Motion

Reminds me of the old arcade game "Moon Lander", but backwards to the DOS games (ASCII characters to build an image). Unlike an actual timer to race against, it's knowing when to not just hit [Enter]. The first time around I quit the game on the second 'chapter' bored with enter, enter, enter, etc. But to do justice in evaluating the game for the competition, I persisted and plowed through to the end.

The descriptions were somewhat brief and simplistic - would have liked to see more 'Adventure' to the game. That said, making the ASCII images stay in the correct layout took some skill and patience on the part of Abbi Park.

Motion is an experimental game. How experimental? Try, figuring out how to launch and land a rocket safely, experimental. The game makes extensive use of ASCII graphics, representing the rocket by dashes, slashes, underscores, and other symbols.

The game is divided into three parts, or tasks: (i) launch the rocket, (ii) land the rocket, (iii) return the rocket. It is a quick game, but it’s fun while it lasts. There’s not a lot to say about replayability though. Once I beat it…I didn’t feel like there was anything else left to do. It is true that the replayability factor doesn’t matter so much for modern IF (most people put games away the instant they beat them), but considering how short the game is, and it’s arcade-like action, you would think there would be some kind of replay value to it.

Also, it is an experimental game but it is not really experimental IF. I thought it was fun, but it was more of a showcase of what can be done through a text adventure’s parser than a substantive adventure. I suspect it was intended to be the former rather than the latter. With that in mind, I say “pretty good,” but I also say, “I don’t see how I can judge this alongside other adventures.” So, if you want a quick, fun game to play: you got it. But if you want an actual adventure, look elsewhere. (For what it’s worth, I’m impressed by how the thing works; it’s surprising something like this could be made, or that anyone would have the patience to make it.)