Netbabyworld

Ever since the Playstation, game designers have been presented more and more information space for their games, certainly more than what is needed to make a good game. While this has been responsible for some interesting titles, most developers have pushed gameplay to the wayside in search of the better particle engine to render blood spray with the most realistic arc possible, or increasing the polygon count of their protagonist's breasts, enabling more impressive "bounce". Some developers just use the extra space to allow themselves to be sloppy.

But the Net still contains very strict size requirements, due to bandwidth issues, and the number one question on the Web game developer's mind is, "Is it fun?" Netbabyworld is fun.

A collection of simple, entertaining Shockwave games, Netbabyworld offers that old-school 8-bit NES flavor while adding some net-related bonuses as well. Your interface is based on a plug-in cartridge machine called the "PlayCom", and it can change everything from your little avatar's hairstyle to the color of the Website's logo. If Shigeru Miyamoto was not the most important, acclaimed game designer of all time, and instead was a Swedish Web Site designer, www.netbabyworld.com would be the result.

The games themselves are simply designed, single player games. The newest game, "Tune-Inn" is a pleasant little puzzle game in which you have to make records that are the correct color by blending the different instruments together, and then pass them out to customers with the corresponding shirt color. If only real music stores worked like this.

Noticably lacking is multiplayer support — I believe that Shockwave is not well equipped to handle multiplayer games, unless they are low bandwidth enough, like the highly enjoyable SISSYFIGHT 2000.

A great thing about the site is the unity in design. The games are completely united with the site aesthetic, creating a seamless experience. Sure, the experience is strange, retro, and Swedish, but still — complete design unity is a great accomplishment for a site, particularly one with such a large amount of information. You could do a lot worse.

— Dan Norton (dan@flakmag.com)