Neon
Although you may have played similar games recently, such as Geometry Wars, Grid Wars, Rainbow Wars, and the like, this next one was very nicely done in Flash and requires no download other than the usual loading within a browser.
Neon is an addictive, fast-action, arcade shoot-em-up with very comfortable control, and it was created by Alistair Maunder of varStudios in the UK.
Control is very easy and intuitive and uses the mouse for movement, and a mouse-click to fire. One started, the game throws wave after never-ending wave of enemies at you in true arcade style. Survive as long as you can to achieve the highest score.
Kill enemies for points and for the power-ups they sometimes leave behind: shields, gun upgrades, extra lives, freeze time, helper turrets, mines, seeker bullets, and more. There is a lot of action packed into this great Flash shooter.
Analysis: The graphics are retro-simple as are the special effects, but combined together they create dazzling displays with lots of on-screen action for a very gratifying experience. At first I found myself click-click-clicking the mouse to fire, but when I finally learned to press and hold, twitch-mode ensued and I was in the zone. Loved it.
Performance was exceptionally good on my 1.7GHz Windows XP machine most of the time, though the frame rate did drop a bit when there were a lot of sprites on stage, like when I was laying mines. Unfortunately, I was unable to play the game on my Mac due to it failing to fire when pressing the mouse button. Thinking it might be a browser issue, I reproduced the problem in Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Camino. Maybe it's a Flash Player 9 issue? In any event, I recommend using a PC for this one.
Engaging from the second it starts, Neon is one of those rare games that just feels great to play.
Cheers to Tonypa for word about this one. =)
Haha, saw it a week before you posted. It is a neat game, but not nearly as fun to play as the Geometry-exque game posted by JohnB. For download. For WINDOWS GRRR.
These purple ennemies sure are nasty.
Impossible to fire on mac. Peaceful mac or just bad programer ?
This is a nice game, putting int he category of Rainbow Wars and Geometry Wars. I love the powerups they have here.... Nice find, thanks Tonypa, been awhile :)
Jay is number 50 in today's high score list. Argh. I can't seem to get above 40k.
I was number 3 this morning when I played. =)
Maybe it's time to play again. (Oh, twist my arm) =p
Yep, this timesink has put a major dent in my productivity this afternoon. I finally got a halfway decent score (around 65k), and there seems to be a fair amount of luck with the "random" nature of the power-ups. I'm signing my name as 'Rinse' on there, so I'll keep plugging away to see if I can break the 100k barrier.
Thanks for the link (and to Tonypa for the heads-up)! This little game is addictive...
This game can actually be extremely easy if you find out a little trick.
The reason people have such high scores on the "all time" table is because a) they probably found this out, and b) they are EXTREMELY patient.
At any time, you can hold eight lives. The yellow "bullets" given off by the yellow creatures can drop powerups. BUT, they don't hurt you when you touch them, and when they do, you stop moving and they have a chance of dropping a powerup.
Therefore, all you need to do is play until you get to the point where you're onscreen alone with the yellow creatures. Let them shoot at you, let yourself get hit. Every time you get hit you get ten points and maybe a powerup, which may or may not be an extra life.
This little loophole could have been avoided by limiting what powerups a creature can drop. For instance, a yellow creature and it's bullets might have an increased chance of dropping time stops, whereas a red creature might have an increased chance of dropping extra lives, and the orange creatures have an increased chance of dropping tri-bullets.
But, that might be asking too much.
If you play the version of this hosted on Newgrounds, it works for Mac. (or it used to)
I made 21st with about 630k.
I don't like the control scheme, it's not nearly as intuitive as Geometry Wars or Grid Wars; there, it was easy to evade and kill the Pinkies that tracked you, and here it's a lot more difficult. Maybe it's the speed rather than the handling, but I still like the dual joysticks better.
Nice one =] When I get around to reviewing Spheres of Chaos, the grandaddy of all these 'new asteroids' games, it's going to rock your world......
This game is definately not trackball-friendly =)
I decided to stay and play your latest game.
100.
That is all.
Hahaha! Was that your score, or your rating of the game? ;)
If that were my score, not only would I have not posted it, but I would have promptly put my computer and monitor on a basket pulley and dropped them on myself and this uncomfortable hospital bed, erasing the last traces of evidence of me and my horribly, shamefull life forever. My leg hurts.
I already had 97k (rounded) -MANAX
P. S.
About "hospital bed":
I commented earlier but the stupid laptop I'm on is a dumbass so it never posted it because it forgot that I put my E-mail in and i accidentally left the screen without re-fixing the error. I'll tell you the story in a bit, I suppose. -MANAX
I was hit by a parked car.
STORY
Or rather, I was in a car being driven by a man that hit a parked car that "jumped right out in front of him" and then a car hit me, giving me an almost-broken leg and a minor concussion. I happen to love the concussion, because the crash put my sence of judgement on pot, causing it to thing. "MAN THIS CONCUSSION IS AWESOME!!! THE WORD SOUNDS AWESOME, THE STORY IS AWESOME, THE CELING TILE IS AWESOME AND I WANT MORE!" The stupid doctor sais it may be the Vicodin, but I suspect otherwise. Even though I'm PERFECTLY FINE and I can even walk, he wants me in this hospital for 2 more weeks, and the idiot I was riding in the car with (who's perfectly fine) let me borrow his horrible laptop, so in my 4 hour bouts of consioudness, I'll most likely check in from time to time.
-MANAX
Wow. Glad you're ok, MANAX.
Sounds like plenty of time to work at attaining the high score for Neon. ;)
Thanks... Life hates me. I'm writing a book at life. It will be called "would you like your milk in a bag?". I about 1/3 done. -MANAX
Level 30 is uncannily hard... I'm sleepy.
Impossible to play on fast computer :(
Is there any way to adjust the speed?
The copy hosted at newgrounds also doesn't work on my Mac (Intel iMac, OS X 10.4.7)
Yeah, Oak, I had come across your spoiler technique as well. However, at 10 points a piece, I'm way too lazy/impatient to do this for very long at all...Hehe...
I'm conchiss (I hate the real spelling) and I'm gonna play more. I was conshiss last night, too, but I used that bout to watch Futurama. -MANAX
Keep getting JIGgy with it.
Yeah, I'm beginning to think that gaming on an intel mac isn't as good as it should be. I have to use Rosetta for a bunch of games online, and some just plain don't work at all. This being one of them.
I received this response from Ali, the developer of the game:
Cheers, Ali! I am looking forward to playing your next one on my Mac. =)
The game doesnt go any further than level 50, right?
always after beating level 50, it simply counts up the levels, without any new enemies. is that a bug, or simply the end?
this game is AWSOME!!
Neither does it work on linux
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