[ Reviewed by: Jay ] - [ Date: Friday, 19th April, 2002 ]

"Oh, Goodie! O Frabjous Day!" The Resident SPQ2 Fiend claps his furry, grimy paws together in glee, drool oozing down his recessive jaw, making unattractive patterns in the fur of his protruding belly, before dripping to the floor of his pit... "Another new map from Kona!" This does not happen often, and when it does, it is normally a cause for rejoicing.

And this time is no exception. Kona has produced another masterpiece for us. Let The Fiend give away the ending: this one is Superb, unquestionably.

Oh, yes, Disclosure: - Both The Fiend and The MetsFan playtested this map. As usual, Kona's map was pretty much done, and The Fiend's comments were in the nature of polishing the gilded lily, not anything more. Nonetheless, you Beloved Visitors deserve to know this little fact as you read this and decide whether or not you want to give this a shot. Although if you do not, you will definitely be missing something...

Let's start where The Fiend normally does, with the visuals and the environment. The visuals are impressive as only Kona can do it. The motif is castle, with a theme similar to what you would find in Classic Quake, but with Kona's own distinctive touch - which will not surprise you if you read the TXT file and see the origin of the map. The Fiend did not see any visual flaws, and the whole is very consistent: brooding, dim without resorting to dark, foreboding, grim, grimy ... just the sort of place where The Fiend would feel right at home, as long as there are plenty of nooks and crannies where he can scurry off and hide from danger. Lots of slime and nastiness pooling around. Lots of stuff to see, and you will get to see it a lot. Pick any place in the map, and you will likely get to see it from two, three, four, or more vantage points and elevations. When you go outside, as you will with regularity, the typical Kona sky lends an air of familiarity to the entire ambiance (a pretty fancy word for The Fiend, no?). Progression is linear, but this does not matter at all, because the path through the castle winds around, in and out, up and down, inside and outside, doubling back on itself, so you will always be seeing something new. Fascinating in a grimly beautiful sort of way.

Not that you will be spending a lot of time on gazing about as you stroll through the castle, not if you want to stay alive, that is. Kona packs about 135 enemies (Medium Skill) into a single level, which means you will have your hands full. No high-tech teleporters here, just excellent placement of a wide variety of enemies, mostly the smaller ones up through Tank Commander, but with a couple of Bosses. Watch out, a Boss can appear where you might least expect it to try to toast your behind. Kona puts on a great show at the end, but does not necessarily save the appearance of all the Bosses for the finale. Surprise is the name of the game, another hallmark of a Kona level, along with maybe brutality at the end.

Anything not to like? Well, enemies have this nasty habit of coming at you from behind, from supposedly cleared areas, while you are trying to preserve your skin against the nasties in front of you, without any warning. (Yes, The Fiend is reaching here.) Oh, and the one secret? It is not just nasty, it is ... darned near impossible for someone as uncoordinated and clutzy as The Fiend, a tease to frustrate.

When all is said and done, The Fiend rates a map by how much fun it is to play, and how it dazzles, with eye candy as well as adrenaline from the combat. This map is indeed Superb. From this standpoint, it may be Kona's best so far - with more hopefully to come, many more. Not only Superb, but even deserving of a medal - a Gold one. You must give this one a try, and then hurry to tell Kona how much you liked it.