The Dink Network

Very Dink Christmas (A)

From the COTPATD project.
October 22nd, 2020
v1.00
Score : 9.0 exceptional
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yeoldetoast
Peasant They/Them Australia
LOOK UPON MY DEFORMED FACE! 
The category of unfinished DMODS is a particularly curious one with numerous entries. Of these, it seems that "Back from the Grave" garners the most attention, with the others largely left alone and unnoticed. For many of these, this is ideally how it should be. The only real value that "His Ancestor 1239" has had for example has been when people accidentally select it when using the file discussion forum on this site. In the case of "A Very Dink Christmas", however, I fear that it has gone ignored by many to the point where they're missing out on quite a lot of clever innovation and good fun.

The mod isn't without its glaring flaws which unfortunately the author seems to have fixated himself upon to the point of ignoring all of the ingenuity that makes up the final product. It's true that it's a game isn't particularly coherent to the point where you're often you're left wondering what to do and often have to use Ultimate Cheat to get out of a sticky situation, but at the same time, this is particularly standard in the world of Dink, even in finished DMODS and not something particularly game-breaking. The magic system takes a bit of getting accustomed to as well, but once you figure it out, the (somewhat unbalanced) new spells are great fun to play with.

Despite having no real ending and numerous flawed warps that will take you back to the start or cause you to get stuck rather abruptly, "Dink Christmas" is an adventure enveloped in puerile jokes and outlandish scenarios that will make you wonder what any of it actually has to do with Christmas itself. The fade-down sections with Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory" had me laughing out loud, although for many, this will be interpreted as revoltingly distasteful and will understandably repel many others. If you can stomach this sort of humour, you're almost definitely going to enjoy the rest of what the game has to offer.
December 8th, 2006
v1.00
Score : 8.9 good
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GOKUSSJ6
Peasant He/Him Poland
Everyone should get a pizza for free in each week. 
A very dink Christmas:

*Story*
Dink JR was born and he want's to find his father Dink Smallwood then he meets Matridge's Father Ridge.Ridge helps Dink JR in finding his father.
*8.0*
Gameplay:
Gameplay is very good but the map is a little empty.After when i was changed into the slime i can't go next hope you will fix it.Ridge after warping is getting retarded so it's funny *9.0*
*Music & Audio*
There are some new and they are good *8.5*

Good:Humour
Bad:What should i do when i'm on ice land?

Overall:
*8.9*
October 13th, 2006
v1.00
Score : 0.0 horrible
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Every once in a while, you see an artistic project which obviously took a lot of time and effort but still sucks. Really, really sucks. Just absolutely dire.

And then sometimes you look at the author's name and you realize... YOU are the person who unleashed this abomination on the world.

This dmod was originally supposed to be a quick romp, to be released on christmas, (indeed, the beginning of the game has a christmas theme to it which gradually gets forgotten.) I just kept adding more and more stuff, because I could never see a way to an immediate conclusion. Eventually, I developed a four-part story, based on the elements (laaaaame), of which this dmod is the first 1.5 parts, but even this story kept expanding, as I continued to add stuff to the game. The end result is that everything is shoddy and nothing makes sense.

Style: 0
Some areas are decorated reasonably well, but most are not. The dialogue is either unhelpful, verbose, annoying or all three. There are a number of scripted objects which say lame things when you hit them, but this isn't really a good thing. I like the no-wall style used for the interiors, but that's because, you know, I'm responsible for it.

Something also needs to be said about the frequent and very forced attempts at humor. I am not funny. That is all.

Gameplay: 0
Yeah, the game just kind of sucks. I thought the enemies were pretty cool when I scripted them, but they aren't, unless "cool" means "bugged". The weapons are easy for me to use (duh) but it would be very annoying to figure them out, as the game provides no instructions for the bow or spirit whip.

But the worst part here is the stuff you have to do to progress. There's a lot of meaningless walking back and forth, a lot of random talking to people, some pointless pick-up-object-x-and-bring-it-to-location-y without being told that's what you have to do, etc.

Let me give one example which stands out as particularly bad. There is a boss, early in the game, who can only be beaten by a spell which generally takes over a minute (!!) to charge, and requires no finesse to use. The boss is slow, and has no long range attacks, so the battle comes down to walking in circles for a minute (with no dodging needed) and then casting the spell.

There are also bugs a-plenty which make the game hard to "finish." I tried very hard to fix most of these, but without much success. The game can be beaten, but chances are, you will at some point run into a bug which makes you reload.

Story: 0
Even I can't tell what's going on with the story. All I know is that the names are lame, the characters are lame, and this dmod is lame.

Overall: 0.0
I should really subtract another .1 for bugs.

I'm not going to take it off the DN or anything, but this dmod is an absolute train wreck, whose only real value is as a cautionary tale to aspiring dmod developers (the moral: plan ahead.) Play anything else before you play VDC.