Junkman Feb 2 2005, 06:01 PM Game: Abduction Creator: Beamer Genre: Platformer Description: The boys have been abducted by aliens. Their only chance of escape rests in Kenny's hands, as he wanders on a strange alien world. Rating: 73% Review: You can always count on Beamer for doing one important thing in the game-making community: make and release games. As if Cartman's Adventure 4 wasn't enough to release, he managed to kick off his 2005 career with two brand new games that have been made and released so quickly that it would make Speedy Gonzales look like an eskimo fishing for fish in Antarctica! Hmmm wait, that joke was terribly awful and unfunny... my apologies. Anyway, in order to follow up the promising, yet flawed Super SP Trivia, Beamer has managed to drop us his latest outing in the form of Abduction, a small, yet amusing platformer game. First of all, don't go into this game expecting an entirely identical clone of the Cartman's Adventure series, although everything in it do scream out that it comes from CA, the gameplay here is really simplified. Only the basics are being retained here: you go through level layouts, you avoid enemies and obstacles and reach the exit. Save from the boss encounters through the game, you don't kill a single critter in the game. This might discourage some people who expected something a bit more action-oriented, but rest assured that there are still a good load of thrills scattered through the game. Some of the level layouts do present some pretty challenging parts and obstacles (Even Level 1 can make you waste a few lives when you first try it) and you might find yourself having a tough times to stay in one piece in the later levels. However, a lot of the early levels don't seem to have much in the way of variation. In order to reach all of these spots where the difficulty level gets interesting (the game gets a lot better around Level 5 and beyond), you've got to sit through some dull levels firstly. Luckly, there are boss encounters to make things more interesting and as Cartman's Advanture 4 prove, it looks like that Beamer managed to find out how to design some really good boss battles. However, the last battle really is way too tame. I won't tell you how it can be flawlessly beaten, but I'll give you a slight clue: right arrow key, jump. Graphic-wise, the game is a bit uneven. There are parts where the game truly shines, such as the alien town level, which is pretty detailled and is interesting to the eye. However, there's a good bit of parts that really look generic as well, we're talking about mono-colored backgrounds that we'd see in those South Park games from 1999. Some of the larger critters don't look quite natural too, it seems like that something else than Subwoofer's basic graphic templates would have done a better job to illustrate the alien critters. Aside from these nitpicks, the graphics do are acceptable, at least. Plus they're original. Sound-wise, the game's soundtrack is entirely made of Sonic game tunes, and while some of the music picks in the game don't seem to fit well in the game, there are some moments where the Sonic music establish a great mood, such as in the first level. The tune which plays there do helps establishing the atmosphere of the game and location. In the sound effects department, it's the usual standard fare that we're used to, but as usual, the standard fare has always been good so there's no complaints in this area. smile.gif Abduction is a really simple, yet fun game that do warrant to be checked out. Some of the Cartman's Adventure purists might not like the basic approach that the game do take, but I'm pretty sure those will get to like the game anyway, since it do grow on you and as I've already said, the game gets better and better as it advances. There's some dull moments there and there and it's not as pleasant to the eye than the Cartman's Adventure games were, but the good ultimately manages to outgrow most of these points. In other words, give it a try. anonymous Apr 11 2005, 03:12 PM Game: Abduction Creator: Beamer Genre: Platformer Description: Kenny has to save his 2 friends and a fatass while avoiding objects in this alien obstacle course. Rating: 70% Review: After his highly anticipated game Cartman's Adventure 4, Beamer released a new platformer in a very short time. How does it stand up against the Cartman's Adventure series? Presentation is more or less like most of Beamer's games, think Cyborg Kenny here. It's nothing extraordinary but very polished and gets the job done. Sprites have the usual Beamer-flair. Backgrounds are very simple for most of the time except for a few levels like the alien city and certain boss levels. Graphics are not bad but backgrounds could have been worked on more and there could have been more details on the aliens as they look more or less like colored silhouettes of Beamer's bigger sprites. Beamer uses again a very large selection of Sonic game tunes, but they really fit the mood here. Sound effects are also something what you would expect from such a game like Kenny getting hit or alien gun shots. Gameplay is very simple, a platformer in which you have to avoid all the obstacles and reach the level end. Sounds easy? In the beginning, yeah, but later on the levels have many obstacles and you have to make a really good use of the 3 game slots because in the harder stages some of the enemies and their shots are unavoidable which can get very frustrating when you are a unskilled gamer (not that I am smile.gif). Bosses are entertaining and need some strategy to beat. Many bosses though have similar strategies and if you know them, they are not really hard especially the last boss, still they are refreshing change from many other games which all tend to have underdeveloped bosses. If you've beaten the game then you're done for a while and you won't be coming back this fast. You may want to check it out for old time's sake. Even though the game isn't really extraordinary in any means, Beamer manages again to release an enjoying game for the time being. It's not Cartman's Adventure niveau, but still very fast-paced and for the small development time it doesn't fail to impress. ShellShok Jan 31 2007, 06:29 PM Game: Abduction Creator: Beamer Genre: Platformer Description: The boys have been abducted by aliens. Their only chance of escape rests in Kenny's hands, as he wanders on a strange alien world. Rating: 78% Review: After the release of Cartman's Adventure 4, Beamer made this game in a very small amount of time. I think this is a really fun little game similar to Ca4 but without all the enemies and harder obstacles. The boys have been abducted from the bus stop by an alien who wants to do tests on them. But to do the tests, he first has to kill them because doing tests on the living is "inhumane". laugh.gif Kenny decides that he doesn't want to die (again) so he jumps out the ship. He then has to navigate his way through the levels (I don't know how many 'cos I haven't finished the game) dodging cactus things, random spikes and aliens with the ocassional appearance of a boss. This a good game and is definetly worth the download. smile.gif