Beamer
Aug 27 2005, 05:09 AM
Game: Butters Extract
Creator: RFI
Genre: Arcade
Description: Extract the Butterses from a moving assembly line of South Park kids. Earning points for extracting a Butters, or being on the far right of the screen, Butters Extract is an addictive beat-your-own-score Arcade game.

Rating: 72%

Review: Although his earlier games (under the name of Xplicit) were nothing too special, RFI has since earned a reputation in South Park Gaming. His unique graphical and gameplay styles always shine with originality, and he's always bringing out quality games from seemingly nowhere. As usual, Butters Extract is no exception - coming out just days after it was announced randomly at the forums. A fun, addictive game with an original concept (and a nice pun name too, might I add), bursting with RFI's quirky, offbeat style.

The setting of Butters Extract is an assembly line of various South Park children, moving left through the screen, picking up pace as it goes. You earn points for sticking to the far right, and lose them on the far left. However, you can NOT let any Butterses make it across the screen. Instead, you must select and extract Butters, replacing him with another child. If you extract a child who isn't Butters, you'll turn them into Butters, and must then extract them again before they make it off the assembly line. If a Butters makes it through the line without being extracted, you'll lose the game. The aim is to get the highest score possible as the difficulty gradually increases.

Butters Extract is a really addictive game. The first few week you have it, you'll constantly be opening it up again to beat your (or Junkman's tongue.gif) high score. Graphically, the game looks good - with some impressive lighting effects in the background, and RFI's lush sprites filling the screen. Granted, it's an arcade game, so you will get sick of seeing the same things over and over again, but that's to be suspected from this type of thing anyway, and RFI obviously made it visually as good as he possibly could. However, it would've been nice if the Butters head in the corner was in the same style as the other character sprites - the conflicting style there just looks weird. Musically, the game only has one midi, though it's an original one by RFI, so that's a plus, even if the menu music and the in-game music is exactly the same. It's upbeat and fits the mood of the game well, although a little variety music-wise next time would be great (perhaps a menu where you can select a list of different tunes before the game begins to alternate it with each play). Sound-wise, it's about as you'd expect. Nothing special, but nothing out-of-place.

However, if I had one complaint about the game, it's that it's very prone to slowing and freezing on my slow PC. Definitely not what you'd expect from a small game like this - and it's mainly due to the graphical detail in the background. Had this been necessary to the game, I wouldn't be complaining, but it's really not. Now, the background lighthing DOES look fantastic, there's no doubt about that. It's one of the first things I noticed when playing, and I was quite impressed, even if it was probably doen in a simple way. However, RFI really should have had a customisable function which allows you to turn it off, as it almost always causes the game to mess up at around about the 30-second mark for my computer.

Overall, Butters Extract is a great little game that delivers everything it promises. Addictive, original and plenty of fun, it's everything that a good, small project like this should be. Had it not been for the single music track and the slowdown on my 733mhz processor, this game would be as perfect as it could possibly be. Still, despite some small flaws, Butters Extract is an original concept and a damn enjoyable play. While it isn't for people looking for a game full of storyline and substance, it definitely is one of the better Arcade games released in South Park Gaming, plus it's a small download too (under 500kb!) so go check it out if you haven't already. wink.gif