Incinerated by a fireball. Shot by a laser. Blown up by a bomb. Blasted by a rocket. There are plenty of ways to die in Nitrome's delectably fast-paced Calamari. But could you have ever imagined being crushed by a cloud? In this randomly-generated multiplayer platform shooter, you've got to slither around on the rails of fortune collecting coins and avoiding death, in all of its forms. Except cocktail sauce. There's not a drop of cocktail sauce to be found in this game. Whoda thunk?

Each game is made up of a series of randomly-selected levels in which a chain of boxes roll into the room on a winding path, entering at one point and exiting at another. Some of those blocks contain coins ready for the taking, others require you to shoot at them with eggs before they drop their bounty. On the other hand, you might find cannons that shoot at you, spikes that pierce you, blocks to bust through, or other perils to avoid. Use the [arrow] keys to move around and [spacebar] to shoot ([WASD] and [Q] for player two) to grab as many coins as you can while dodging anything that can kill you. Don't forget that since you have a limited supply of eggs to fire, you'll need to collect them in order to fire them again.

A serving of Calamari could last you twenty minutes or twenty seconds, depending on how long you can keep your squid alive, and since the levels appear in a random order, you'll never get the same game twice. If you grab a friend, you can play co-op, trying to get the highest score possible together (although it lists your scores separately, should you choose to feed your competitive side). There's enough in one game for plenty of entertainment, but it's the desire to see if you can boost your score just a little higher that will keep you coming back for second helpings of Calamari.

Play Calamari