🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello all, your friendly neighboorhood game designer speaking...we recently 
got this review from happy puppy for our brand new fighting game, 
Timeslaughter. In fact, we get lots of mail about this game along the same 
lines, but about the same amount of mail saying we need more violence...talk 
about mixed messages. Well, read the review, have fun, and let us know what 
you think. 

You can get the game at:

http://www2.southwind.net/~bldlust/time.html




Here is a review of Timeslaughter by a noted reviewer-type person from 
www.happypuppy.com (Think we made it up? Go to: 
http://happypuppy.com/pulse/previews/pc/timeslau.html to prove yourself 
wrong!) . Actually, we think he did us a big favor, this is the best review we 
could have received. Thanks Stu!

                                       A Time to Kill, a Time to Be Killed

                          A Game in Bad Taste Leaves a Bad Taste in the Mouth

                                                   Preview by Stu Sweetwater

"Most of the time, I'm willing to play along with some excessive gore in the 
sake of entertainment. But there is a line that shouldn't be crossed. 
Eventually, there's just nastiness for the
sake of nastiness and brutality for the sake of brutality. So it is with 
Bloodlust Software's Timeslaughter. This is a game that is simply ugly in 
motive, ugly in delivery and ugly in the final
analysis. There's nothing appealing in the presentation here--not the attitude 
of the product, and certainly not the attitude of the developers. To them, 
Timeslaughter has been created all
in the name of fun, but this reviewer is greatly disturbed by the idea that 
cannibalism, mutilation, torture, insanity and other mental illnesses and 
overwhelming evil is considered
humorous. Look, I'm not a prude. I like horror movies. I read a lot of horror 
novels. I'm a fan of a bloody scene as much as the next guy, but this crosses 
the line and thumbs its nose at it.
Timeslaughter isn't about bad taste, it's about making the player nauseated. 
This is shock software designed only to gross out the player whenever 
possible, particularly in the
introduction, which is fairly reminiscent of Clive Barker's Hellraiser series 
of movies. This in and of itself isn't the problem. Where the trouble comes in 
is in the various readme files and
order forms where the game designers poke fun at various illnesses and 
infirmities. Aren't we beyond the point where the serious misfortunes of 
another are amusing? I guess not. An
example, you ask? I comply. The following comes directly from the shareware's 
readme.txt file: "If you have seizures due to flashing lights, go flip the 
light switch on and off real fast until
you fall down convulsing uncontrollably. If you are waiting to kill someone or 
burn down a house but need a computer game to blame it on, go for it! Tell 
them that Bloodlust made ya do
it! If you have an IQ lower than 60, then you probably are a tard, and we love 
tards. If you are a tard, send us your tard card in the mail so we can ride 
the tardwagon too." The order
blank comments that gamers must be over 4'5" to play (there is some overtly 
rude commentary regarding midgets in the readme) and asks for the gamer's bra 
size. All of this is coupled
with the designers' desire to be seen as these kings of evilness and vileness. 
There's an entire introductory piece about the two of them prancing around in 
some depraved blood orgy
that frankly has little to do with the rest of the game. It all seems sort of 
hateful, different from racial hatred only in focus and not in intensity or 
spitefulness. One thing that is fortunate is
that the action of the game is animated, in what looks like an old-style, 
early VGA style of graphics. So, while there's gore a-plenty, it's not like 
it's being truly acted out. Otherwise,
Timeslaughter is yet another game in the endless parade of 
thin-plot-ass-kicking-martial-arts-fighting games. There's not a lot different 
here, only the characters are slightly different and
have slightly different special moves. The shareware comes with two 
characters, Savage and Asylum, both of whom make rude comments when they win. 
Each of the fighters in the
shareware are cartoony in appearance, but that works in terms of the game. The 
animation is quite good, and the control of the various fighters is decent. 
All of this is sort of a shame,
though, since so much of the non-game portions of this title are so blatantly 
depraved. Timeslaughter was never going to replace Street Fighter II or Mortal 
Kombat on anyone's hard
drive, but as a game, it's not bad. The characters animate well enough and are 
easy enough to control that the serious fighting game player would find enough 
here to keep them
interested for some time. This is especially true with the control over the 
options like difficulty that the player has. But in the end, there's just no 
way to get that bad taste out of the
mouth, that somehow by playing and enjoying this game, one is condoning the 
attitude of hatefulness that permeates this title. Frankly, I like being able 
to look at myself in the mirror,
and a decent fighting game isn't worth sacrificing basic human dignity for."