Jumping right into some addictive gameplay after finals is just what I need to escape from all the stress and pressure. I want something fast with lots of action and adrenaline, lots of explosions and particle effects, and a rocking soundtrack.
Brent Silby's DNA delivers on all of these fronts. The unique game is a fast action arcade hybrid that mixes elements of a shooter with that of a collection-oriented game. The object is to collect all of the 'DNA' fragments in play, and deposit them into the sequencer while avoiding all the 'free radicals'. Once a level is cleared, you advance to the next with more fragments to collect, and meaner and more intelligent radicals.
Use the [I][J][K] and [L] keys to guide the 'ship' around the play field, press [Z] to fire the weapon from both sides simultaneously. Once you have collected some fragments, simply navigate the ship into the square labeled "sequencer" to automatically deposit them and to form them into DNA molecules.
The gameplay of DNA is quite gratifying as you move the ship around collecting fragments like a magnet. The laser weapon fires rapidly catching most enemies in their tracks. The soundtrack features motivating techno tracks that are well-suited to the fast pace of the game.
Brent Silby offers up several excellent arcade action games on his def-logic website, and all are written in DHTML (Javascript). If you are on a PC, you should use Internet Explorer to play Brent's games. If you are on a Mac, you can use the latest version of Safari—however, you will hear no background music, and the only sound effects you will hear will be Safari complaining when you press any of the action keys. Firefox does not presently render DHTML fast enough to play these games. Brent says that the Firefox developers are aware of the situation (documented in bug 234233 on bugzilla) and are working hard at improving the Firefox rendering engine.
If you want excellent arcade-style action games to play in the convenience of your browser, Brent has enough to keep you busy and coming back for more. Original and unique, DNA is a good example of an original game design implemented with the power of DHMTL and Javascript. Click.
Hmm somehow I can't steer the ship, the arrow keys don't react.
i got over 2 million
but i dont know how many levels there are because i didnt beat the game yet, i had to close it for something else. ha ha ha
the trick is to keep fighting after youve gotten all the dna.
Aaron - oops, my bad. In the post I said to use the arrow keys, but Brent uses the [I][J][K] and [L] keys for movement. I will update the post to reflect this. Thanks for that observation. Sorry for the confusion. =)
The game has a flaw though...
If you die near a wall, and the molecules move outside your range, you can't get the rest to move on to the next level.
Nick - Hmm, that never happened to me, and I do remember dying near a wall. In fact, when it happened I remember it clearly because the molecules all lined up nicely along the wall. I will run some tests when I get the chance. Thanks for your input. =)
The game should prevent molecules moving outside of your range. Can you remember what wall you died next to (i.e. left, right, up, down)?
does any one know what it means when the stars come to you and your ship becomes rainbow?
I guess they've been tweaking it on the side of firefox since the game itself runs fine for me when I use it... only one problem... no rockin soundtrack of awsome technoness.. in fact no sound at all when when I use firefox
Gryph- it means you're incinvible. You can run into the 'free radicals' and they'll blow up, not you. :) I don't know how it decides to happen, I think it might be random, or x seconds into the level or something. *shrugs*
I got up to molecule 15, and man does it get hard up there. But I couldn't pass it as when my ship got destroyed, 2 particles got stuck up in the top part of the screen. Mine happened in the upper right corner, near the sequencer. I've never noticed it on any other side so far. just the upper right
Well I beat the game at molecule 20 with a score of 1084275... I have no idea how deathbaron got over 2 Million, especially since he didn't beat the game... but good game overall... tough once past lvl 12
He got over 2 million by purposely not going on to the next level. This is one of those games where you can tape down the fire button on level one and leave and come back, but I suspect he probably just let level 3-5 continue and manually just kept killing people. If he did that on a level higher then 5, I give him my congrads on being better then me though.
I got to molecule 11 and finished with 476275 points
Lawl 2/3 of the songs i recognize from DDR / ITG XD
neway woot awesome game
Can the game even be completed?
I dont think so.
very addicting.
SIKE!!!
Update