Attack of the Buggles, the newest game from Paul Preece and David Scott (the Casual Collective), is not like the rest. You control a lonely grey buggle (an imaginary creature from another game in the Collective, Buggle) just trying to make it in Buggle-Land. Or whatever. I just made that up. It is a fast-paced, single-player mouse avoidance game where your only goal is to survive as long as possible. There is no story. There is no thinking. There is only doing. And you'd better do your best to avoid the deadly red buggles flying haphazardly around the plain, white purgatory you're stuck in.
To make matters worse, you not only have to dodge these angry red fiends, but you must collect mysterious blue boxes to keep you from growing out of control. The boxes pop up, one at a time, on alternating sides of the room. As soon as you get one, another appears and begins to count down from ten. You get a number of points for each box you touch, equal to the amount of time left on the box. You also add one red buggle to the room for each box you touch and incrementally speed up all of them.
It would seem as though the difficulty would ramp up quickly. And it does. But the kind people at the CC have put in a couple of measures to extend your game time a bit. One is a slow motion meter. Every box you grab fills up one of the twenty slots in the meter, and once you have ten (at least) you can click your mouse to activate bullet time for a few seconds. This helps you get out of tight spots, which are abundant later in the game.
The second boon is a little green buggle that comes flying from the left of the screen every twenty boxes you collect. He (I say "he" because it is okay to arbitrarily assign genders to buggles—they don't mind) gracefully traces out a serene sinusoidal path to the right of the screen. 
If you manage to catch him (which isn't a hard thing to do, generally) you became the mighty devourer, destroyer of red buggles! Watch as they cower before your divine retribution—eat them, eat them all! In this enraged state the innocent and, prior to being eaten, happy, green buggle puts you in, you may eat as many red buggles as you can catch in the few seconds your anger lasts. You get a congratulations for every multiple of ten red buggles you manage to swallow in one go, but no real boost to your score—just your confidence. Paul has promised awards for the game soon: you can bet this will be at least one of them. Aside from relieving stress, it also clears up the screen, giving you a little breathing room as the game gets more hectic.
To the right of the playing field, a scoreboard updates live showing the five newest scores, the top six scores among the people on your friends list, and the top twenty overall scores. I do recommend registering for a free account: aside from allowing you to create a buddy list and post on the forums and in groups, you can save your high score for all to see.
A highly enjoyable little game, the first of many mini-games promised from the Collective, Attack of the Buggles quickly eats up all productivity. Check it out, if only for a few minutes... you'll be hooked into playing even longer. Play Attack of the Buggles.
While you're there at the Collective, check out the other fantastic games on the site: Desktop Armada, Flash Element TD 2 and the previously mentioned and relevant Buggle.
If you've ever longed for a game to bring it on with animal-on-animal warfare, as in the tradition of Redwall, you've come to the right place. Brute Wars is a turn-based RPG tactical strategy game, and the latest game from Distraction Beast, where you pit your team of six creatures against opposing squads. The placement and order of their attacks adds up to a highly nuanced and rapid game of tactics that you won't want to miss.
As the game begins, you have to choose what kind of creatures you want composing your unit. Six portraits are lined up, you can click on one, and then click on another to swap places, or click on the "?" icon to randomize that creature's type. Mousing over each portrait shows a list of stats, and directional arrows show the way that creature can attack. Some creatures can only attack from two spaces away, while some can attack multiple times and some can smash against enemies in multiple directions. The assortment you choose goes a long way toward the ease of combat.
In battle, simply by clicking on one of your animals causes it to attack. Each turn that passes fills up your magic meter, which allows you to perform a few special moves during your turn. You can also order creatures who haven't yet attacked to swap places. Every battle you win levels up your surviving units, but they also lose a level every time they are knocked out. Between battles, you'll be able to heal and revive units, and then move around a overworld map containing shops and special treasures. The goal is to conquer all 7 castles on each map segment, and then proceed to a final destination.
Analysis: Brute Wars is a great example of a game with high production values, elegant interface design, and complex dynamics emerging from simple rules. The graphics are crisp and iconic and the interface flows very smoothly, making seemingly complex rules and numbers intuitively simple. A few arrows, attack power levels, hit points and attacks per turn ends up evoking some fairly interesting tactical decisions, with the magic mechanic serving as a nice garnish. The only significant issue in the harmony of the gameplay comes from the level adjustment mechanic. There's a nasty feedback loop where any weak links in your team end up de-leveling more and more as they lose levels. A big part of winning the long-term games comes in sparing your animals from being K.O'ed whenever possible. However, the problem there is that swapping them out of harm's way is too expensive, taking up an entire turn. The solution to this design issue would be to allow swapping to occur between an animal that hasn't attacked and a unit that already has—currently both creatures must be fresh in order for the swap to take place. There's also a rare bug on the Exp. screen that causes the game to effectively freeze, so make sure you save regularly and don't lose your progress right at the end of the game, like I did.
