Those shifty (har, har) 8-key critters are cruising down the screen towards you, an intrepid, er, light bulb, as you ascend the y-axis in this evasion Flash game called Short Circuit.
While 'don't touch the sprites' is a very (very very very?) common game mechanic, this is a superb execution with twists that make it less about endurance than about nerves.
Analysis: The real quality of this game is owed to its superb visuals and sound. The visuals are clean and crisp, reminiscent of Tonypa's pastel-on-white works, and a bit of scrolling background (a la Drifts) lends itself to calm the frenetic pace of the game.
And frenetic it is, largely due to the intertwining of the game's jazzy, disco track and the behavior of the asterisk sprites on the screen. This is not a game for the hearing (or rhythm) impaired. In each stage—delineated by a shift in the color scheme of the sprites falling from the sky—your attackers will adopt a new strategy in colliding with you, but will do so in time to the beat. While at first notion, this would seem to make the game easier to handle, it in fact just adds to the tension and absorption of the game.
I suggest headphones.
The instructions for the game are brilliantly simple and to the point, exactly the kind of intro I like to see (and again, reminiscent of Tonypa's games such as Touchme). You must avoid touching anything, and you start the game with a limited, non-recharging bar of repellent: press the mouse button down to push away all of the sprites near you. The bar drains fast, though; expect no more than two or three seconds of usage per game.
My embarrassing admission: I haven't gotten past the second 'phase'. Here's a hint—just because the color changed, doesn't mean the music has changed completely. Click.
Nice game, I struggled for ages to get past the second level as well, then the first time I did I got 14680 points! I lost count of the different levels - I died near the end of the one with white clouds on a black background and swirling musical notes.
And just in case anyone doesn't know, the music is from the album Discovery by Daft Punk.
It's "rhythm", not "rythm".
I love the presentation. I reached 15000 on the second try, it's not that hard.
But are the asterisks supposed to be that faint? My eyes actually watered while playing this - not a good sign.
Thanks SpellingNazi, I've corrected that one and the other three typos you missed (lightbulb, embarassing, repellant). Geesh, if you're gonna help us with spelling the least you could do is catch them all next time, hmm? ;)
I found this game a while back on Newgrounds; found it entertaining for a short time. It is a well made game, though. Reccomended for a short break from life.
I got to the 'night' phase on my second try, black baground with clouds.
First song (dont even know if there is more than one song in this game) is Short Circuit by Daft Punk if anyone is wondering
Fun game! Sadly, I did better on my first try, with no sound, than I did after pulling out my headphones LOL
15543 final score! What a great game, very relaxing.
OMG those asterisks are really, really REALLY hard to see. Why, oh why? I could feel my contact lenses dry out because I hadn't blinked for two minutes straight.
Ok, others have mentioned this, but the things are just too hard to see, I keep running into things I just can't see. That's not much fun.
Maybe my settings are messed up somewhere, but I can't say I like this game.
my only problem was during the stage with the white clouds, the asterisks were behind the clouds, and it was difficult to tell where they would come out..
A great game. I love integration with the music, although I would have enjoyed it more if there were more levels and if the asterisks did more different things to the music.
I agree that the asterisks can be extremely hard to see. For those of you using Mac OS X, I found that the asterisks are easier to see if the screen is inverted (control + option + command + 8).
the thing that felt like BS to me was that some of the asterixes (asteri?) are so pale that you basically can't see them, I could have my face squnched against the screen and still not see one of them. That feels... cheap to me as a way of making the game harder.
I have the reflexes of a slug. I could only go as far as 10 seconds into the second phase. I've already tried like 10 times and now I can't even beat the first phase. And about the dim asterisks thing, I can see them just fine. I guess the colors are somewhat different on Macintosh computers.
i really liked this one! its pretty interesting how they integrated music with gameplay.. nicely done!
bte, i suck! hehe :D
8810 is my best score. Had no trouble seeing the asterisks until the part where the background goes from white to black with the pink asterisks.
I keep dying when all the asterisks charg towards me.
I got 11250!
i beat the game!!!
WOOHOO!!! DAFT PUNK RULES!!!
Tough game, though.
Still pretty fun.
The link is leading me to an armor games page that says the page doesn't exist. o_o
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