Orczz Mini Games
Another thing that I would like to touch on are the mini games that pop up occasionally in Orczz. These occur every so often after the completion of a level. I encountered two while playing the game, a shooting gallery and a game similar to whack-a-mole. The purpose of these games is to give the player a chance to earn extra gold. When I played them, however, they didn’t last long enough to make much of a difference. They were also somewhat confusing in that they weren’t very well explained after showing up so suddenly. It made me feel like I’d accidentally started playing Warioware. Ultimatly, the mini games do very little but interrupt the game. I personally think it would have been better if they weren’t included.
Orczz Music
There is something about the music in Orczz that I feel really needs to be said. The songs played in the main menu and the opening cinematic seemed pretty good to me. However, when I got to the castle screen the song seemed rather familiar. I could have sworn that I heard the same tune in one of my favorite video series on YouTube. I did some research and it turns out that much, if not all, of the music in Orczz came from the website Incompetech.com. Incompetech is a database of royalty free music that can be downloaded by anyone. This might not seem like a big deal, and normally it wouldn’t be, except for the fact that the site was not featured in the game’s credits. I’m not sure, but I think that one of the conditions for using Incompetech’s music is that you mention them in the credits. It’s possible that this was just an oversight by Legenda Studios, but I am pretty disappointed either way.
Conclusion
When all is said and done, Orczz just seems to be a bad knock off of a much better game. In general, it is just poorly designed. It’s key mechanics only serve to frustrate me, and everything else is simply mediocre. There are a few things that I enjoy about the game, but they are almost completely overshadowed by its flaws. I kind of feel bad for ripping on this game so much. After all, most of the work on Orczz was done by two people, which might explain some problems. Be that as it may, I just don’t find this game fun. For $10, I would not recommend it to anyone, especially since Plants vs. Zombies is available for $20. Hell, if $20 is too much, there is actually a free to play version of PvZ. With that in mind, Orczz is simply sub-par.