Treat yourself to a smorgasborg of tactics and well-drawn portrait art, Play Brute Wars.
If something considered "retro" gets remade, is it still considered retro? Such is the question to ponder while playing Arcadia Remix, the juiced-up retro remake of Gamelab's multitasking classic, Arcadia. This newer version adds to the retro insanity with more mini-games and gameplay features to make your head explode in a neon rainbow.
For those not familiar with the original Arcadia, the premise is simple: a small mini-game appears in one window to play. The games aren't too difficult, so playing one game for a long time would get boring. That's why you'll be given up to four games to play simultaneously, requiring your attention to be divided four ways to stay alive. You're given ten lives to begin each level, and a loss in any individual game will take away one of your precious ten lives. Lose all ten, and it's game over.
Instead of playing the same four games 'til kingdom come, your goal is now to beat a series of cycling mini-games, each with its own target score to clear. Each of the 50 levels of the game has its own total points target to beat, dominating the high scores board one slot at a time. It doesn't quite give the same feeling you get from smashing someone's score at the Ms. Pac-Man table, since the level ends once you meet the quota, but seeing your initials take over the entire high score list does give you a sense of geekish pride.
And what about these mini-games? We now have a whopping 16 games to play, which is double the eight in the original downloadable Arcadia (which is still double the four games in the online version). The games tackle more genres than before, with the classic space shooter, the martial arts brawl, the word puzzle, the walk-down-a-tunnel RPG, and the basketball shoot-out games all joining the pixelfest.
One definite advancement over the original Arcadia games is that the games that pop up at any given time are blended to make your brain sweat. Games with contrasting goals (move the ship to shoot the rocks versus move the ship to avoid the rocks) are often subtly paired against one another, forcing you to divide not only your attention, but your mind as well. And it hits you all of a sudden, when you're playing the same game on four screens at three different speeds, that you realize, "Hmm, they really want my brain to explode, don't they?"
Remember the rainbow orbs from the original Arcadia? They're back, but with a different little purpose. Instead of instantly doubling the point values of the games, rainbow orbs that you collect go into a gauge at the bottom of the screen. Collecting more orbs means you can trigger more powerful boosters, ranging from the 2x-4x multipliers, free extra lives, the ability to slow down games, all they way up to "God Mode," where you can play without fear of losing a single life for a limited amount of time. Certain powerups will be more helpful to you at different times in the game, so you've got to keep your eye on the gauge to know when to hit the button activating the current power-up.
Analysis: True to the original retro style, Arcadia Remix delivers a throwback to the Atari games of yesteryear, complete with all the pixels and "blips" you remembered. On somewhat of a paradoxical downside though, the music and sounds have barely changed since the last Arcadia came, which strikes me as odd. Maybe they're trying to force another sense of retro on us?
The change from four-games-forever to cycling-sixteen was a very good move, in my mind. Instead of staring at a rarely-changing screen playing only two games (because you've built up enough lives in the other two games that you can basically ignore them without worry), you're now forced to divide your attention to all four games, because you're not only concerned about playing each game, but also about quickly redirecting your brain to a new set of rules when a new game pops up. However, this still leaves something to be desired, since there are very few adjustable options for gameplay. There's no choice between easy/medium/hard difficulty, or no way to customize how many points constitute a "win" in the Endless Mode, so the game is very linear, straightforward, and "here's what's next, so deal."
Small concerns aside, Arcadia Remix shoots a new flurry of rainbow stars into the multitasking genre, and is definitely worth the try. Quarters were meant for arcade games, not laundry, right?
Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version
Mac OS X:
Not available. Use Boot Camp or Parallels.
This Mother's Day (through 5/16/08), save BIG on all casual game downloads from Big Fish Games.
Take your pick. The whole inventory is on sale! Be sure to use the coupon code above when ordering to receive your discount.
English not your native language? Try one of these sites:
Two heavy-hitting detective games hit the casual scene this weekend, one a re-release of a classic point and click title, the other an exclusive from a seasoned adventure development studio. Each one spins an unforgettable tale using famous crime novel monikers everyone should recognize. Although the titles take strikingly different gameplay approaches, each one offers a deep mystery experience wrought with hidden agendas, misleading clues, and plenty of riddles to solve.
Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Persian Carpet (Windows, 82MB, demo) - From Frogwares, the developer behind a number of Sherlock Holmes adventure mysteries, comes a casually-oriented game that puts a new spin on the series. The famous Sherlock Holmes receives a letter from Scotland Yard detailing a murder where the body was rolled into a rare Persian carpet. Not ones to turn down an unsolvable crime, Holmes and Watson set out to gather clues and piece together a suspect list.
Similar in gameplay style to Escape the Museum, you'll travel to various locations via an overworld map, hunting for items in each area and solving light puzzles and minigames along the way. The hidden object and adventure themes are well-balanced, but the game is strangely linear and performs a lot of the detective work without your intervention. The story is where the meat of the game is at, and if you can look beyond the often less-than-stellar writing quality, this almost plays like a Sherlock Holmes story meets Mystery Case Files.
Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express (Windows, 1.2G, no demo) - A train stalled on the tracks due to an avalanche. A man murdered in his room. Footprints leading through the snow away from the crime scene. All of the pieces of the puzzle are there, but it's your job to put them together. Play as the young Antoinette Marceau following the vigilant guidance of the famous detective Hercule Poirot. Speak with passengers, gather evidence and assemble clues (both verbal and physical) to find the culprit.
Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express's strengths are rooted in its narration, setting, artistic direction, and wonderful storytelling. Some of the puzzles are a bit trite and end up being little more than miniature fetching quests. But the game has withstood the test of time quite well and can proudly deliver a delicious adventure mystery experience to a whole new group of gamers. Unfortunately there isn't a demo for this title, which is a significant drawback, but if your interest was excited by the words "mystery", "adventure", or "classic", this is a no-brainer for you.
Ready to fill your hard drive to the brim? This weekend we've got several commercially produced games released as freeware. That means you get all the polish and production value of a big studio title without shelling out the cash. You'll have to be patient while they download, and the games aren't as friendly to casual gamers as we'd like, but you can't beat paying nothing for a game that used to carry a retail price tag.
TrackMania Nations Forever (Windows, >500MB, free) - Ooh, big commercial-type racing game... for free! The successful arcade racing series includes track-building, stunts, and a few puzzle-type elements thrown in for good measure. Play in solo mode on 65 new tracks, or join the legions of TrackMania fans in online multiplayer races.
Savage: The Battle for Newerth (Windows/Linux, 151MB, free) - What what what?! Another commercial game that's now free?! Savage is an online-only multiplayer real-time strategy/first person shooter hybrid. Take on resource management and building your technology tree, or lead other players into fierce battle. Combat is fast-paced and action oriented, and the sci-fi fantasy setting is epic. (Note: Torrent download only.)
Psychonauts (Windows, 1.5G, limited free play) - Another gargantuan download, but this one is well worth the wait (and the price). Psychonauts is a cult favorite 3D platformer available for free via the GameTap client. Follow the exploits of Raz, a young boy who escapes the circus and sneaks into a summer camp for kids with psychic abilities. As you enter the strange minds of various characters to help them overcome their trauma, you'll realize just how odd this game is. Once you jump through a few hoops to download it, Psychonauts is pure gold.
Mubbly Tower (Windows, 11MB, free) - The Mubbly Kingdom has been formed! To celebrate, King Mubbly wants to build a tower. Unfortunately the neighboring Wobblies have the nasty habit of bringing down towers (oh the bad luck!). Drop blocks and try to build the pile above "Teh Line". Spend "Moneh" to defend your tower with special Mubblies that have arrows, spears, and other abilities.
Decorating your home is loads of fun. Assuming you have a huge budget, unlimited resources, and all the time in the world. Sandlot's new casual game Eye for Design drops you into the interior design chair with near total control over the inside of each house. You play Halle, the top grad from a prestigious design school in Paris, working with clients looking to spruce up their abodes. Choose and arrange nearly every element in each room to make the customer happy and earn respect in the interior design world.
At the outset Halle gets simple decorating jobs that involve little more than dropping a few pieces of furniture and calling it a day. Your goals for each room are listed to the left, furniture inventory at the bottom, and an isometric view of the room fills the rest of the screen. Simply drag and drop items onto the floor. Most rooms display helpful guide marks to show you where the furniture can be placed. You earn points for fulfilling listed goals and bonus points for completing "secret goals" and hitting color combinations with your selections.
Each job usually consists of several rooms in a home, and groups of homes create a neighborhood. As you progress through the stages you move on to bigger and posher areas where the customers' tastes are bigger, more expensive, and more difficult to satisfy.
Analysis: Eye for Design takes itself a lot less seriously than Home Sweet Home, dropping the concept of a budget, loosening the design guidelines, and foregoing the arcade-style building sequences entirely. Instead, what we get is a super-stylish game that focuses on simple goals and color coordination. Sure, you won't get points deducted if you cover that beautiful painting with a lamp, but if we wanted stringent decorating rules, we'd try moving furniture at aunt Agatha's house.
A drawback to this freer approach is a game that is lighter on actual design and heavier on furniture placement. At times you'll feel more like you're playing a warped version of Tetris trying to pack furniture in limited spaces within the room's four walls.
The best thing going for Eye for Design is its presentation, which has more attitude than you might expect. The visuals are good, the interface works well, and the game is as enjoyable as any casual game should be. Walk in expecting only a minimal amount of actual design and you'll walk away a very happy gamer.
Windows:
Download the demo
Order the full version
Mac OS X:
Not available. Use Boot Camp or Parallels.
