Junkman
Aug 3 2005, 03:17 AM
Game: Touched
Creator: RFI
Genre: Miscellaneous
Description: Fulfill a variety of actions ranging to build dams, invade America, feed poop to Cartman, fire missiles and a lot, lot more in this mini-game compilation.

Rating: 78%

Review: Read ze review! I'm sorry, I thought for a second I was a communist again. That, and I played RFI's new game, Touched, for way too long. This is actually one of the most interesting games I've actually managed to set my eyes on since a while. Although the game's premise, or should we say, the premises are basic, they manage to make up a great whole. The whole game has a definite retro feel and would tend to make me think of those sports games found on the Commodore 64 due to the simplicity of the game and it's easy-going nature, yet it's infectious like no other game in the South Park gaming community so far. The only game in the community that would reach such an extended replay ability would be Nomad's American Gladiators, yet it didn't had as much events than Touched does. Let's check a bit further in order to see what makes Touched the treat it manages to be.

For starters, the game has a whopping 40 minigames. That's actually quite a lot, even though the average length of a minigame, minus some rare instances, is actually less than 10 seconds long. Still, this ensures that the game stays fresh and fun to play. All games have inane, yet amusing titles such as "Smell Ze Flowers!", "Direct Ze Urine!", "Through Ze Trapper Keeper!", "Travel Ze Time!" and even "Kill Ze Developement Team!". It would seem that RFI is suffering from Stalin's syndrome, which is a disease I just created and serves no purpose to my review at all. Most of the games are split in several categories: some are mindless button mashers, others are wild mouse wigglers, but others do manage to create an interesting blend of precision and dexterity. Let's also note that Touched is also entirely played with the mouse, which will be a great thing for some but will be pure hell for others who still happen to use a ball mouse (although who the hell still has those, anyway?). Anyway, expect to replace your mouse after you'll be done playing, since the game will put your mouse to the test.

Of course, not every game of the pack manages to fit the game's bill nicely. Among the way, there are some stinkers there and there which hamper the gameplay, such as "Power Ze Lift!", which is plain infuriating to play. The mechanism used to raise the lift is awkward as hell and just not fun to play at all. Just as you think you finally get it, the time runs out as the lift is one pixel away from victory. Annoying! "Limit Ze Kittys!" has a more interesting premise, but the way it is coded makes it frustrating. You need to scroll the mouse down many, many times before it starts counting down and that can easily cost you the victory. "Copy Ze Picture!" is near impossible, with you having to redraw a pixel-perfect drawing. "Do Ze Push Ups!", "Match Ze Hats!", "Touch Ze Piano!" and "Hurt Ze Guitar!" are way too boring and are beaten way too easily (I even managed to beat the second mentionned event without having to play it at all!) On the flip side, games such as "Construct Ze Dam!", "Put In Ze Pail!", "Cut Ze Face!", "Protect Ze Boy!" and the plain wrong and hilarious "Frame Ze Black Man!" are the game's strongest points and manage to showcase fun gameplay as well as possible hilarity.

Graphics are on the minimalistic side, yet are all original and they fit the game's mood very nicely. There are also some occasionally funny animations found within the game as well, which help in giving the game an unique personality. There's also a nice attention to detail found within the game at parts, as pressing keys on the keyboard in some frames results to have a warning which says "We use ze mouse only!". That actually made me laugh when I saw it. Sound effects are quite minimalistic and there were parts where I wished there were more sound effects to the game, but the few sounds used are original and they click with the game's style fine. In overall, the presentation is really nice, although not flashy. It's perfectly retro. smile.gif

Touched came to me as a pleasant surprise. This is a really fine game which surprisingly doesn't play much like any other game found in the community as for now. It's a definitely basic, yet unique experience that is worth playing for sure. Some of the games are far from perfect and can be truly annoying and unforgiving, especially due to the annoying and hard difficulty setting of the game. Yet, you'll keep coming back for more. If the main game proves to be too hard for you, you can always try your luck with the random mode which allow you to play levels at random, which can allow you to evade the less interesting games (or step right into them). This feature was a bit buggy since it had a tendency to replay the same levels often, but this is just a minor issue. Download and play ze game! For Russia! Hmmm, wait a minute... I'm not Russian, damn it! Curse ze game! Oh well... hope you'll enjoy it. smile.gif