Today’s game, Samurai Last Exam, is a Japanese based time management game with a a sushi restaurant theme. It has colourful graphics and (as with all Time Management {TM} games) the need of a fast clicking hand and a relatively fast mind. Unfortunately of all arcade games, TM games are the ones that I play the least because I prefer games that let me unwind; whereas TM games tend to instil a feeling of unrest and manic movement and always leave me mentally exhausted, :lol: You can be assured though that I will be giving today’s game giveaway an unbiased review once I've caught up with some sleep. The following review uses images and other information taken from the developer’s site, though I’ve uploaded over 70 of my own images, taken while playing this game. I've written the installation section and most of The Game section, and the rest has been referenced to the developer Vasilek Casual Games.
Installation:
Today’s game, Samurai Last Exam downloads to a 32.6Mb zip file that unpacks to a read me and a dual activation and set up file. The game installs to C:\Games\Samurai_1.3 by default, but you can change the install path during the installation wizard if you wish to install the game to another path.
For those new to the game giveaway project you have to install the game within a 24 hour period starting on the 30th April 2011, at 12 midnight Pacific time (1am Mountain time, 3am Eastern time, 8am GMT, 2pm Dhaka, 6pm Sidney/Melbourne, 8pm Fiji) and ends at the same time on the 1st May 2011. Simply click on the dual activation and set up file and follow the on screen prompts to receive a free fully activated arcade game.
The installed game is 35.3Mb in size. There is no shortcut installed to either the desktop, or the start menu programs list. You can find a short tutorial in the Giveaway game discussion forums that tells you how to create a start menu/programs list shortcut. The game works in Win XP, Vista and Win 7.
Introduction:
What is a dream of every young Samurai, after finishing training in the temple of Sakura? Of course to beat the dragon! And to prove his loyalty to the teacher. Also, to serve people (while scoring off the dragon). And here is the long-awaited moment! The teacher is sending his disciple to the Last Exam. But what is it? There is no dragon, but, there are people, who want to get … sushi! You can’t disobey your teacher, so, there is only one thing to do: to cook sushi. The exam is divided into 4 stages. At the beginning of each next stage a pupil receives a message from his teacher, containing the key to successful passing. The samurai is to develop more and more new qualities to pass the Exam. The number of customers is increasing and your exam is not limited only to cooking sushi, you must be polite and tactful when talking to the customers!
Reference http://vasilek-games.com/index.php/en/products/windows/9 accessed 29th April 2011
The Game:
The option menu is fairly basic, with a toggle for full screen to windowed mode, a custom cursor and the usual music and sound sliders. The music does get a little repetitive, so you may want to turn it right down at some point in the game. Unless you are adept at editing executables, there is no easy way of changing the music except for turning it off and playing your own music via your media player.
When your first customer arrives until you recognise the various images of sushi meals, or until you can buy and use power ups you just need to hover your mouse button over the meal that the customer is thinking about. It will briefly list what you need as a pictogram. You then have to click on the ingredients and drag them to the preparation board. Once you’ve completed the meal drag it to the customer, who will then leave money and then leave the bar. You can use the recipe book that is situated just above the green pause button. Clicking on this will show you all the available meals and what ingredients are needed. At the start of the game there are only three meals available , but this list increases as you progress through the levels and unlock more recipes.
If you don’t serve a customer quick enough you will lose that customer and valuable money. The blue dragon to the left of the screen is the indicator as to how near the end of the level is. As you make more meals and collect the money, the dragon will gradually turn red. When the dragon is fully red the level will end. Each level is timed. If the dragon is still partially blue when the time ends you lose the level which fails to unlock the next level. Thankfully the time to complete a level is generous. You can win the levels with one two or three stars. Three stars is the best.
The quicker you serve customers the higher your score will be. This is important because this will determine what power ups you can purchase. Initially at level 2 you are introduced to three power ups, but there are twelve to unlock. The first power up is called ‘Quick Memory, which allows you to view a recipe without looking at the recipe book. The first power up costs 1000 credits to purchase. My first level score was 1500 credits, which was relatively low, but I was taking screen captures and taking notes for the review.. The other two unlocked power ups are ‘Retentive Memory ‘ which gives you the option of viewing recipes from the book for several seconds. The power up is activated when you first click on the customer’s order and appears to remain active for the rest of the game . The cost of this second power-up is 2000 credits. The third power up is called ‘Super-Eyes’ which when activated causes all the ingredients to vibrate so that you can see them easily. You have to click on the customer’s order first. All power-ups activate will continue to work. Super Eyes costs 3500 credits.