Eye For Design is available to download from these affiliates:
Whether you refer to them as the "manic shooter", "curtain fire" or "blanket shooter", the undeniable fact is that it produces some of the most intense responses a genre of games can. Both on an impressive visual scale, and the more personal, adrenaline-based impulse reaction level. And it cannot be denied that the Japanese have a stranglehold on all things "manic shooter".
The Flash-based Pararalyzer, from Japanese developer Heriet, is no exception. From the opening screen, there is action galore and soon enough amazing bullet patterns criss-cross the screen in a dazzling kaleidoscope of colour. Through it all the [Z] key will be your best friend, as you unleash a seemingly endless stream of bullets toward the equally endless droves of enemies who are bent on destroying you.
Every so often a boss turns up, usually with three different stages of destruction to battle through before it is dispatched. The action never lets up as the ballet of enemies and their bullets once again resumes with you, the star, caught in the middle of it all. Fortunately, the intensities can be alleviated somewhat with the [C] key, which provides temporary relief in the form of a shield, provided you have some in stock. The [X] key not only provides sweet bullet respite in its main form as a spray of electric enemy disabling bombs, but as a multifaceted tool for organising pick-ups.
By launching the [X] bombs into the pick-ups, they change in a sequence through life>shield>vanish>force and back again. In order, "life" increases your health, or 200 points if your health is already full. "Shield" gives you another stock of shield (mentioned above and deployable with the [C] key) or 200 points if that stock is full. "Vanish" is the most immediately useful as it clears the screen of any bullets. And "force" temporarily increases your attack power. Another, "Extend" is only available at the end of a level and gives you the ability to hold more health. Playing with all these rules in mind not only deepens the gameplay, but adds another layer of strategy. Quite an achievement for a fast paced flash shmup.
Analysis: It's not difficult to understand why games like this continue to be so exciting. There is something inherently gratifying about being stuck in a surely deadly situation only to suddenly find a few pixels of maneuvering space and escape. Then it happens all over again. With the unique option of being able to double the screen size, or to turn the background to black, this shooter, despite its relative length, provides a very intense and exciting game play experience. I'd love to write a bit more about it, but for now, it's back to this incredibly enjoyable game. Play Pararalyzer.
They say that good things should never end. Take orange, for instance. The orange is infinite. Scroll down into the orange. It's ok, the orange won't hurt you. Use the scrollbar, use the little nubby thing protruding from your mouse, it doesn't matter. You can drag it and fly across the orange like a satellite map or you can stroke it with your finger on your fancy new iwebophone. Any way you dive into it, it is orange.
Look in to the orange, marvel in its rainbow endlessness. If you're confused, you might ask the one of the robots that keeps asking you for a chat. You might learn quite a bit. The robots won't tell you the object of the game, you say? You could try creating a better robot, using zygotic manipulation. Or, you could try seeking the end of the orange, the horizon at the edge of the rind. Or, you could stop and guess. They're waiting for you to try.
Perhaps it would be best just to give into the orange. Play. Grow things, drop things, poke things. Create something: scribble it, arrange it, mix it up with sprinkles on top. You can do it just like you were ringing a bell. If you want to keep the orange and pass it around, you can pick up a little tag and paste it up wherever you call home.
This strange orange webtoy is actually an advergame for the UK phone company Orange Unlimited. For those in the UK, that means freebies like sim cards and text messages. For those of us in other places in the world, that means "Orange" is a rather ambiguous thing. For everyone, it means a chance to play with a nonsensical and surreal landscape. Whether you are interested in phone service or not, give it a try, and I think you'll agree: Good Things Should Never End.
My goal for this Link Dump Friday was to feature five games with one word titles. Did I succeed? Nope. Does that mean my mutant powers are waning? NEVER! It's just due to the position of Jupiter in relation to Capricorn, you see... And besides, one word or two, all the games are still fun, right?
Sinta - A new entry from Ninja Kiwi, creator of Bloons, that has nothing to do with monkeys or balloons! Instead, Sinta is a platformer involving a kitty and bows and arrows, so the concept is equally as cute/strange.
Topple - Inspired by Avalanche, Topple uses simple controls and bouncey physics to create a fun little arcade experience. Rings fall from the sky and gradually fill the screen. Control your ring and try to stay on top of the pile, avoiding the rising water at all costs!
Shirk - A colorful mouse avoider game where the landscape scrolls down onto your unsuspecting cursor. And is it just me, or is that background music one of the happiest tunes ever created?
Digit Puzzle - An advergame touting a web hosting service, this little puzzle title is nonetheless intriguing. Rearrange the tetromino-like pieces so the treasure tile is completely uncovered. Click the mouse to grab blocks, then click on the board to rotate them or off the board to flip them.
Brain Bones - A dice throwing game where you try to fill score slots with random rolls. Occupy a space once and the number is negative, occupy it a few more times and you start earning. The game ends when your discard pile gets too high.
Update: 3rd and final chapter now available to play!
(Warning: This game features excessive cartoon violence, adult themes and potentially offensive language.)
