Reviews by Jim Kaplan

duncan bowsman

View this member's profile

Show ratings only | both reviews and ratings
View this member's reviews by tag: aaron a. reed adam cadre admiral jota alan deniro andrew plotkin atmospheric C. E. J. Pacian callico harrison cha holland charlie the spiffy chris conley cpuguy89 craig dutton dan schmidt daniel ravipinto david welbourn duncan bowsman dylan o'donnell emily short fanfiction fantasy gareth rees graham nelson horror humor ian haberkorn IF whispers jacqueline a. lott joey jones jon ingold Juhana Leinonen lucian p. smith marius muller michael gentry mid-length mystery nom3rcy one-room parody paul lee porpentine poster puzzleless rob noyes ronkimmons s. john ross sam kabo ashwell sci-fi sean barrett short speed IF star foster stephen granade taylor vaughan tom blawgus tom mchenry victor gjisbers yoon ha lee zarf zork
...or see all reviews by this member
1-1 of 1


I Was a Teenage Headless Experiment, by Duncan Bowsman

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A nutcase to remember, July 7, 2013
by Jim Kaplan (Jim Kaplan has a room called the location. The location of Jim Kaplan is variable.)
Related reviews: duncan bowsman

Play it if: a tiny, smartly-written distraction sounds attractive.

Don't play it if: if, well, it doesn't.

I never know quite how to approach ratings for Speed IF games. I think it's generally agreed that the general "quality" standards for the Speed IF process are lower (at least in terms of depth and scope). So a game like this, while very good for the format, is rather light when considered as a game in and of itself. Do I rate it high, putting emphasis on the circumstances under which it was written? Or do I rate the game and not the writer?

In this case, at least, I figure I'll split the difference and give it a 4.

Though it has enough puzzles for Django Reinhardt to count on his left hand, I Was A Teenage Headless Experiment makes its short length count and gives the player that nice "aha" moment the ideal puzzle should produce. Outside of that, there's a nice level of light macabre humor (the number of terrible head-based puns is thankfully kept to a minimum). A comfortable and memorable distraction.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 


1-1 of 1