Babe! Sugar! Bubbeh! Where have you been? I'm your agent, you can't just leave me hanging like that! What do you mean, you don't have an agent? Look, Starshine, that hurts, really it does! I know I've been slacking a little lately, but I just lined up a whole bunch of new gigs for you! Yeah, baby, you've got talent and they know it! They've been lined up for you! Stick with me and you'll go far, Puddinpop! Whoop, hold on — my enormous cellphone is ringing.
Fathom - That flinty stare! Those girded loins! Why, you've always dreamed of being the world's tiniest marine, haven't you? Of course, you may be under the misconception that marines shoot things and collect bolts, when in fact they spend most of their time propelling themselves underwater around schools of fishies. It's a common mistake.
Funky Samurai Kengo-Chan - Speaking of misconceptions, what's with the sword? I told you this was a samurai gig, and you come unprepared? Sheesh! You'd think you didn't know a samurai's deadliest weapon is the keyboard, which they use to type out the deadly alphabet against their foes and unleash the fury of the homerow! It's just like that one movie with that one guy. Yeah, that one!
Mr Mullet - [Warning: cartoon violence] So maybe you'd like to help someone a little more follically challenged than yourself. If you're handy with a mouse, you can help him get revenge on the people who've wronged him with their magnificent moustaches and hairstyles. It'd be great publicity, Sugarlips! No cash pay, but we do know a lady who makes a mean meat pie…
Cookie Tycoon - Some people burn with purpose. Some are destined for greatness. Those people will require cookies, which you can provide if you're good at managing a business. Yeah, that's right, Dollface, it's just like that coffee shop gig we landed you! You're one smart cookie!
Cosmic Cannon - Hey, check out this ad I found. Maybe it's up your alley! "If you love nothing better than to fire enormous cannon balls that look like tasty jawbreakers in order to rack up high scores as you keep them aloft, this is the job for you!" I think the name is Nitrome. Hmmm… nope, never heard of 'em!
Fathom... wow. That was really pretty cool and I hope to see more from that author. I'm not actually sure I've played all it has to offer.
Can you beat the first boss?
I'm pretty sure you've seen what Fathom has to offer, if you've finished it. If you want to see more from Adam Atomic, there's already Gravity Hook and Paper Moon, and he's working on the WiiWare port of Pixel's Cave Story.
Well, I seem to have sprouted some sort of spikey underwater tree. Unfortunately I don't have time to continue exploring. I imagine there's quite a bit more to be found :)
@Taylor:
The fish are your guide.
Fathom was really short. Unfortunately the underwater part was most of the game, and wasn't that fun. I think it could be expanded into a good game though. I'm sure Cave Story was an influence.
I'm not sure I get Fathom at all.
I fell into a pit and found myself under water, where I gathered quite a following of fish. I've been wandering around for quite some time now, though, and have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing.
The fish serve a purpose...
And that would be what?
I'm obviously not getting this game.
Nooo, AdultSwim on mys JIG :(
So basically, Fathom ends with
The soldier's gear floating in the water? I thought that boss seemed impossible to beat...
Mr. Mullet won't load for me, I just get the page and a "[an error occurred while processing this directive]" message
Hmm. OK, I think I figured out Fathom.
The fish are your guides
I'm a bit confused by the ending, though.
[Edit: Spoiler tags corrected. Please use angle brackets for spoiler tags. See the spoiler information located above the box where you type a comment. Thanks! -Pam]
Does anyone else notice the resemblance of the main character in Fathom to Quote from Cave Story?
Ah, sorry about the spoiler tags... I get confused with the different brackets sometimes...
[Edit: No worries. Maybe take a look at the spoiler instructions before you post a comment. Without the exact characters, it won't post correctly. Also, you can use the preview function before submitting the comment to make sure it looks the way you want it. -Pam]
I don't get Mr Mullet. I get blood splats on the left even though I shaved everyone. :S
Regarding Fathom, for those that have completed the game and are confused if there is more to it.
Fathom has but one ending. The boss is impossible to beat, and the ending after navigating the underwater section is the only ending.
If you're confused by the game, reading An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge will hopefully explain what you were supposed to see. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Occurrence_at_Owl_Creek_Bridge
Hiya, I'm from Adult Swim Games. The link to Mr Mullet is wrong (there's a 4 at the end of it for some reason). The correct link is http://www.adultswim.com/games/game/index.html?game=mrmullet. Thanks!
Fixed! Thanks for the note, SwimCeej, and I do apologise. Curse you, fingers!
I just want to add this because it made me really frustrated for 10 minutes! Fathom loaded for me, but for some reason pressing x+z wouldn't work...until I noticed I had caps lock on. Be sure to have that off :)
No problem! Thanks for the link Dora! :)
Oh, Fathom was cool. If you can let go of your frustration, it's quite the experience. I don't know why this was more compelling than the other recent big pixel offerings. Maybe because it reminded me of
http://www.kidradd.com/
@SirNiko
There is another ending, but you have to beat the boss to get it. It's not impossible.
