Pod Panic is a gorgeous little arcade Flash shooter that is simple to play and terribly addictive. It was created by Al O'Shea of Fatking.co.uk.
Grab the mouse with one hand and put your fingers of the other on the arrow keys, or alternatively on the WASD keys. Click the mouse to fire.
Each level presents you with an increasing number of pods, round bumper-like objects that tend to gravitate towards your ship, and a string-creature that is rather hypnotizing to watch. String creatures require hits perpendicular to its line segments, so you will have to keep moving to clear each level. You will also need to protect your orbiting shield ring, or it's eternal darkness for you.
Fortunately, you have an Intergalactic Hyperspace Pulse weapon available to you by pressing the [space] bar. But it requires recharging after use. There are also a few power-ups that can help you along the way: orange shield boosts, orange [P] firing rate increasers, hyperspace pulse boosters.
And while there isn't much more than that to this cute little game, the gameplay kept me going at it for a long while. Did I mention it's terribly addictive? Great old-school arcade fun in a tight little package.
Cheers to Dann for the link! =)
Update: Macs now supported! =D
Hey, Jay- there's a 404 on the link.
Yoo bad about the no-mac-shooting thing, the game looks pretty nifty.
cheers,
eli
(Yes, I have started saying that. Yes, it is your fault.)
Reload the page. My bad. =)
Of course, as soon as I say it, the link works... *sigh*
Aww to bad as well about the mac thing, it looks like its fun with the whole two-handed thing, like the wii almost. Except when it comes to the whole can't fire thing. No fair *pouty-face*
I've left a message with the developer, perhaps we'll see a revision for the game that supports Macs? I don't believe it would be a difficult change to make.
The first Neon game had a similar issue, and Ali, the developer of that game, told me he used code similar to...
if (Key.isDown(1))
to test for mouse down, which works on a PC but doesn't on a Mac. I'd be glad to help out if needed. =)
it probably is fun, but it's impossible to play with an azerty keyboard the keys are just too far apart and don't feel natural.
I guess that's the downpart of having a different system.
Speaking of Wii and Mac, what about a GAME using the sudden motion sensors on the MacBooks? That would be amazing.
Lawls, I got a high score.
...for daily.
...on a new game. Ah well.
It's not a bad game, but it's really repetitive and not hard to master.
Al just informed me he has uploaded a new version that supports Macs and "a few slight improvements here and there." =)
Hah, great.
Terribly fun, little repetitive. I wish there were more of the stick-enemies, they are a little sparse.
Hi Jay-
I was wondering if you will be posting any halloween themed games this year, with the holiday coming up in just a short number of days now. I remember last year there were a few such games (Jinx, the helicopter game, the little vampire game) that I really enjoyed; I think holiday games might just be my favorite casual games, and I've been looking forward to seeing more. An enjoyable halloween game really gets you in the spirit of the festivities.
I second Daniel!
I've got a little something up my sleeve. ;)
This game seemed really boring..
The powerups were boring, the enemies were boring, every level was the same... quite a let down
This game heavily borrows mechanics from "Crimsonland", one of my all-time favourites. Check it out if you didn't already. It's kinda bloody though, so choose kid-friendly version if you're sensitive to that.
Looks a lil like it's creation was inspired by BreakQuest's physics funnes. Tho it looks like the author could use some tips on line intersection.
Quite a refreshing approach.
I'm looking forward to it Jay.... :D
Keys are not conveniently close considering speed of gameplay
It is just a "focus game"; if you want to succeed you only have to stay focus...
108016, third daily.
Simple gameplay, but quite fun- and really frustrating at times. Ah well, all it's really done is distract me from my homework. Heh.
Holy crap. I just played for the first time and got the highest score!
i got to stage 2 with full shield and 210230 points
Update