Reviews: Locked 6

LOCKED 6 by Rikus Kras and Amazing Productions

GAME TYPE:

ROLE-PLAYING GAME

PLAYERS: ONE

DIFFICULTY: EASY

TARGET: AS MR BALL, YOU

MUST TRAVEL TO THE DARK SIDE

TO RESCUE YOUR WIFE.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

MIMIMUM: 486 DX2 WITH

8 MEGS RAM

RECOMMENDED AT LEAST

P90 WITH 8/16 MEGS RAM

SOUND CARD OPTIONAL

Mr Ball is back in the latest Locked escapade from Amazing Productions. But unlike the

previous offerings, Locked 6 is not a Maze game. Instead, Rikus has opted for a game style wildly different to its predecessors, a Role-Playing Game.

Locked 6 reveals that Mr Ball is not the only spherical adventurer around. We find that there

is a whole community of balls living in a place known as Locked Land, where Mr Ball and his wife, Ms Ball, lived happily together. One day, however, the peace was broken. The Evil Wizard returned, this time with an heinous ally, Scary Flog, and kidnapped Ms Ball in an attempt to lure Mr Ball into a trap. The object of the game is, as Mr Ball, to rescue your wife and restore peace to Locked Land.

The game itself is very fun to play. There is a whole village to explore, and many characters

around the area. Every character (bar the normal level baddies) can be talked to, and most allow you to reply to them with multiple choice responses. The only gripe with this is, sometimes the responses you can choose mean more or less the same thing.

At first, Mr Ball is weak and cannot fight. Before progressing in the game, he has to be

trained to fight. This task is taken on by Weirdo, resident shopkeeper, who has a training room in the back of his shop.

Once he's been taught, Mr Ball begins the main part of the journey: The journey to the Dark

Side. Throughout the game, his power level increases, and magic powers can be gained to help him on his mission.

As well as talking to characters and gaining information, there are a selection of battles, and

some well thought out puzzles to master.

These puzzles, however, are rather perculiar. Many people have commented that they are

much too difficult, while others have complained that they are too easy. Either way, they are original and cleverly performed.

There are some nice little touches in Locked 6 that give the game a polished feel to it. In

Weirdo's shop there is a jukebox, and bouncing into it changes the background music. Also, in the village's video arcade you can play on an Eggit arcade machine, for a one-level Eggit special!

The graphics of Locked 6, in the main, are very good. Almost all the ball characters are

rendered and look very polished, especially Mr Ball himself. However, some look a little roughly designed. Most of the in-level enemies look rather sketchy and undetailed. The boss characters look sketchy also, but on the whole they have spectacular dying sequences. All the other artwork for the houses, trees etcetera is drawn in a cartoony style and looks fairly good.

The music is mainly borrowed from other sources throughout the Internet. Many of the songs

are MIDI versions of the SNES Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy tunes, and for the main work well with the story. However, it's the kind of music that you either love or you hate.

One of the funniest and most entertaining bits of the game are the sound effects. Rikus has

voiced some of the characters. "Hey mister, do you want some cookies?" is a classic line spoken by Mini Ball in the opening sequences. Most of the bosses have something to say. "I will destroy you and I will RULE!" is Scary Flog's cry. Some voices can be annoying though. Every time Scary Flog is hit he yells, "You can't hurt me!", and considering he takes about 50 hits before he's taken down, this becomes extremely aggravating.

For Locked 6, a theme tune has been composed and played on real instruments, then

recorded in WAV format, and is a really nice tune.

Locked 6 is great to play, but is extremely short and provides little challenge for experienced

players. It is possible to play the game out in ten/fifteen minutes, and unless you're a die hard Locked fan then you may not find yourself coming back to play it once completed.

All in all, Locked 6 is a brilliant game, and most probably Amazing Productions' best to date.

However, seasoned gamers should find it a walkover.

GRAPHICS 93%	Ball characters and scenery very detailed and well drawn. Some enemy sprites are rather sketchy.
MUSIC 90%	Very fitting and well chosen MIDI files. Some of the tunes are annoying and distracting.
SFX 94%	Excellent theme tune and funny voices!
GAMEPLAY 92%	Very playable and easy to control.
LASTABILITY 79%	Great fun to play. Once complete there is little to bring you back.
OVERALL 90%	A great game that's a bit too easy and short.

Locked 6 can be downloaded at Rikus Kras' Locked 6 Page

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