The story goes like this. Alan Probe is a slovenly pizza delivery boy obsessed with pipe dreams of becoming a master surgeon. One day, while distracted by thoughts of doctorly fame, Alan smacks his delivery van into a staggering hobo, shattering the poor man's rib cage and inadvertently launching them both on a new and fateful career path. 
The fallen vagrant urges Alan to perform emergency surgery on him with whatever tools are handy. Open him up, drag his ribs into place, and sew him back together, easy as pie. Convenient pizza cutter in hand, Alan obliges, directed at every step by his patient and new mentor.
Who is this mysterious hobo? If he was once a successful surgeon, how did he fall so far? What secrets hide in the underbelly of this corrupt and vicious city? Why are everyone's mouths drawn so big?
These are the enigmas of Adult Swim's Alan Probe: Amateur Surgeon, a cartoonish and casually offensive entry into the simon-says-surgery genre made famous(ish) by Atlus' Trauma Center. The gameplay is wide open the same way ducks are eloquent. They are not, and it isn't. Your job is to follow the exact requirements of each surgery as quickly and as accurately as possible. A dashed yellow line means you need to select your pizza cutter and draw along it. An object stuck in a wound is your cue to get out the tongs. An open laceration needs to be stapled shut.
That's right. Instead of surgical stitches, you use a stapler. And your operating surface is a bloody pool table. One of your patients is a man who has attacked himself with a nail gun in order to sue the tool company. His name is Insurance-fraud Claude. If that made you chuckle, or if you're already a fan of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming line-up, I think you'll enjoy Amateur Surgeon. If it sounds totally stupid, or gratuitous cartoon violence bothers you, you should probably skip this one.
The game will give you instructions as you play, but the gist of it is this. Choose your off-beat surgical implement from a menu at the top of the screen. You can either click on it or press the appropriate number key, which is much faster, and soon becomes necessary since you'll be under time restrictions. When you've dealt with all of your current patient's injuries and stapled him shut, you win the level. If his heart rate drops too low, either because time ran out or you've done the wrong thing too many times, the patient dies, and you'll have to start the level over from the beginning.
When this review was first written there was only the first chapter out of a planned trilogy. Now all 3 Acts are up and available to play with each one comprising about ten episodes and promising many wacky adventures, including secret levels. If you enjoyed this one the first time around, you won't want to miss the conclusion!
Analysis: Amateur Surgeon is blessed with the finest production values a second-tier television network can buy, with bright, detailed environments and an ever-present sense of self-conscious irony. There's even a halfway interesting story, although obviously we're not talking Shakespeare here (unless you mean Titus Andronicus). The violence is so over-the-top that it's not really gross, but there's still plenty of comically intense moments to go around. Especially the stuff with the chainsaw.
Most of your interaction with the game should go pretty smoothly, except for a handful of places where you'll need to be unreasonably fast and precise, touch-pad operators be warned. The game's biggest flaw otherwise is that it's too repetitive. Most of your time is spent searing wounds closed with the lighter and then glopping a numbing gel on the scar, and you have to do it over and over and over again. Most patients are just covered with gashes both inside and out, and while this can be justified by the ridiculous nature of their injuries, it still feels like an artificial method of making the levels longer.
But what can you do? The point of this game is to tell grisly visual jokes and amuse you, not to supply multi-layered strategic gameplay depth. It does its job well, and the gameplay is actually better than it needs to be. Some of the surgeries have a crazy, inventive edge to them that bodes well for the coming chapters. The developers aren't taking themselves at all seriously, which is enough reason to give this a try even if you've already played both Trauma Center and the Dark Cut series. I give it two severed thumbs up. Get to slicin'.
Alan Probe: Amateur Surgeon walkthrough now available!
If you're a fan of time travel theory, or if you enjoyed any of the amazing time-based games (Timebot, Time Raider, and Super Earth Defense, in particular) from our replay-themed game competition last summer, then you'll love Chronotron, developed by Scarybug Games. Chronotron is a platform puzzler with a really innovative (and addictive) twist. Here's the angle: you play the role of a clunky-looking robot who's apparently the pilot of a time travel machine. This "time pod" runs into trouble, sustains damage and needs to be repaired. Thus in each level, you need to snatch up one of your missing "time circuits" so your gizmo can eventually be repaired. Unfortunately for your robot, the levels are designed in a way that makes it impossible for you to collect the pieces on your own. However, since your time pod is still semi-functional, you can just go back in time to help yourself!
