Welcome Time Wasters!
This week I browsed the internet and stumbled across SG Turturem. It’s a browser game that basically tasks the player with not doing much of anything.
SG Turturem puts players in control of a turtle that is equipped with cannons. Unfortunatly, the player never has control over these cannons. Instead, they can just control the movement of the turtle.
SG Turturem looks like a new developer’s attempt at a top-down shooter. However, it feels like a top-down driving game with sluggish controls. The turtle glides around through areas and controls more like a car. It’s a bit of a mess and doesn’t make for a good experience.
The cannon on the turtle’s back will automatically take aim and fire at enemies. This takes what could’ve been the one part of SG Turturem that requires skill and throws it out the window. It’s such a strange decision to include weapons in the game without letting the player control them.
There are multiple levels to explore in SG Turturem and the player will have to complete one of two goals to finish a level. The first goal that can be completed is discovering all of the artifacts. This is by far the easiest way to go through the game. The second option is defeating all the enemies in the level. This one isn’t really harder to do, but it is much more boring due to the lack of control the player has.
There’s also a leveling system in SG Turturem, but it’s never really explained or fleshed out. It’s honestly just easier to ignore it and go through the game collecting artifacts. After all, you don’t need more levels when your main goal should be to avoid combat.
The graphics in SG Turturem are bad. Animations are choppy, the turtle kind of just moves around as if it glides and the explosion effects are lackluster.
The audio is lacking in just about every department. There’s no music in levels, the turtle says “ow” in a robotic voice every time it gets hit and all the sound effects are better left unheard.
Here’s the thing: this is likely an amateur developer’s first attempt at making a game. With that in mind, it would be easy to justify going soft on them. However, that doesn’t help them improve and it would just be lying to my readers. My advice for this developer is to keep on practicing, but maybe don’t post a game until you are truly satisfied with the final product.
SG Turturem earns 1 GiN Gem out of 5!
Billy, thank you very much for detailed extended review of our game. We are working hard on making new changes based on players feedback. And your contribution is the biggest.
Thanks again.
You’re welcome. Feel free to contact me when your next game comes out. I’d be happy to review it.