Did you know that today is the 328th day of the year? You only have 37 days left to ponder the events of 2007 before you leap into the future and begin living the life of a 2008ian. Hope you have your hoverboots ready.
Aveyond (Windows, 24MB, demo) - With the release of Aveyond 2 scheduled for December 5, it's time to brush up on your role playing skills by diving into the original. Created by Amaranth Games, the same studio that gave us Grimm's Hatchery, Aveyond is an old-style console RPG set in a fantasy world. No surprises there, but the plot, gameplay and pacing draw you in like few other games can. Some way it's like Westward, some say it's like every Super NES RPG ever released, but just about everyone agrees that it's a whole lot of good game. Aveyond isn't aimed at casual gamers, so expect to sink some time into it before you're thoroughly hooked. You can also download the demo or grab the full version of Aveyond from Big Fish Games.
FastCrawl (Windows, 45MB, demo) - Miss the satisfaction you get when leveling-up characters and completing an epic RPG but don't miss the 80+ hours you must sacrifice to do so? Try FastCrawl, a deliciously old-school role playing game that strips away the learning curve and presents a thoroughly enjoyable game perfectly suited for a coffee break. You can also download and order FastCrawl from Arcade Town.
Route 960 (Windows/Mac, <1MB, free) - You are a driver. You have a car. You have to drive said car through horrible mountain terrain. As fast as you can. Slam down the [X] button to blaze your way across stunningly rendered Atari-age graphics and pump up the volume to hear mid-80s arcade sounds that should be extinct. Route 960 is so retro, you'll laugh. Seriously.
Deathworm (Windows, 3.5MB, free) - Oddly enough, this simple little game has been making waves in the indie gaming community for quite some time. Similar to Dolphin Olympics in playing style, you control a sandworm that swims through the ground and surfaces to eat people, animals, and more people. Sure, it's a bloody game, but it's small and simple enough to actually captivate you. And who can get that music out of their head?
Head Over Heels (Windows/Mac/Linux, ~15MB, free) - A remake of the original game, this isometric adventure is tough as nails but just as rewarding (assuming nails are very rewarding). Jump, walk, carry objects and grab items as you work your way through the puzzles in each room. Regular JIG visitors may recall the Flash game K-Mart Haunted House and its resemblance to this classic title.
Death Worm link doesn't work.
try http://www.savefile.com/download/1021864?PHPSESSID=9cf0dd02614c3d72b3c91493311e10c8
Oh yeah, Head Over Heels... completed this remake two or three years ago, after decades of abstinence since my best friend's Amstrad/Schneider CPC 6128 kicked the bucket.
This is a classic not because it's an old and tough isometric game, but because of its surreal backgrounds and gameplay (you save by eating a reincarnation fish) and nice music. This game definitely deserves a review on its own, especially since it's pretty hard to get into if you don't read the help file/intro.
Mmm, oldschool goodness.
Seems like I know how I'll be spending my Saturday.
Yay, Head over Heels! I suggested this to JIG over a year and a half ago, glad to see it actually mentioned here.
HoH is a great oldie, a pretty tough and challenging game with some quite devious puzzles. For the beginners, I suggest your first goal to be just escaping the prison and combining the two characters, getting all the crowns and returning to your homeland is quite a feat. Also, get your paper and pen out and start drawing a map, you'll need it :).
Route 960 doesn't run in OS X on an intel mac.
Few more tips for people who find HoH a little bit intimidating:
1) Read the manual. Seriously, read it.
2) Learn the controls. It's not really just run and jump, y'know.
3) Before escaping the castle, Heads - the doggy one - must get the trumpet, and the Heels must get the bag. Learn what they're used for, they are quite essential.
4) Don't waste doughnuts and savegame fishes. Don't be scared of starting over, you'll be glad you saved all those fishes. Or, if you feel really hardcore, always save the game at the exact moment you pick up a new fish - that's how the game originally worked, after all. :)
5) Be prepared to think outside the box.
6) When - or if - you complete the game, please explain the win screen to me. I didn't understand it 20 years ago and I still don't. And yes, the game is THAT old,
I got to where Heels is supposed to get his bag and I'm just this side of uninstalling.
A walkthrough said to position a platform "about two squares east of the block, so that the front just begins to cover the spikes". I've tried that countless times and you apparently have to get it in exactly the right position because I lost all my lives every time I tried to get to the bag. Why is one of the first things you have to do with Heels (who can barely jump) a jumping puzzle?
Please help, because I really want to like this game.
Well, I finally got the bag, but a couple rooms after that I kept dying again. Uninstalled it without a second glance.
I can't download the Deathworm game! : ( Many JIG games have not been working lately!
Deathworm is pretty cool.
Head Over Heels is probably going to be too difficult for me to try to play very long. I have a feeling if I continue I'll end up shouting my usual curse at the game: "Frustration does not equal challenge!"
Aveyond sounds cool, but a time limited demo for a supposedly 50+ hour rpg? That's ridiculous. I mean, I may change my mind once I've actually tried it, but most good rpgs you need more than an hour to really get a taste for it. It seems that it would be better if it used a model like the Avernum games; namely, a content limited demo in which you can play as long as you like, but you're limited to a portion of the early areas of the game. But again, I haven't actually tried the game yet, so maybe an hour is enough time to get a sense of it.
FastCrawl on the other hand works with the time limited demo, I suppose, since I just played through a short game in about 45 minutes. It's a pretty cool game too, though I have a feeling the thrill of dungeon crawling might wear thin for me after not all that long. But then, I know people who can play Diablo forever, so what do I know? :)
Any possibility that one of these link dumps could focus on mobile web based games (especially any iPhone apps)? Directed at anyone.