While it's true that time travel or a "rewind" concept isn't necessarily cutting-edge anymore when it comes to casual games, the concept is refined—and executed almost to perfection—in Chronotron. First off, the controls couldn't be simpler. Move, crouch and jump with either the [arrow] keys (or the [WASD] configuration), and use [space] to interact with your time machine. Traveling back in time is the key to completing each level, since the levels are designed to require two, three or four (and even more) copies of yourself to work in unison, collectively allowing you to reach your goal and return to your machine. For example, in the first level, your circuit board is on a platform that's too high for you to reach. There's a pad nearby that you can stand on, which raises an elevator, allowing you to reach the circuit. However, the second you step off the pad, the elevator lowers back down. Hence, you need someone to stand on it for you. Why not yourself? Just stand on the pad for a few seconds, then go back and enter your time pod. A duplicate copy of yourself pops out, mimicking your previous actions exactly. Since the "previous you" is standing on the pad, the "current you" (always marked by a green arrow above your head) is free to hop on the elevator and retrieve the circuit board.
As you'd expect, the levels progress and the puzzles become increasingly more difficult, so you'll need to re-enter your time pod numerous times in order to accomplish certain tasks. The game requires a lot of lateral thinking; sometimes you'll be able to beat a level by thinking a few moves ahead, while other times trial-and-error becomes a necessity. As if that weren't enough, you've got time paradoxes to worry about, which is where the game really gets interesting. You can't beat a level unless all the past copies of yourself are able to re-enter the time pod. If one of the past versions of you gets stuck in a pit or trapped in a room they can't get out of (thereby not making it back to the time pod), then you wouldn't have been able to make it back to the future. And, as the game puts it, if you couldn't make it back to the future, you wouldn't be able to prevent your past self from making it back to the time pod.
Analysis: Chronotron is a game that draws you in, inspiring you to keep beating level after level just to prove to yourself that you can. As mentioned, the execution of the time-travel gameplay mechanic is great, but not perfect. There are some complaints about past selves not reacting exactly the way they did (for example, missing a jump that was previously successful), although this reviewer hasn't encountered that problem yet. On the flipside, the developers give you the chance to "rewind" your actions (pretty much like an "undo" on your PC), accessible by pushing [R] or using a neat little display at the bottom of the screen resembling the controls of a CD player. You can also restart the level, pause, mute the music (a funky sci-fi beat) or even hit "eject" to return to the main menu. Thirty-five levels and five bonus levels are available via the menu, as well as a walkthrough and your basic game settings. Bottom line: Chronotron is a game that's just as interesting as it is fun, which makes a great combination. If you enjoy platformers, puzzle or logic games at all, this is one game you don't want to miss. Play Chronotron!
Cheers to Joe for sending this one in! =)
Meet M.I.L.O., yet another marvelous entry into our our recent upgrade-themed Casual Gameplay Design Competition, by Studio Cypher. M.I.L.O. stands for Mildly Intelligent Living Organism, an odd name for a robot to be sure, but the one carried by the robotic main character of this puzzling game.
Naturally, I say the game is puzzling not because it's hard to understand, but because it's full of puzzles. You play as M.I.L.O., who wanders through the sixteen levels of this game pushing buttons, carrying items, and avoiding the deathtraps set for him. The controls are simple: arrow keys or WASD to move, [space] to pick up or drop items, and [Q] and [E] to turn M.I.L.O. without moving.
The goal of each level is standard: reach the exit in one piece. As you'd expect from this kind of game, there are plenty of buttons to push, enemies to dodge, lasers to avoid, and items to use. Enemies and lasers kill you, bombs blow things up, and crates and doors get in your way, but that's about where the conventional nature of M.I.L.O. ends.
To help M.I.L.O. on his way through the dangerous warehouse, his father has kindly thought to give him some spider bots as friends. Spider bots are simple critters, when you set them down, they run in the direction you're facing until they hit an obstacle or something kills them. On their own, spider bots are fairly dull, but later levels also come equipped with an Upgrader, which allows you to fuse another item to a spider bot. Bombs make them useful for combat, mirrors let them deflect lasers, rockets make them pushy enough to move boxes, and batteries let them power things. You'll have to make full use of all of the spider bots' forms if you want to make it through M.I.L.O. in one piece.
As you go through the game, you'll read the notes left behind by M.I.L.O.'s father. Some of them give you clues to progress through the game, and others simply add to the backstory of the game. Keep a sharp eye on what the notes say, because there's more to this game than fits in a single browser window. If the ending you see isn't very satisfying, you need to look deeper and think outside the box.
Analysis: When a game is entered into a competition and doesn't win anything, there's a strong tendency to think that it was boring, badly-made, or just not very good. M.I.L.O is another in a long line of reasons why you should fight that impulse with all your might. There's still a bug or two hiding under the surface, but M.I.L.O. is a quality piece of work. The puzzles are ingenious, the story fun, and the parts of the game that live outside the flash will keep you busy for a while and enjoying every head-scratching moment.
In fact, the biggest shame about M.I.L.O. is that even with the extensions, you eventually reach the end. Studio Cypher, we hope to see the next episode of M.I.L.O. very soon. And we'd love to see a level editor to go with it, so that we're not brought to a standstill when we finish the official levels. Play M.I.L.O.
Or play M.I.L.O. at StudioCypher's Mildly Intelligent website.
