Another Friday, another Link Dump, another precious moment stolen with you, the reader. Since this article is actually written on Thursday, sometimes I wonder; what will the future Friday hold? Will it be a day like any other, and will you simply read this bleary-eyed and yawning, wishing I would shut up and get to the games? Or will the day rise on a desolate wasteland, mankind having been conquered by an alien race overnight, and now these words are cold comfort under the rule of a mechanised race of space squid? You never know what tomorrow holds! So I guess I'll cross my fingers, hope tomorrow finds you well and able to play this week's offering of physics puzzles and shooters, and that when our new cephalopod overlords arrive, the bite of their cold, steel beaks is swift and merciful.
Oh, hello, Jay!... what do you mean, "Weird alien delusions?"... I like to be prepared for everything, alright?!
Bloons Super Monkey - Have you ever thought to yourself, "Bloons is fun, but if only it were a vertical shooter and the monkey was wearing spandex"? Well, first of all, that's creepy. But apparently Ninja Kiwi felt the same way, because here it is. Pop balloons to earn points for upgrades and to advance through the levels. Looks like Bloons is determined to break out into other genres. Keep an eye out for "Magic Kawaii Lovely Rose Bloons: The Dating Sim".
Craqua - Crabs! Bullets! Sea dwellers in gimp masks! Despite that description, this slow but cute shooter about a crab protecting its... something... is about as kid-friendly as you can get. The weird looking enemies don't start popping up until the second or third stage, and unfortunately there's a good chance it'll already have worn out its welcome, since the game just doesn't do much beyond its adorable design to hold your interest. The difficult curve is fairly gentle, however, so you can easily lull yourself into a state of relaxation by listening to the Spongebob-esque music and taking in the strange sights. M... Magikarp? Is that you?
Fenticore - The goal in this physics puzzle is to help guide the Fenticore to the bottom of the tower by eliminating obstacles in the way so it can drop down through the floors. It's sort of like a tumbledrop game, but with prettier graphics and a bit of a story behind it. The only probably is that the game suffers from somewhat unpredictable physics, and you'll probably have to reload a lot of levels when the Fenticore gets stuck. What the matter with you, Fenticore?! The bottom of the tower is your home! Are you too good for your home?!
ImmorTall - Got your beret on? ImmorTall is an artsy side-scroller about, I assume, the cruelty of man. Move left and right to explore the world, and help protect the apparently feeble-minded family who's decided to caper along behind you. It's extremely pretty with its minimalist presentation, but also slow and a little predictable. Admittedly, I was expecting the opening scene with the little girl to go in an entirely different Frankenstein-sy sort of direction, so apparently I'm part of the problem too. I always suspected.
Sally's Cats - Sally's got her impressive collection of boneless felines stuck in a tree and needs you to use her physics magic to save them all by jerking them into the air on ethereal green rubber bands. I'm pretty sure that sort of things is grounds for animal neglect charges anyway. Plus, Sally's slightly off-putting dishevled moppet face strongly puts me in mind of another girl who probably shouldn't be around animals either... I guess the lesson for today is that little girls are creepy. I remember when I was a little girl I could barely stand to be around myself.
Umm.. can't get sally's cats to load past 95%...
Super Monkey would be fun if I could play past the first few levels.
Apparently I need serious upgrades to my computer. The poor thing freezes up trying to keep track of all the stuff flying around the screen.
Do you think the space squid have this problem?
Magic Kawaii Lovely Rose Bloons: The Dating Sim
I'd play it.
I liked the Bloons spin-off, it complements the other Bloons games nicely. Once you have a certain number of upgrades though, you can just leave it to play itself as moving the Super Monkey around doesn't really make much difference.
Sally's cats is loading for me. However, the tutorial was so condescending that I quit before the game started.
I'm kinda confused by ImmorTall. What am I supposed to do? How? The giant alien just keeps walking to the right, and he doesn't seem to react to either arrow keys or mouse.
I've started with ImmorTall and I'm finding it a really traumatic experience. I got to about 4 minutes in and
lost one of the farmer's family
and had to restart as the depth of emotional attachment I had formed by the beautifully tender pacing was so strong.
I might have to wait until lunch to give it another run through.
Powerful stuff, well done.
Excuse the double post but am posting after playing.
I was about to disagree with Jimbog when I read his comments about Sally's Cats tutorial being too patronising but after starting it up I have to agree.
I think the lesson to learn here is a) pacing of text on screen (Sally's Cat's text simply stays on for about 3 seconds too long which cumulates to a point where it becomes frustrating) and b) not to feel you have to explain EVERY single thing and trust your game-making skills to lead the player through.
Those things done wrong together create a frustrating and patronising experience and will lose you players!
However - shall plough through and see hwat the rest of the game is like!
Immortall...oh dear God, another in the fast growing "non-game with a message" genre.
This time it's about war.
