Jardinains for Windows

An Arkanoid type game starring garden gnomes

Jardinains 2 is a fun and original twist on the block breaking genre that reminds me of something I might have played on my Atari 20 years ago.

It's slightly more advanced than Pong but not much! Basically, you have a paddle and a bouncing ball that require you to destroy a bunch of bricks. However, the twist is that inside the bricks are what are called "nairns". Nairns are basically little critters that are there to make your life hell. They throw things at your paddle and basically attempt to stop you from cracking open any of the remaining bricks. Your aim is to strike the nairns with your ball and knock them out of action. However, the fun doesn't stop there - you can bounce the little critters off your padel to destroy even more bricks so it's quite satisfying in a sadistic way. Using their bodies, you can clear a screen much faster although it's quite an ordeal trying to keep a ball and several critters flying up in the air for several minutes at a time. This demo version is only limited to a few levels and you are prompted to buy the game when you close it down. Whether you decide to buy or not depends on whether you can see much worth in bouncing critters against bricks for long. Personally, I got bored after a few minutes although if you've had a bad day at the office, it's a good way to get some agression out. Oh, and don't expect wonders in the graphics or sound deapartment - this is proudly an old skool style game.

An interesting take on the Pong genre although they needed to make it a bit more interesting to hold my attention.