Today's game is Microcosm! I have never heard of this game before. It is a single-screen platformer, which is a genre that I enjoy!
From the cover, I assume I will be in a spacesuit, and I will be shooting at plants with long stems. As far as the little spider dude to the bottom-right, I am not 100% sure if he is friend or foe. Clearly, this game is going to involve very fast action as the box artist didn't even have time to draw in a background. Nope, no time for that!
Status: Played it
Thoughts: This game has fairly good controls! My dude moves around smoothly and he even flies! It was fun to run around with him. I actually felt bad about punishing those prior games for poor controls, as if it was a product of that time. Baloney! Games from 1986 on the Commodore 64 can control nicely and run smoothly, so I will not be giving out excuses for bad controls any longer.
As far as the game itself, that's another story! It is very difficult. I was expected to shoot down all of the aphids whenever they would gather. They respawned endlessly, so there was only about 5-10 seconds of respite before they would fill up the screen again. I was also expected to gather seeds from the roof and place them on the sprouts to grow stalks. I was also expected to fly all the way to a tiny shelf, drop off my gun and go to another shelf on the far end of the screen to pick up the watering can. Then I was expected to go water the plants, but if there are aphids on the screen... the watering can doesn't work. I need to clear out the aphids again. I can only shoot them with my gun, which I have to go retrieve from the shelf on the far edge of the screen. But I can't pick up the gun without flying to another opposite edge of the screen to drop off my water can first. Let's not forget that I still need to fly to the roof and get seeds with which to grow stalks. I have to get to the seeds while avoiding aphids and drops of acid. But taking the time to avoid damage means that my phloem meter is constantly going down... LOL! This game is one big bout of plate-spinning. You better have a good strategy and never stop moving.
I deeply respect this game's ambition. It packs a LOT of moving parts into a single-screen platformer. It is that the individual parts don't actually work with each other. The fact that the aphids can go through walls is one of the most baffling design decisions. That eliminates any chance for strategy. It is either shoot them or shoot them. If you miss or try to avoid them, you will spend too much time running away and the phloem meter will get you.
But I feel like Microcosm would be amazing if it was remade today!
Rating: 2.0 out of 4 Watering Cans
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