Turjah

.: Reviews: iPAQ version, E-10x version, E-125 version :.

Review #1: iPAQ version

.: By: Mike :: Device used: iPAQ H3650 :: September 11, 2000 :: Buy this game :.

It's fair to say that Turjah is Jimmy Software's best-known and best-loved game. The only problem was that, until recently, it was the sole preserve of Casio device owners. No longer - Turjah is now on the iPAQ!

I won't go into too many details in this review because most are already covered by Seth Bilodeau's excellent review of the E-10x version below. I will, however, confirm that I am in complete agreement with his assessment of the game.

Graphically, Turjah is superior to anything else out there on the Pocket PC by a long way. The iPAQ may only offer 12-bit colour, but that doesn't stop Turjah from being a beautiful game. Happily, the sound and music is equally good - the game is a true arcade experience.

So, perfect presentation. But what about the gameplay? Although you can still use the joypad, it's just not worth it given the problem that the iPAQ can't handle multiple simultaneous button presses. Having to stop to fire simply isn't on.

Fortunately, the stylus control method is excellent. Simply place your stylus on the screen and move it around to control your ship's movement. In the version I was playing, you had to tap the screen to enable autofire. Personally, I hope that in the final version, there is at least an option to enable autofire automatically right from the start. If, for example, you come back from just having died and are surrounded by a screen full of nasties intent on sending you to the grave, you simply don't have time to tap the screen to enable autofire. Aside from that, however, the autofire system combined with the stylus control works flawlessly.

Gameplay is fast and furious, arcade action at its finest, with ever stronger and faster hordes of enemies descending down the screen. As you would expect though, you can pick up power-ups which have the capacity to turn your pathetic little laser cannon into the most extravagant multi-firing annihilation machine you've ever seen! You also have a limited number of "nukes" which can destroy almost everything that's on the screen should things get a little too sticky.

Although I don't own a Casio device and therefore can't compare, I can say that playing Turjah on my iPAQ is an awesome experience. If you're reading this, the chances are that you're probably going to get it (or already have it!) at some point and are just curious as to how good it actually is. Well, if you haven't bought it yet... buy it A.S.A.P.!

.: Game category: Action & Arcade Games :: Reviews Index :: Buy this game :.

Review #2: E-10x version

.: By: Seth Bilodeau :: Device used: E-105 :: June 2, 2000 :: Buy this game :.

Here there will be two reviews. The dumb chat-room type one, and the actual one. First the dumb one:

This game ROKKZ!

Okay, now the actual review. This game rocks (notice the lack of typos? :P). The music rocks, the graphics rock, and the gameplay rocks. I will deal with the worst part first, however.

Story:

Aliens called the Turjah invade the Earth, you gotta stop them, blah blah blah, yada yada yada. About as interesting as listening to someone describe their trip to Wisconsin that they took ten years ago. But, who cares, it's a shooter!

Sound/Music:

Although the music is VERY good (if you like techno/rock, which I do), there is only one song while playing the game. This will not bother you at first. Wait ten minutes. If you have retained your sanity after that, you are a better man than I. As for the sound, it is just some PECHEW sounds that all shooters have for the guns, and some tinny explosions.

Graphics:

16-bit color at its finest. The animation is smooth, and the backgrounds are great. The only exception to this rule is level three. While still impressive compared to other WinCE games, it falls far short of the rest of Turjah. Also, I have to mention the bosses, which are VERY cool looking and many sport flawless rotating parts, the best example being the level 1 boss. All in all, the most impressive graphics yet for the platform.

Gameplay:

Very fun. Very intense. Very difficult (at first). Very short. That about sums it up. If you've ever played a shooter, you know the drill: fly against hordes of mindless drones and homing thingies (love that word) while collecting power-ups to make your gun bigger (insert shameless innuendo here) and get you more bombs, which the clear the screen of all the bad guys.

The game seems to get very hard, very fast, however. Level one is a breeze, level two is a little harder, and then level three hands your ass on a plate. If you make it to level four, good luck getting past it. This level will throw everything humanly (or, I guess, Turjahly) possible at you. If you beat that, you beat the game. Yes, I know there is a fifth level, but it is amazingly easy. But the final boss kicks some serious booty.

Summary:

Get this game.

.:  Game category: Action & Arcade Games :: Reviews Index :: Buy this game :.

Review #3: E-125 version (User Review)

.: By: Clinton Morell :: Device used: iPAQ H3650 :: November 2, 2000 :: Buy this game :.

The Visiting of Turjah has been severely overhyped. Yes, there's amazing graphics, good sound and outstanding programming. jimmy.com hires excellent programmers--now if they could only hire a good game designer...

There's lots of action and there's several parts of the game that can be tense, but the AI--or rather, the almost complete lack of it, takes things down many notches. Almost all of the enemies shoot straight ahead and, with the exception of a few bosses, none of the enemy ships react to your position at all. It's like the Turjah set all of their ships on autopilot last Thursday and went on vacation.

And don't get me started on the pathetically easy last boss--a good shoot'em boss uses lots of firepower to put pressure on the player by constantly forcing the player to move, dodge and weave. The final boss of The Visiting of Turjah uses lots of firepower to force the player to stand still most of the time (yawn).

There's some fun to be had, but once you get the patterns down -- and that can be done in less than a day--one can beat the whole game fairly easily. And there's little replay value -- who wants to replay a completely predictable game?

Shoot-em up bad guys have been homing in on the player and firing at diagonals for decades. There's no excuse for a shooter released in the year 2000 to feature wave upon wave of enemy ships that make absolutely no adjustment for the position of the player's ship.

Granted, Turjah is probably the best shoot-em up available on the Pocket PC today--but until more games have been released on this new platform, that's not saying much. It's the lack of competition that's been behind the great reviews. If a similar game was released on an established game platform like the Game Boy Color or the Playstation, it would be sent to the bargain bins pretty quickly.

.: Game category: Action & Arcade Games :: Reviews Index :: Buy this game :.