The trailer!

Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa

Graphics - 6/10

The games weakest aspect is graphics, suffice to say they get the job done. All custom sprites have very fluid animations for the most part. It falls down to the fact that some sprites mesh with the overall atmosphere and many are amateurishly implemated. They aren't horrible though, they have their own appeal in being amateur. The sprites are very good in context, but those times are few and far in between. Map landscapes seem rushed, especially in later parts. The ingame landscapes aren't barren - but aren't teaming with life. More on that later. The battle menues are perfect and completely explanitory, I never felt in the dark. The battle backgrounds are bland the entire game through though (save for boss fights) and that is a little dissapointing. Really, you won't care about graphic quality in this title, after all it is ment to be a style parody of 16-bit RPGs. It does run in DirectX 10 for some minute effects - is your PC powerful enough? (Yes...)

Nack

Music - 9/10

The music in the game is composed by a guy who calls himself Nobuo Uematsu. He isn't the real Nobuo, but his original music is so good that if the entire project wasn't so absurd I would be convinced that Nobuo actually made the music. Though nothing is especially memorable (memorable = 10/10) the stuff is so good and appropriate that its hard to give it a lower score. (I did compare the composer to Nobuo didn't I?) Not to mention Eternity (from Blue Dragon - the most awful boss thme ever in my opinion) and Sweet Georgia Brown (heh) make appearances as boss themes to add to the dramedic effect. Yes I just made up a word. There are times when the music will lag before it loops, forgivable giving the fangames' nature. The music adds to the games atmosphere entirely - something that some mainstream RPGs can't even do.

Nack

Story - 10/10

The reason to play the game. Bar any and all gripes and praises I've had for it, the story is the reason to play this game. Take what you saw in the preview and add in zaubers, japanophiles, Jwanna Mann, Forgotten Realms, a Furry town, Space Jam, diabetes, insane plastic surgery, parody of vidcons, and megahurtz and you've got Barkley. Seriously this game is all the epicness in the world contained into one game (this has shown that a feat like this is possible...and I like to make up words). The story is rather hard to grasp just by hearing it, but it is portrayed in such a convinceable way you almost forget this game supposed to be a parody. The seriousness is a complete plus though; in the game you WILL laugh out loud and having the characters mean what they say is extremely funny. I can't even attempt to write about the story in this review. You should just stop reading and download the dang thing already. Though be warned that the game is very vulger (unlike my squeaky clean site) and may turn off some people - like Blue (It turned me off at first too).

Nack

Gameplay - 8/10

So your still reading this piece of crap? Look I already told you - in this game the gameplay means absolutely nothing. Don't believe me? Of course you don't. Oh well... This game is an RPG with standard RPG elements. You know: towns, equips, items, party members, radom battles, dungeons, and phat loot. Come expecting a lifeless, generic expirence on the world side of things. The NPCs aren't doing much (though have awesome dialoge as explained) and though there are a ton a buildings very few can be entered. As I have used Gamemaker I can excuse these minor flaws - it is fan-made remember? Anyways, many RPGs get by with crappy towns and/or interfaces. What matters is the battling. Each party member has the normal HP/MP set up to do their attacks. Your skills and spells (though some having cool animations) are sorta useless because of little amounts of MP each character has. The normal attack command makes up for all of this though. Yes I just said normal attack. Choosing the attack command will bring up another menu with three seperate attacks that having varying damage and hit%. Nothing really special. Then you choose an attack and have to time (or do some kind of button press) ala Mario RPG. This really breaks up the monotony of the genre and makes every random battle worthwhile. With healing items like steroids and Ecto Coolers you know this game will be wild.

Nack

Lasting Appeal - 3/10

Like many of the same genre, this game suffers from "what the heck should I do now?" syndrome. It's a serious problem affecting today's games but whatcha gunna do? This game is very short - only about five hours. A five hour RPG (with no post-game I might add) is pretty sad. It leaves you wanting more, with no more to give. Which leads to "what the heck should I do now?". Yes you can replay it in a "secret" mode or try to get to the dev room, but doing so is pointless. Graphics are still the weakest aspect of the game, but lasting appeal is non-existent.

Nack Final Score 9/10 Not an average... The game is a 9/10 experience and is better as the sum of its parts, not each individual thing. Though the story ties it all together, it's very fun game and should be downloaded immediately. Download here