Totally off-topic, but thanks to Shudog for
the link to Kid Radd, which was incredible. Words can't describe it...
I played Fathom...not particularly enjoyable. It was just
purposeless blundering through an underwater world which at times was almost too dark to see. Why would you give the player character a light that can only be used to shine in the opposite direction to the direction of travel?
@Itachifaisan
Unless the author has (significantly) changed the game since it was posted on Tigsource, the boss is utterly impossible to beat. And with good reason, since defeating the boss unravels the whole twist of the game. Doing that would spoil the game, really.
@Tom
Because it gathers the fish. The maze was a little too large for me to confirm it, but I think a large enough school might unlock other areas.
Darn mouse, posted too soon. Also:
I don't know if anyone's mentioned the suddenly sprouting black tree, or the unlocked area, or collecting this weird device. It's by no means an empty world with nothing to do. It's just -- by definition -- non-linear.
Re: Funky Samurai game - Unfortunately, this was the worst typing game I've ever played. The viewing area was claustrophobically tiny, and "compensating" for this by making all the enemies one letter long negated the entire point of playing a typing game. Then they start throwing in numerals, and enemies who waste time on-screen by scrambling the letters for a while.... What's "funky" or even enjoyable about stressed-out hunt-and-peck?
There's a big hint about Fathom's ending
right on the start screen. Look at the CPU.
Fathom blew my mind. What an unexpected experience! I've played MegaDrive games for so many years and this was VERY familiar! And then...
it was like the curtains fell down to show it's real form. Very weird feeling, but nice! I really liked the surprise
For those who are having trouble navigating Fathom:
You are getting directions, you know.
For those who have finished Fathom & don't 'get' it:
Wiki/google Owl Creek Bridge.
You never really 'explored'. You died the instant you hit the water. The journey, the fish, the tree, were all hallucinations in the split seconds before your drowning.
It's a subversion of the 'hero must win' and contests the idea that a real video game action hero would truly be able to take on things like your typical boss.
Lots of nice touches. The last areas before the end are a duplication of the areas leading up to the boss, which suggest that the hallucination/life flashing before your eyes that takes up the main body of the game is symbolic of the character's whole life, of which we're only familiar with the last portion. The water = death symbols on the main screen also touch on the game's idea.
My Mullet gameplay isn't very clear. What makes them die? is it the speed, direction or the position where you cut? o_O
Nothing a first 'rules screen' wouldn't fix. But it's fun :]
At first, the second part of Fathom seemed to be an intentional "breaking" of platform-game conventions, but after a bit of time to digest, the mechanics seem to me to be metaphor made literal. For example,
firing the gun "propels you through the environment" from the environment's frame of reference, and "puts distance between you and what your gun is aimed at" from the marine's frame of reference. (A marine (soldier) in a marine (water) environment...just saw the pun now, groan.) The flashlight pointing opposite to the direction of travel might refer to being able to see the past more easily than the future. I'm not sure what metaphor the fish represent, but they were a nice way to implement a guide function that was more natural than a big blinking "go-this-way" arrow hovering in space.
Regarding Fathom: Okay. After the
Owl Creek
reference, I guess I get it. With games like Today I Die, at you know what to expect and I felt a little misled with this game. But fine.
However, can someone explain exactly how
The fish serve as guides?
I see absolutely nothing in their actions/movements to indicate that. Please explain.
Did anyone else notice
that at some point in fathom, when you go underwater, there is a part that resembles exactly like on the surface? Like how you fall at the beginning, and so on, so forth?
Nevertheless, very interesting. I wish there was more to it, though.
@Bad Dog:
The fish will alternate between drifting with you and darting in another direction, provided you are not going in the right direction in the first place. It's pretty subtle, though, until you get a good crowd of fish. Plus they move in the exact direction of the next object/location, so you may have to find a more roundabout route in the tunnel.
I love the Cave Story look, but I agree there could have been more to it, if only for explanation.
In Mr. Mullet, if you miss anybody, they splatter against the edge and die. Also, I think you kill by hovering the mouse on people after the hair is all gone? It's a really hard game...
In Mr. Mullet, it's not how long you hover over them, it's how many times you touch them. Touch once = shaved. Touch twice = killed. Some uh, ?customers? have to be hit more than once (you have to move the mouse off of them and then back on them) to get all the hair. But as soon as you touch them again, it kills them.
So.. anybody passed level 8 on mr. Mullet?
That game is horribly addictive but level 8 is my nemesis..
OK, I see that many people find Fathom to be very *deep* but personally I've found it frustrating. It's cool to create a game with a Jacob's ladder twist, but if said twist forces me to navigate an underwater environment with irritating backward controls and the light that shines in the opposite direction so I have to get nauseated to see where I'm going, well... that's where I draw the line.
I agree with you there. I found it fascinating! but it's not fun as a game, really.
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