There is just something about this tileset that bothers me to the very core of my existence. Call me a cynic, but for some reason – probably because it is – this tileset feels like much of it was put together from different tilesets. Usually, when someone does this, it turns out looking very poor and being completely unusable. This is not the case, although it does really make this tileset a lot worse than it could have been. Oh well; here we go.
THEME: The theme of this tileset is…uh….to be one hundred percent honest, I have no idea what the theme it. It appears to be ground. With waterfalls. This is a genre that is way too old. The ground, in fact, looks like it is from many tilesets from 1999. There is not much creativy contained within the tileset. It features the standard, minimal features for a tileset such as this: Ground, mountains, a waterfall or two, and grass. Yawn.
Pros: It is not a space tileset.
Cons: It is a nature tileset.
Rating: 2.0
GRAPHICS: To put it bluntly, the graphics here are dismal. As I previously mentioned, the ground looks like something made in Paint in 1999. It has little jaggies which you would never find in actual dirt, and is pretty much the standard brown “ick” color with the same pattern repeated over and over again. When going down a hill, one notices that there are little bumps in the hill. This could have been made to look good, but instead simply looks like a lazy alignment problem. There is an alternative ground color, slightly darker, which is not much better and is even more depressing. The rocks look surprisingly good, although not very realistic. The grass reminds me of Hotel Heroes tilesets, which is arguably a good or bad thing. However, it just does not fit in with the ground. The vine looks okay, although its color suggests that it may have been made out of Wheat Thins. The hook looks more like a noose than a hook. The text sign is okay, although it is a bit too resemblant of a pillow speared onto a fence post. There is also a mushroom, seemingly stolen out of Commander Keen, that sort of fits in, yet at the same time looks too bright for the level. It is a decent addition, though, considering. The other mushrooms, which look like spades from a card game, are too dark to be noticed very easily against their background. A standard crystal-like waterfall from (insert 8-bit game here) and some various pictures of players and players’ names round off the rest, with a few okay-looking mountains thrown in for good measure and layer seven use. The whitesmoke-colored lumps are probably intended to be clouds. If they are intended to be anything but whitesmoke-colored lumps, though, they don’t do the job very well. Come to think of it, the ground looks out of a Hotel Heroes tileset, as well. Overall, disappointing.
Pros: Nothing looks hideous…
Cons: …except for the clouds and the ground.
Rating: 4.5
INVENTORY: I’ve never been very good with finding things, nor remembering things that should be included in something. However, for the most part, it appears that everything is here. There are vines, hooks, and the like. There is also fire, disappointingly the default sort. Rarer items like sucker tubes appear to be completely missing from this tileset, while the more common sucker tubes also seem not to be here. In this sort of tileset, there is no excuse for missing sucker tubes, as just having the sucking effect out in the open looks bad.
Pros: Most things are here.
Cons: Sucker tubes are missing, as are most things considered extra.
Rating: 5.2
ORIGINALITY: No. There is little to say here other than “no.” This tileset frankly lacks any originality whatsoever. It is just like nearly every single earth-themed tileset before it, and does not do a very good job, either. There are a few interesting inclusions, such as the mushroom, but everything else is too standard to be regarded as anything of notable originality. And even the mushrooms – although not those mushrooms specifically – are fairly common in tilesets like this.
Pros: None.
Cons: No originality to speak of.
Rating: 2.7
EASE OF USE: This is one category in which this tileset excels. To put it simply, there are few easier to use tilesets than this, mainly because it does not take any risks at all. There are a few places in which the use of another layer are necessary in order to make the tileset look good, which does do damage to its score, but other than that, it is an easy tileset to use. Not that you would probably want to.
Pros: Really easy to use.
Cons: There are a few areas in which it could have been made more user-friendly.
Rating: 7.5
MASKING: So-so. All the little ridges and stuff are translated to the mask, as well, which probably should not have been done, since they are small enough to theoretically get stuck in. However, getting stuck was moderately difficult in testing, so I suppose they are not too small. Still, there is no point in having them. The masking on the hills worries me, mainly because it goes from fairly straight to way to steep. This is the sort of place where one could easily get stuck while running. The whole thing bothers me, but I think I’m just being paranoid. It more or less looks okay.
Pros: Not easy to get stuck.
Cons: Questionable masking proceedures that are more or less bad ideas; no reason to have them, despite them not doing much damage.
Rating: 6.0
OVERALL (not an average): I just cannot like this tileset, no matter how hard I try. I hate to be the person who rates so low, but unfortunately I just do not see in way in which this tileset could possibly deserve a score of eight. It looks below average, the mask is below average, and most everything about this tileset is generally subpar. There are not many bright spots, either. This tileset lacks creativity and feels more like a “hello world” than a release. What sort of level would benefit from this tileset’s use, I do not know. It is too generic to show effort, and seems to not want to go to any pains to develop an identity. So, it remains in the bins of sub-mediocrity.
Pros: Very few to note.
Cons: Lots of problems. Just plain not very attractive.
Rating: 4.7
SCORECARD
Bugs: C
Eyecandy: D+
Background Eyecandy: C+
Foreground Eyecandy: C -
Masking: C
Tile Variety: D
Tiles Included: C
Quality: C -
OVERALL: C -
Pros: Very few to note.
Cons: Lots of problems. Just plain not very attractive.
FINAL SCORE: 4.7
- Trafton