Occasionally you will get a customer asking a question. To see what they want click on the question mark. You’ll get a dialogue box opening which gives you several responses. Depending upon which you choose, the customer will be happy and remain, or will leave in disgust. (I’ve captured several of these, which can be seen via the images link below. For example the customer may say:
“It’s a nice day”
To which you can respond by clicking one of the following:
Um
Get off of me!
It’s really tasty!
Yeah fine.
The levels are interspersed with more story dialogue which can be skipped by clicking on the story board.
As you progress through the levels more ingredient’s appear as well as more complex recipes. If you place an unwanted ingredient on the preparation board, you’ll get a message telling you that you can’t cook any sushi due to an unnecessary ingredient. You must remove the incorrect one before the meal will complete.
You can restart a level by clicking on the green pause button to the bottom right of the screen, or you can quit. If you want to return to the main menu click on the pause button and select quit. This opens up a second menu that allows you to either return to the game, go to the main menu or quit the game completely. If you want to create a new profile, of which there is space for 10 you have to return to the main menu.
There are five difficulty levels.
1)...Ashigaru Way (Easiest)
2)...Onna Bugeisha Way
3)...Kensei Way
4)...Daimyo Way
5)...Shogun Way (Most difficult)
I'm not a lover of TM games, but i found the easiest level easy to cope with and was attaining the best results for each of the levels I completed. that is three stars. You get 5 minutes to attain three stars, 20 minutes to get 2 stars and any longer to get one star. I didn't wait to see if there was a time limit, but I assume there will be otherwise you could never lose the game. The difference between difficulty levels is the number of meals you have to prepare. The harder the level, the more you have to prepare to complete the level.
Summary:
• Choose ingredients, dressings and tools, put it on the board and make sushi. Don't know a recipe? Look at your cookbook.
• Don't keep your clients waiting.
• Talk to your clients politely. Don't be rude or you'll lose them
• Power up your samurai by developing his skills! It will not be easy to finish the game without these power-ups as some recipes are quite complex.
Suggestions:
The collision Mesh is too precise, you have to click on an item exactly right to pick it up. When you are rushing to complete a meal, this can be very frustrating because it's easy to miss the item.
Power-ups once activated appear to last for the rest of the game, not just one level. Maybe change this so that they last only for a specific number of levels. You'd have to make them cheaper as well.
Images:
You can see a slideshow of around 70 images via the following link:
http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/Samurai%20Last%20Exam/?albumview=slideshow
Video:
You can see a couple of videos of Samurai Last Exam Game Play HERE and HERE
Features:
• 5 difficulty levels
• 40 game levels
• The hero skills improvement
• 30 kinds of sushi
• Original Japanese style of music and art
• The clients are talking to you. Be tactful!
Reference http://vasilek-games.com/index.php/en/products/windows/9 accessed 29th April 2011
System Requirements:
32-bit OS Windows XP/Vista/7
Intel or AMD 1500 MHz or more processor.
DirectX 9 compatible video card with 32 Mb video memory
Screen resolution: 1024x768 or more.
DirectX 9 compatible sound card.
DirectX 9.0 runtime installed.
Conclusion:
The game has a charm of its own; you’ll certainly pick up a few sushi recipes if you play this game, lol. In my opinion it's a game for those who love time management games; I think it's too narrow in its game play for anyone other than the TM enthusiast to like a lot, but that said, it's still playable. I am not into these games at all, but I did find playing it on the easiest level tolerable. You get a generous amount of time to complete levels, so there really is no need to manically click away. With the power ups I think it's far too easy a game and soon becomes a little tedious. I do like the simple Japanese graphic, but that's not enough to hold my interest for long. I’d give it a go without the power ups; though I think that it may not be possible because you were forced to take a power up when they were first offered after the second level. Not sure about later in the game. I gave up after level 7. :)
• Graphics, I like the style so despite it looking fairly simplistic I give it a 7 for graphics.
• Music is very repetitive, and although it’s got a Japanese flavour, I’d liked to have heard some mellow Japanese tunes in the background instead of the manic drum beat that we get. 4 out of 10 for the music.
• For game play I’ve scored it a 6 out of 10. It’s passable, but not memorable.
• So… averaging out the scores to one decimal place we get a score of 5.7
You’ll find over 40 time management games over at MyPlaycity including today's game giveaway; just follow the link below: