The Dink Network

Dink must find the first three of the 9 Gems of Life to stop the Demon Lord Jaitz.

9 Gems of Life - By Jveenhof
Grade C Standard
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Introduction: This is a DMOD from an author no longer seen around the network, Jveenhof with some degree of help from a member known as Wolfblitz. The DMOD is the first of a three-part series, although only two parts of the series were ever made before Jveenhof's departure from the network.

Storyline: The '9 Gems of Life' series was designed to be a group of DMODs, in which Dink discovers 3 'Gems of Life' per episode. He must do this in order to prevent the ancient Demon Lord Jaitz from, as always, taking over the universe as Seth did in the original game. This particular episode, referred to as 'The Beginning' sends Dink through 3 different islands, each with individual themes, and each with their own 'Gem of Life'. Although a slightly different storyline, the core of the game is based upon one of the most unoriginal types of adventure. (8)

Gameplay: The gameplay itself is, although overall a relatively interesting DMOD to play and review, extremely annoying in the case of bugs, glitches and various other annoyances. Even pressing H in-game will kill the main character, a slightly upbeat looking Dink Smallwood. It seems the game was very lightly beta tested, and alot more work should have been done to eliminate these bugs. There was not much variety in terms of inventory and spells, Dink is equipped with a blade of some sort, and later learns an energy spell. This is about all Dink can use in combat, which is quite upsetting considering the amount combat is used in this DMOD. (7)

Graphics: Although there is a new stock of graphics, which is always interesting and most of all pleasing to see, the quality of these is very poor. The main character appears extremely pixelated and his functions are limited. Although the graphics are not designed by the DMOD author, it is however nice to see a change to the usual standard graphics. (7.5)

Audio: I believe there are 15 playable midi files in this episode, all of which serve their individual purposes. They do not vary much in style but they do work well in the situations chosen by the author. You will also hear some audio in the form of .wav, which is used mainly through the introduction of the game, and differs from the audio used in the original Dink Smallwood. (7)

Conclusion: A worthwhile DMOD if you have some time to kill, it's not at all hard to find glitches and hardness errors within the game, so if you will download this make sure you're not one to be annoyed quickly. The author is also not English, which leads to alot of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, which can be excused but should have been checked prior to release. Process of a mean average determines my final score of 7.4!