Link Dump Friday
April 17, 2009
The following text was taken directly from the pages of my super-secret diary. Less of a diary, more of a journal. Not so much a journal, now that I think about it, sort of a captain's log. Complete with stardates!
Robo Riot - IT'S 18 GAMES IN ONE AND THERE ARE ROBOTS!!! Actually, that first bit isn't true, it's just two games in one: a puzzle game and a reflex-based arcade game. But there are robots. Lots of 'em. And they're different colors, too. In Crowd Control you're trying to clear 'bots by drawing squares with like-colored machines in each corner. In Assassination, you shoot stuff. Wee!
Best Friends Forever - A simple platform/puzzle game in the vein of The Lost Vikings. Control a set of BFFs (which stands for, obviously, Banana-Flavored Fruit) who work together to make it through a handful of levels. For example: plop one friend on a button to keep spikes down so the others can pass safely. That's what friends are for, right?
Volcano - Ok ok, so a volcano has erupted, right? And this really big wall of lava is chasing you, ok? How do you escape? By turning into a panther to run, a monkey to climb, and a mouse to scurry through tight corridors! Use the [z], [x] and [c] keys to switch animals, and try to keep a respectful distance between yourself and the liquid hot magma.
Mighty Red Orb of Eternal Power (with three little white balls gravitating around it) - With a title like that, what more can I say? A mouse-avoder game with some unique power-ups and the ability to shoot and destroy the walls. Then there's the hoarse guy who yells at you when you mess up.
Jump 'n' Rolla - An action/skill game that bears some resemblance to titles such as Dolphin Olympics and Monkey Kick Off. The goal is to make it as far down the mountain as you can. Tog jumps on his own, it's your job to make sure he lands on his feet, not his head.
I almost got so excited when I saw the words 'The Lost Vikings'. But I only got excited over some imitation game. Dang it!
I use to play TLV for hours years ago. I wish you would post that game on here.
Pretty please with a cherry on top JohnB, put The Lost Vikings on here.
BFFs is pretty easy. Would have been nice if there were some kind of a story line or something.
Lol, MROoEP(wtlwbgai) is a weird game, with a weird acronym as you've no doubt noticed. What's up with the hoarse guy? I think he needs a Butter Menthol.
It's a quick game, sorta gets boring quickly though. I'm still not bored though.
BFF is very Lost Vikings-like, but there's not much of a game here. My biggest gripe is with the awkward control scheme and the lack of more noticeable input on which "worker" you're currently controlling.
However, the game DID remind me to dig around for my old copies of Vikings 1 and 2 of which I'm very thankful. It will be a blast to play through those once more... :)
Btw for those of you who have never heard of The Lost Vikings, here's a playable demo for the GBA version:
http://www.blizzard.com/us/blizzclassic/vikingsdemo-pop.html
However the graphics are tiny and the game is stripped down a bit. For the true experience try to find the original PC game, it should be very cheap nowadays...
BFF, I hate games that suppose zou have QWERTY and don't let you reconfigure keys. Yes theoretically I could remap my whole keyboard for the game, but a) I don't want to for a casual game, b) dynamic keyboard switching somehow fails for flash in linux... for all of the rest system it works fine.
It just so simple whenever you ask for the "z" key, accept "y" also, a big part of the world will be thankfull... or better just let it be configureable, than to suppose what keyboard a player must have...
Does playing volcano in firefox make anyone else's browser crash?
Volcano has an amusing concept but the execution is a bit amateurish. The controls are shaky, the flow of the game a bit choppy and there are quite a few bugs which happen at the worst of times (monkey repeatedly getting stuck in the vines on the last level being one of the most irritating ones). The thing I hated the most is the fact that you get infinite continues but if you press "quit" by mistake you must start from level 1.
But even with all the flaws it's still worth a play or two.
Jump'n'rolla needs a "quick restart" button. It's too frustrating when you mess up at the beginning and know this run is ruined but you still have to wait until the dude finishes with his neckbreaking stunts to try again.
Volcano is like the ending to every Resident Evil game ever -- a blind, panicked rush from certain fiery death.
I . . . I think I love it a little.
Oh God, I'm so simple.
mkelican: Volcano is making my browser crash too, but I am using Internet Explorer.
BFF is adorable! I've never played this Lost Vikings game that you guys are saying it's knocking off, but I obviously should.
I was just getting frustrated by the ease of the puzzles when (upon hitting levels 13-14ish) the difficulty ramped waaay up. Now I'm gloriously, devilishly stuck. Thanks for posting this game!
Volcano is a fun little game! Some of the bugs do need to be fixed (notably the invisible wall blocking a rat path on lvl 3?).
With only 4 levels it is dinosaur runner (or whatever that game is called) without the committment.
Re: FuzzyFace's comment... I will go into my extended "make games playable with the DVORAK layout!" rant some other day.
Oh drats, I spoke too soon--level 14 was the last level. I'd love to see BFF 2, wherein the difficulty starts where 14 left off.
If you're getting stuck on the last few levels of BFF, remembering Occam's Razor (and not treating the puzzle like a Rube Goldberg device) will help greatly.
@scottique,
You can play level 3 from Lost Vikings by clicking the link I posted above, it's a flash demo.
Commands are - arrows for moving, up - use stuff, A-S - special actions, Q-W - switching Vikings.
However this is not a particularly good level. I wish they chose a more fun one..
I don't understand, in BFF it's said you can jump on an inactive player's head for a boost, but I can't figure out how I'm supposed to do that.
This being said, I'm with fuzzyface and samalakar: no keys configuration sucks.
This is 2009. Programmers who haven't figured out how to make it possible are either morons, lazy-asses, or jerks.
Schmorgluck, if you press Down to duck, then Shift to another character, you can use that ducking character as a platform. This is also mentioned in How to play.
I'm absolutely loving the crowd control on Robo Riot! I haven't enjoyed a puzzle game like this since Bejeweled came out :) Has anyone managed to get past level 14?
Well, I got to level 15 on the crowd control game in Robo Riot. I can't seem to get past that though... Very fun game nonetheless!
Played Mighty Red Orb...beat all the levels...nothing cool happened at the end as promised. Boo. :(
I like mechanic in Volcano, but agree it could be better. I think some Dino Run-style bonuses and pickups would make it more fun to try and decide which path to take. It also needs to be a bit more fluid. I'd love to see a game that combines this idea with Dino Run.
My impressions of the ones I played:
Best friends forever. I finished without much difficulty...it's a nice game (I love lost vikings!) but the level design wasn't very good. The puzzle possibilities were not fully explored. For example, I knew I could use each other's head, but I never needed it!
Volcano was nice too. A quick experience, though..
Mighty red orb something.. I have played 3 levels. Then I just got bored. (Maybe I'm not in the mood!)
Jump 'n' rolla. Simple and fun :D
@meg, are you KIDDING?! The end to Mighty Red Orb of Eternal Power (with three little white balls gravitating around it) was FRIGGIN AMAZING!
I can't believe I got so close to killing Aku!
Seriously, are you sure you didn't just miss it by accident? It's pretty much the most amazing thing ever.
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