Fancy seeing you here! This Link Dump Friday installment was actually written on a Wednesday, so I sort of just have to hope that between then and now the world hasn't been taken over by undead, machine-gun wielding cephalopod clowns, and you can actually read this, rather than spend the rest of your miserable life toiling in the Squeaky Rubber Nose Mines and punished with re-runs of Sex and the City. Fingers crossed! The good news is that if such an event does occur, it's entirely likely that I'll sell out your fledgling rebellions to ensure myself a cushy spot in the dystopian future while the rest of you suckers toil away. So yay for me!
Rescue a Chicken - Did you play Red Remover, but thought it wasn't quite relentlessly cheerful enough, or didn't feature the perquisite amount of barnyard sound effects for your tastes? If so, rejoice! (Weirdo.) This cute little physics puzzler has you removing objects from the screen to drop your chickens safely into their nest. It's not particularly original, but it's well made and fun, even if you do have to cross your fingers and hope for the best in several situations.
Hot Ninja Moon Moon - In all likelihood, if this game is "for" you, all I have to say is "retro platformer" and you're already on board. You play a skull-masked ninja (which is probably a reference to Newgrounds' labyrinthine user created culture) who has to make his way through screens of increasing difficulty to a really rockin' background tune. Because... well, um, just because, apparently. Also, you can unlock Meatboy as a playable character, but he plays exactly the same as the ninja does. It's a short but tightly controlled little platformer that makes a nice light snack if you really need some old-school gaming before your day is considered complete.
LARRY: Big Dipper - Ah, mine shafts. Who doesn't love to plummet down them, trying to avoid falling boulders and explosive rocks while we frantically grab at gems and birds for high scores? We used to do that all the time back in my day. (I think it was a Friday.) What, it was Canada! What else did we have to do when the wild Polar Bear herds were put up in the Ice Barn for the night? The goal here is obviously to avoid obstacles while snagging all the gems you can and try to keep yourself intact to reach the bottom. If avoidance games are your thing, then this simple, well-made little offering will deliver.
Mamono Sweeper - Best described as "Minesweeper, with RPG elements". Because, um. That's what it is. Rather than mines, you've got monsters, and higher level monsters than you are will deal damage when you uncover them. (Refer to the bottom of the game screen to tell which monster is which level.) So the trick is uncovering (slaying) enough weak monsters so that you can level up and take on bigger, badder things. It's a surprisingly addictive little time waster, and definitely unique, even with its spartan presentation. Sound effects? We don't need no steekeeng sound effects!
The Slob - Yessir, this dev certainly has its fingers on the pulse of the world! They know what people want is to play a sickly looking slug that has to carefully monitor its acidity and alkaline levels in a platformer! It's actually pretty neat, if not terribly exciting; different terrain affects you in different ways, and there are various plants to watch out for. It's probably a little bit educational, too. Actually, the best thing about this weird little game is the oddly hypnotic soundtrack and strange graphics that combine to make me feel like I'm in a fever dream of Jim Morrison's. Like, whoa, man.
Hehe JJW games really have its unique appearance :) . Like that slob game. I still unable to escape from the giant bird :( .
When I click that link for "The Slob," PlayHub redirects me to their homepage, and I have to navigate back to the game's page. I know they want me to pay more attention to their site, but I think that's kind of rude.
"The Slob" had nice, solid platforming mechanics, which makes it fun for me because I love platformers. But the whole pH mechanic shows up in less than half the levels, and never really gets as creative as it should be. All through the game, it introduces interesting game mechanics, but then never extends them. One level has a key-door mechanism, but only that level!
Mamono Sweeper is fun. It has a lot more depth to the strategy than standard minesweeper. And I won a game :)
Whoooaaa... play a few minutes of LARRY, then look away. Trippy, man.
Nice round-up, Jay crew!
In The Slob, the "wildlife" that the tutorial tells me not to spend too much time around has an incredibly creepy grin. I tried to sit next to one long enough to see what would happen, but that was just too creepy for me. Seems to have decent mechanics, though. Good link dump choice.
Good fun with mamono sweeper! Had exactly 1 HP left at the end :)
Wouldn't say it's any deeper than regular Sweeper, though
The ninja one could be fun, but its double-jump is messed up. If you jump too quickly after you make a double-jump, he executes the double-jump animation and doesn't let you do the second jump. I shouldn't be getting killed because I jump to *fast*, that's silly.
Slob was pretty fun though. Swimmy and very "Flash", but the hilarious ending is worth it.
