After an unexpectedly long hiatus, my reviews are back!
I have decided to go with yet a new scoring scheme. Presentation and Finish have been consolidated into one category, and the final score is now a percentage. I think that this will be the last revision.
My review of D.N.A:
Well, it's not exactly a "match-3", per se, but it has the same feel as one. The gameplay is incredibly shallow - literally, the player clicks on a "protein" of one color, and then clicks another protein of a different color. Then, they watch the two merge, along with any others of the same color. There's a time limit, too, but it's superfluous, as the game is simply too easy to win on the default difficulty. This is only the default mode, though, and Puzzle mode is much more challenging and fun, as the player is required to clear all of the proteins - which can be a difficult task when only a few are left. It's great fun, and rather challenging, but the player is forced to play the sickening previous mode first.
The graphics would have been good enough to warrant an extra minute or two on my hard drive, but it's like they were done by ten different people. The main character is drawn as an anime-esque portrait that looks decent, "taks"(if that's the right word for it) in a pixel font that looks decent, the proteins are in pre-rendered 3D that looks decent, and the finished flowers are in a different style of pre-rendered 3D that also looks decent. The problem is that none of these art styles gel in any way. Rather, they clash and make the game look unfinished.
The sounds aren't even good by themselves, though. The music, sound effects, and general ambience are annoying enough to warrant a speaker mute any day. It's a bit like MoneyMania(we all remember that one, don't we?), but slightly less psychotic. It's not different enough to make the sounds agreeable, though.
I wish that I could like the theme. As a little kid, I wanted very much to be a scientist when I grew up, and genetics always looked fascinating to my young eyes. This has absolutely no bearing on actual science, though. A third-grader knows that proteins and DNA are not related, and that new species of organisms cannot be formed simply by shoving proteins together. I can forgive that for being based around the gameplay, though - what I can't forgive is the general feel. I was appalled when I saw that the "scientific name" for one flower was "Prettius Twinklus", and even more so when the "Bamboo Tulip"(which looks like a daisy with wooden petals, by the way) was referred to as "Prettius Pandais". A note to the designers: Horribly Latinized common words do not make scientific names. They make designers look ignorant.
I will give it points for presentation and finish, though. The menus are well-designed, easy to navigate, and look nice. The self-extractor is a bit dated, though.
Overall, I give D.N.A a score of 60%(70% for gameplay, 70% for graphics, 40% for sound, 50% for theme, and 70% for presentation and finish). The gameplay in Puzzle mode is nice, but the game itself doesn't feel very polished outside of the start screens and menu. With a little more work on the part of the designers, it could have been a real gem.
It's still worth keeping, though.