Deathworm has been my latest addiction. Without score-counting or something I was already hooked, but score, combos, life-refilling, waves of enemies, everything is very balanced in this game. Very good piece of work.
I thought this game was made with gm6, if you're running vista you need to convert the game with the tool provided here:
http://www.yoyogames.com/wiki/show/44
(I think Gamemaker is a great tool, but these indiegame-download-procedures sometimes make me love flash even more)
I've had Deathworm for a while now, it's a lot of fun for such a daft premise.
I tried Route 960. It's so difficult, but very rewarding to finish a level. If you're too fast you'll explode after a jump, and too slow you end up rolling back down hills for an instant failure. Bit of trial and error needed, but its well worth a shot, especially since its such a small download.
Actually, Route 960 doesn't work on an intel mac with Leopard. Tiger works just fine. (At least, I think, I'm running Leopard)
I was frustrated at Deathworm's initial lack of downloadability (though it is working now) until I realized that it's probably from the flood of jiggers (like chiggers!! hahaha) trying to download it after it got posted here. We're like a cult, it's fun.
Of course it may just be that the game is really popular, as the blurb here suggests. I don't know. I'm looking forward to trying it.
im stuck on the festival on aveyond! what do i do??
I cannot access Deathworm, no way, no how. Too bad, it sounds interesting.
Also, if in HoH you need to consult some walkthrough to get the bag, the game is definitely not for you. This game is a fine example old-school gaming which requires mastering and finesse, it's not your usual I'll-just-finish-this-in-one-seating fare. But one thing is certain - if you find some parts to be TOO difficult, odds are you are doing it the wrong way. Remember, lateral thinking is the key.
Festival?.....try going to the cave to the south. In fact, that's pretty much the only thing you can do.
You'll probably have to talk to the lady in your house first. If you didn't do that already.
I've been trying to play head over heels, and the game seems pretty good, except for in a few spots while I'm playing head. If you come in falling from the top of the screen, you can't change direction. So you fall in the wrong place and die, then you get stuck in a death loop that you can't get out of.
That's a very frustrating thing that caused me to have to quit an interesting-looking game, after losing 3 games that way.
yeah, i'm going to reiterate what i said earlier about Aveyond after playing it for a bit: a one hour time-limited demo really doesn't work for an rpg like this. one hour is just barely enough time to get through the introductory stuff - not nearly enough time to get a sense for how the game really plays, just how it looks and sounds.
still, it does look like a pretty good game and i like the old console style to it: reminds me of the old FF games and Breath of Fire and Lunar and the like.
Head Over Heals - Ok, super cute n perfect graphics. Love the style, but I intensively hate jumping games. Could have easily made more based on strategy and moving around and not have to go on boards with crazy jumps.
Fast Crawl - I don't know if it was just me, but my PC couldn't handle this game. I download tuns of games, but even when I restarted PC, this thing ran slow. Not to mention, seeing that 1 hour timer, just made me want to puke anyhow.
Alaira,
yes there is a particularly evil room right near the exit of the Castle where it is very easy to enter the death loop (Heels cannot change direction while jumping). The trick is..
.. NOT to pick up the "jumping" bonus pink rabbit. Just use your regular jump which is just perfect for jumping on those two little platforms. Also, the first platform breaks, so do a quick double-jump and you'll be ok.
Ditto for the Route 960 not working on my Mac OSX, Intel.
Playing Head over Heels, and according to my map I'm about 1 or 2 rooms away from being able to put them together, but I've hit a snag with Heels. There's a room with only four objects, and as far as I understand Heel's technical jumping limitations I'd need one more to be able to make it up to either exit. I've already found that I can't take objects out of the room they were found in, and I can't seem to make it any farther with Head either. I'm trying not to spoil myself on this game, so my only question is...
Do I really, really have to put two of the objects on top of the enemy roaming around, and then jump from there to the door? Because if so, UGH. I can likely do it, but I do not like puzzles that require that much fiddling.
FastCrawl doesnt work for me (on XP Pro), get an application error when i click "play game"
Mm, reminds me: FastCrawl requires Microsoft NET Framework 1.1 in order to work. Why, I've no idea, but them's the breaks. Found this info at the actual homepage of the game.
Ben,
no, you do NOT need to put an object on enemy's head, that would be quite a feat.
You just need to stack all four boxes one on top of the other while trying to avoid the enemy. If you want to get out of the Castle stack them towards the NW exit. NE exit contains some nice goodies, though.
If you stack all four boxes Heels' jump is quite adequate to reach the exit if you chose your starting point correctly. The stacking procedure is simple - you must slightly "push" the existing boxes while climbing so you make the "stairs". Don't worry too much about physics, stacked boxes will not tipple over.
Ah, that is much less tedious than using the enemy's head to provide the boost. I could probably get that with some work. Thanks.
When I try to run Deathworm nothing happens, except that it eats up 50% of my processing power. :(
Head Over Heels is fantastic. It took me a few days to find time to play it, but it definitely has the same feel as my old NES favorite, Solstice. Plus, it's actually a bit fun to construct a map for a change (Playing Zelda on the DS has rekindled my love of drawing my own maps). I managed to escape to Paradise, so next I can focus on trying to collect some crowns!
on aveyond every time i quit it says that i have 60 minutes left. so basicly i have unlimited time.
why does route 960 start classic? and then it just quits. i gots a ppc ibook g4. help?
Hampster, I have the exact same problem! Even worse, my computer no longer supports classic.
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