Okay, for Ninja whatever, I think I see where the problem is coming from, and it's not doing two double-jumps too quickly. Right after hitting a forward button - like within the first second or half-second - hit the jump button. He'll almost consistently act like he's in the second half of a double jump.
What have you guys done.
I love Minesweeper.
Mamono Sweeper is awesome; I'm partial to the huge version which takes a while to complete but is definitely worth it. (The link is right underneath the game.)
I echo the comments on Mamono Sweeper - I thought it was great, and a fun way to spend a quick break.
I can't find the exit on level 7 of The Slob anywhere.
Interesting bug in The Slob, lvl 5, running from bird, jumped towards the spinning blade, and froze. How do you get those eggs anyway?
zbeeblebrox, I had the same problem on "Hot Ninja Moon Moon". I don't think I can count how many times I did a particular level (or how much blood was on that level... O_o) JUST to get that coin!! or finally get past the shuriken and beat the level!!
I finally gave up in frustration. That double-jumping quirk is too much. I'm gonna go try "The Slob" now... :D
Hot Ninja Moon Moon's awesome tune is made by SoulEye Digital Music. Just putting it out there.
Not only is there a Huge version to Mamono Sweeper (thanks to Kloi for pointing this out), but if you keep clicking links below the game you can play
Extreme - 25 of each monster (normal level size)
Blind - start with 1 HP and no leveling up (normal size)
Huge Extreme - 36 or each monster (huge size)
Huge Blind - same as Blind but on huge level
It suffers from a lack of being able to mark your spots, but overall is a very neat twist on Minesweeper that actually adds strategy (unlike most sweeper spinoffs).
I take that back... you can mark your squares. Use the left and right arrow keys (or A and D) while hovering over a block.
Also, there's an Easy mode that I forgot to mention.
Hot Ninja Moon Moon FTW!!
Mamono Sweeper deserves a separate mention instead of lumped together in Link Dump Friday.
Rescue a chicken was made by gamezhero.com and it will be more fair to place link to them rather than to bubblebox
I think I would really like Mamono but I can't for the life of me figure out how to play. What actually are the numbers in the squares?
On the ninja game, how am I supposed to get past the early level with the spinning stars floating in the air over an impossibly long jump?!?
@AP:
The numbers represent the total value of monsters touching the square (diagonal counts as well). So if a square was touching two level 3 monsters, its value would be 6. Took me a few rounds of randomly clicking to figure that out, too.
Slob, very cute.
19:
There is a "key"
You see the purple on the big bug, you have seen it before, it is right in front of you.
You have to jump on him three times
How?
Do you hear him coming?
Wait for him, no wait a little longer, get him close but not too close, then run
Jump on the blue hop on his purple "brain" and go to the right, repeat.
Watch out a sucking bird appears on the left once he is gone.
At first I thought Mamono Sweeper was way too complicated, but as I played (and came to understand what those "random" numbers actually meant) the game really grew on me. And I totally agree with tf58, Mamono Sweeper is more than worthy of its own review!
Have tried two of the dumped links, and so far Mamono Sweeper is my favorite. Becomes very easy when you break that avoidance need you might have gained using minesweeper. Remember, you can click on uncovered monsters to see the count of "levels" around it.
Rescue a Chicken was fun, though with Wake the Royalty and Splitter and all the other similar games, it didn't thrill me as much.
@username: To make the "impossibly long" jump:
Jump into the gap between the spinning shurikens. As soon as you've cleared the bottom shuriken, double-jump and you should just make it onto the ledge.
For those who complain that Mamono Sweeper is too "easy" because you can actually click on lower level monsters (or click on a lvl higher without ending the game), try playing "Blind" or "HugeXBlind" where you can no longer do that - those two follow the far more classical rules of Minesweeper of not clicking anywhere there is a monster, and will force you to use every strategy you've developed from both classical Minesweeper mixed with the ones you'll get from playing Mamono.
A warning for those who do try the "Blind" levels - just because you marked a spot doesn't mean that the game will stop you from clicking it. This works when you're playing the normal Mamono, but will kill you in the Blind levels.
Need help: How do you work the controls for Mamono Sweeper? What are the controls even?
I'm used to right clicking to mark squares...
@Chiktionary:
Hover your mouse over the square you want to mark then use the left and right arrow keys (or A and D keys) to cycle the square through a number (in green) between 2* and the maximum monster value.
*1 isn't available because you're allowed to click on them.
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