The Dink Network

"A short romp - that sorta turns into a quest. Dink is summoned by King Daniel to find out why the world is becoming a desert. This DMOD started out as being a project I wanted to spend only 24 hours on. Basically start it one night and have it finished the next. I didn't make it. Bugs (hopefully all the really nasty ones are killed now) and the desire to add new graphics (so shoot me, I can't help myself) meant it took just over 72 hours. Mind you this was not non-stop."

*Best download of june 2002*

I came to this D-Mod rather worried - rather than be impressed by the short time the D-Mod took to create, I worried that the result may have been pretty cack-handed. Thankfully Simon's skills as an author show through, but the game in no way validates the concept of a 24-hour (or 3 day) D-Mod.

Upon loading, I was immediately confronted by the HILARIOUS COMEDY SOUND EFFECTS. Simon has seen fit to replace the fairly neutral sounds of the original Dink with a series of farts, beeps and buzzers, and whilst some may find these amusing, I found them completely repellant, and as a result dreaded attempting to manage my inventory in-game, which would result in a torrent of AMAZING COMEDY.

The play style is very much that of a romp, with little dialogue. The combat is enjoyable, if unexciting, and what NPC interaction there was is enjoyable. The riddle -thankfully- doesn't play an essential role in the game, leaving you to get on with the chopping.

Probably the strongest part of the D-Mod is the atmosphere - the scenery is lush, which is some achievement for a desert. As long as you avoid the AMAZING COMEDY, the sound varies from average to excellent, with some of the music very atmospheric indeed. The only problem is that there is too much of it by far, resulting in music changes every few screens and never letting the sound build up.

In the end, however, the game is danged by a lack of interesting material. The graphics may be novel, but their function isn't - burnable cacti replace trees, scorpians boncas, etc. There are few surprises, and the game mechanic is that of killing hordes of erratically challenging monsters. Simon's obvious talent is constrained by his own desire to create a short game. It's more than an average experience, but it's never less than disappointing.