War is bad. Seriously folks, we just found this out and had to let the world know. War is really, really bad.
sadly america was formed through war
I'm loving Craqua. It's like Insaniquarium gone horribly, horribly wrong.
I'd play Magic Kawaii Lovely Rose Bloons, too.
i really love immorTall
the alien blob guy is just so epic.
the concept is great but gameplay is lacking (even though it was quite a good sort of idea) and is abit short.
but the style of it was so awesome it inspired me to make a flash animation thing, (albeit badly done)
:)
I didn't like Sally's Cats. Pulling a cat in once you've hooked it takes too long, you have to wait for her to slowly reel the magic string in, and sometimes it will break before that happens. Controlling a cat on the hook is also difficult, it just flops around.
Fenticore was pretty good as it is, and makes for a decent casual phuzzle game. More levels and a better ending would help to push it over the top. I found it to be a fair challenge on most levels but nothing too difficult (or annoying) to keep me from finishing it. The graphics and sound create a soothing and pleasant no pressure atmosphere. Thumbs up!
I've got to agree with MickGJ's assessment of ImmorTall. For those who haven't already got the message that war is bad, this fluffy bunny isn't going to change their minds. Nicely done but basically a foregone conclusion rather than a moot point.
In Fenticore nothing happens when I click the purple boxes.
Bloons Super Monkey is simple, but sorta fun. Gets repetitive after a while, though, and the upgrades don't do much to help that. Then I lost on the volcano-ish (background) level. Meh.
Why would they make a game like ImmorTall? And...
can you ever really survive until the end?
Playing Bloons Super Monkey: It's fun, with all sorts of upgrades, etc. just... YOU HAVE TO GRAB THE BLUE THINGS TO GET THE MONEY. Guhhh. It's irritating, especially if on the MOAB and the other blimp battles the game lags so much most of the money is wasted.
in super monkey one of the updates is actually a downgrade which is bad
The bloons shooter is fun, but I hate hate hate when a game-over sends you to the very beginning of the game. I died, once, on stage 4. Sure, I'd love to play stage 5, I'm sure it's a blast. But I feel no reason to go through stages 1 through 3 again.
I already played stage 1. I beat stage 1. What are you doing telling me I need to beat it, I tell you did that!
Whatever, I'll play something else.
I enjoyed the Bloons game. I think you should be able to play any level again, and keep your upgrades, just for fun. You don't have to be able to submit a score - I just want to play the easy levels with 4 tendrils of doom, super-mega bombs, and some FOOOOM lasers. :-) Oh, and I want to be able to keep upgrading. Also, you should be able to downgrade a weapon if you choose (not lose it, just switch between them).
Craqua was a blast, but after a few levels it felt like the difficulty exceeded the powerups. Once you had exploding things, multiple types of guys shooting directly at you, and dive-bombers, all at once, it just becomes too hard to keep up. In one level I went from level-9 weapons down to level 4 (I think), and then died.
Fenticore wasn't fun for me, but that's because it was hard to tell the difference between the different blocks.
I tried Sally's Cats, but it just looked awkward. There's a game that suffers from not having a pick-up-and-play design. (Instead of walking new users through how to play, design a few simple levels that introduce game play slowly, and allow a new user to play right away. It not only is more fun, but then one doesn't get overwhelmed trying to remember controls.)
Anyway, Bloons was my favorite. I like the idea of a vertical shooter where no one else shoots back. ;-)
Bloons Super Monkey is fun, but just throws WAY too much stuff on screen at once. Even my Core 2 Quad can't keep up with all of it...
I liked ImmorTall. Depressing. Somehow I think I wouldn't have liked it if the gameplay had been better.
TheMusicGirl:
I doubt that you can survive to the end. I think the point is to keep the family alive until you soaked up enough damage that you've died.
MickGJ:
Yeah, that's not exactly an original message, but I'm not sure I've seen a game before where the goal is to soak up damage until you can barely move, and then you die. There are more games about shooting things.
Magic Kawaii Lovely Rose Bloons: The Dating Sim
Shhhhh! Don't give them ideas!
I beat the Bloons game. It lags alot though. After getting the last laser upgrade it was super easy cause its uber. As said before its uberly laggy. Like all bloon games. So :(
I played ImmorTall. I liked it. Dying is inevitable. My first play through, I lost the entire family. When I played again, I managed to save them all. I liked that the graphics were simple and the gameplay lacking a little bit. I'm glad that it's possible to save the family.
I think ImmorTall deserves it's own page
Clearly, I too am part of the problem. I went and played imortall through a second time just so I could see if the alien would survive if I abandoned his human family.
Um, I can't seem to do anything in Fenticore... I'm in the first level, but nothing's happening, I've clicked all around the level and I can't interact with anything on the screen. What's going on?
You can survive Immortall:
Just leg it back to your spaceship and fly away
@ bioshocker
Your comment is unsubstantiated and thus misleading. Most nations are founded in violence, even if it is just a mental violence as described in 'Wretched of the Earth' by Frantz Fanon.
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