Music Bounce, the latest release from Rowland Rose (Scorching Earth) at Let's Make a Game, is a bit like Breakout, but with an unlikely musical twist. Each level presents you with a different layout of colored bricks. Your job is to wipe them all out by striking them with ammunition from an array of gates on the left side of the screen.
The gameplay is set to an 8-beat musical loop. Click on a gate once to activate it, and once more to deactivate. Once you turn on a gate, every 8 beats it will release a destructive ball, which will travel from left to right, ricocheting off bricks as it encounters them. Destroyed bricks regenerate over the course of that same 8 beats, and you can only pass a level by keeping them all inactive simultaneously, even if it's only for a moment. Therefore, if you set the correct gates to fire at the correct times, the bouncing trajectories should hit every target, all within the same short period of time. Each level imposes a limit on the number of gates you can activate, indicated in the sidebar on the far left.
There are a hefty 50 levels to tackle, but the reward for completing a level in Music Bounce goes beyond the mere satisfaction of victory. Each rectangle you strike releases an instrumental tone or drum sample, and thus their rhythmic destruction can produce a back beat, a bass line, or a melody, depending on how the level is designed. Each level is both a puzzle and a musical arrangement. Like all the games at Let's Make a Game, Music Bounce comes with a level editor, so you can compose your own brainteasing soundscapes.
Analysis: Music Bounce is not a pretty game. The colors are probably paler than they need to be, and the graphical detail is the bare minimum required to get the point across. It might actually have looked better if Rose had gone for a completely retro style like classic Breakout, solid rectangles of color and all. The audio sounds great, of course, although if your computer runs Flash with any lag at all, your experience will be marred by scratchy sound effects and synchronization problems. It's not much fun playing a rhythm game that can't keep a beat, and I can't help but wonder if the code could be better optimized for slower processors.
But if everything is running properly, Music Bounce can be magical. It's great fun discovering the hidden melodies in each new configuration of blocks, and you have some freedom to syncopate the different sections of a song to your own liking. The real challenge sometimes, rather than just completing the level, is to get the track sounding just right. It would be nice if a puzzle could last longer than 8 beats, to allow for more complicated compositions, but there's still a fair amount of variety. If you got hung up on the first level of Scorching Earth, you'll be happy to find a much smoother learning curve on this game, but watch out for the occasional difficulty spike after the first 10 levels. Play Music Bounce.
Music Bounce walkthrough now available!
One of the most aptly-named casual games ever, Armed with Wings by Sun Studios for Armor Games is an enjoyable platformer with some innovative twists. You play the role of a fallen hero, brought back to life from the "blackmist" in search of vengeance, armed with a katana and an eagle. That's right, an eagle. Designed to augment the typical start-to-finish run of platformers, you have control of an eagle that helps you reach your goal in a variety of ways. In most levels, that goal is simply to make it to the end flag by chopping your way through enemies and solving various environmental puzzles, like getting bridges to extend, distracting enemies and more.
You will want to run the tutorial stage your first time playing because there's a slight learning curve (mainly using the controls) to this game. The first thing you'll notice is the monochrome environment, reminiscent of the classic N. The levels are stylish enough to hold your attention without getting tiresome, especially when you consider that according to the story, you and your eagle are manifested in the "blackmist," an alternate reality of sorts. Controls take a bit of getting used to: move with the [arrow] keys, [Z] to attack, [X] to block, while the [A], [S] and [D] buttons control your eagle.
The sole aspect of this game that sets it apart from any other typical action/puzzle platform games is your pet eagle, which lets you to interact with both the environment and enemies in some fun and interesting ways. You release the eagle by pushing [A], allowing it to fly around under your control for a certain time before it's summoned back to you. Using [S] allows the eagle to pick up various items like rocks and keys; things that you need to advance through the level but can't reach yourself. [D] sets the eagle to an idle mode, returning control to the hero while the eagle stays in place. All of this adds up to a variety of uses such as distracting enemies while you slice-and-dice them from behind, scouting locations up ahead, picking up items you need to advance, and much more. In early stages, reaching the goal flag can be as simple as cutting your way through a few opponents. In later stages, you'll have to rely on your puzzle-solving skills, even when it comes to certain boss fights. The attacking mechanic is pretty fun; basic attack is a three-swipe sword combo. There's also an uppercut swipe that leaves enemies reeling, giving you some breathing room. Then there's the ultimate; a charged attack that can devastate enemies (as well as some objects in the environment).
Analysis: At its core, Armed with Wings is an action/puzzle platformer, and no amount of glitz and glamor is going to change that. But even if you're sick to death of platformers, this game offers something special: an innovative game mechanic with polish and style. Snazzy cut scenes before and after boss fights add some great eye candy, while an evenly-progressing difficulty system keeps you from throwing in the towel. Control would have been better if configurable (for fans of WASD movement), but it works. The ability to jump would also have been a nice addition, although many of puzzles rest solely on your inability to do so. Check out the built-in walkthrough on the menu screen if you get stuck and again, be sure to check out the tutorial stage in the "How to Play" section or you'll be flying blind. Play Armed with Wings.
