people just need to get over the "every detail about a game is a spoiler" mentality. That or they just need to stop reading reviews.

I'll take these critisisms on some months later. Because I like to do things fashionably late, not because I could have sworn I already did so.

I talk about the puzzles that happen right at the forefront of the game, and my genral rule is that anything that happens in the first twenty minutes is fair fodder. These puzzles certainly fall under that timeframe.

BUT! Even then, I don;t tell you anything the game does not. I say you have to arrange a bath, but nothing about the complex puzzle you need to decode to get the settings for the soapy soak acceptable for your quarry. Even if I did what I didn;t say. most importantly, is how you solve it. I tell you no more than the game makes very obvious.

Again with the secent. Last King writes in crayon that you need to do this, and the only way I could have wrecked the puzzle would be to say "you find X item here which you need to combine with Y item, which can be found here". There's a world of difference between providing the reader with an idea of what they're in for and spoiling the game for them. I like to think I'm very solidly in the former, in this case.

So there!