Wan Hazmer has been very busy. Entering two of our latest competitions, Hazmer and his studio Easy Only! Games placed third with Ballistic Wars and more recently took the top prize with The Last Canopy. What's next for Hazmer and his pals? Read on to find out.
Hi Haz, can you introduce yourself for the benefit of our readers?
Sure thing! I'm Wan Hazmer, a Malaysian independent game developer. I have my own little set-up called Easy Only! Games. Now EOG has only one employee: me!
Thanks to my background in Computing and IT, I program all of my games, and I'm the main game designer as well. I can't draw to save my life, so I usually get my wonderful cousins and friends to be freelance artists.
People tell me that I'm a happy-go-lucky guy with a knack for entertaining others. I do not know as much about game design concepts and terminologies as many other game designers do, but I do know how to make games entertaining. I just happen to have a very simple view of how games can be fun.
Are you doing game development full-time?
When I'm not scratching my head for the next game idea, I work as a part-time lecturer in The One Academy, teaching interaction design and Flash programming to budding young multimedia designers.
I've always believed that everyone can understand programming, since everyone's logical in some way or another. The One Academy got to know of this passion of mine and decided to hire me to teach programming to multimedia design students. Since I have experience in Digital Advertising, I also teach interaction design and supervise students on their multimedia final year projects.
It's also my passion to teach others anyway, so I'm really enjoying myself at the moment.
This is it. Are you ready for the big one? The fine folks at Pixeljam have really managed to outdo themselves this time, bringing us an outlandishly retro, high stakes (as in pedal-to-the-metal ZOMG! apocalypse-is-coming high), mad multiplayer dash for survival called Dino Run.
Yes, the meteor which is to wipe out all dino-kind is imminent, and a perilous race across the crater-pocked, lava-spewing terrain towards a distant underground paradise is your only hope of survival! Luckily, as a velociraptor, you're better equipped for such a journey than just about any other thunder lizard. Use the [arrow] or [WASD] keys to move, jump, and attack. Along the way, collect eggs, tunnel into volcanoes, catch rides on larger dinos and rolling meteorites, and snarf down anything smaller than you for score bonuses, but be quick about it, for rushing up behind you is the Wall of Doom—the oncoming fiery blackness through which nothing living may pass!
Although there are three modes of play (Challenge, Speedrun and Multiplayer), the idea is basically the same: run as fast as you can. Though that might not sound like a particularly deep game construct, Pixeljam keeps it interesting with four levels of difficulty and scads of unlockable features (including new Speedrun levels and downloadable extras), most of which must be purchased with bones. Bones are awarded for various game achievements in all three modes. Besides bones, you can also earn DNA points, which you can then use to upgrade your raptor: make them faster, stronger and more agile. Also hidden throughout the levels are super eggs, which grant large bonuses in all areas: score, bones and DNA. They are tricky to find, though, and no amount of bonus is worth getting fried to a crisp over!
What I love most about Dino Run is neither the perfectly captured retro feel (although the last time I saw pixels that big, I had to call them from a DOS prompt), nor the immense replay value, but the total interactivity your dino has with its surroundings. Pterodactyls will carry you for a short while, boulders and meteorites can be pushed into other dinos and ridden down slopes, flowers and little creatures are for eating, and big dinos are for riding or pushing out of the way. You're being literally bombarded with action, and just about all of it affects you in some way. The cumulative effect instills a sense of franticness in the player appropriate to the apocalyptic nature of the game.
A game that can successfully coax the player into the same mindset as the character is a rare gem. Pixeljam pulled out all the stops with Dino Run, and delivered in a gargantuan way. Play Dino Run.
Dino Run walkthrough now available!
Armed with nothing but a bow and some arrows, Bowja the Ninja is on a covert mission to Factory Island to take out the menace to humanity that is the Gi8000 (otherwise known as Randy the Robot). Help Bowja defeat the factory workers and save humanity once and for all, before it's too late.
Created by Robin Vencel, Bowja the Ninja on Factory Island is a charming point-and-click adventure in which you must find the appropriate spots to click to make little Bowja advance, solving puzzles and besting foes along the way. The animations, little voices, and scenery make this game a pleasure to play through. And when you complete the game, you're even treated to some game art downloads as a reward. Play Bowja the Ninja on Factory Island.
Cheers to Justin, Robin, and Bob for sending this one in! =)
Bowja the Ninja on Factory Island walkthrough now available!
Polcarstva is a gorgeous piece of interactive art that comes from the amazing talents of Denis Stepkin and U Studio of Russia.
Travel through a surrealist's world, using standard point-and-click mechanics, and enjoy the music and scenery along the way. Not too difficult to get through, and yet just the right kind of diversion for an afternoon tea. Open the windows and let the spring air in while you Play Polcarstva.
Cheers to Graeme for the link. =)