Flashbang Studios has made a name for itself offering quirky browser games on their site Blurst. Their latest effort, Time Donkey, has gone live. You play as a taco-craving donkey, whose goal is to collect as many tacos and other fast-food items within a set time with the aid of a magical time-reversing stopwatch.
Thanks to RPS for posting this great little flash gem by indie dev Adam Atomic. Canabalt is a fast-paced game featuring a free-runner speeding his way over rooftops. The only control is a single button to make him jump over various obstacles and across gaps. He progressively picks up more and more speed, so there rises a necessity every now and then to deliberately run into some of the non-fatal debris in order to slow him down. It’s the windows that get me every time, though.
The game is presented in an extremely short and wide aspect ratio, giving more time to see the route ahead but less warning for falling objects. People with very large monitor resolutions can play the even wider HD version of the game. The city depicted in the layers of parallax-scrolling background is futuristic and dystopian: ships fly past and huge robots with searchlights make their way across the industrial landscape. The music is suitably thumping with synths and beats, with quieter, atmospheric interludes.
Sqr is a quirky little shooter by experimental developer Retro Anomaly. Utilizing simple but psychedelic graphics in a style reminiscent of Gunroar, the game is a nice little distraction for restless fingers – though confusing at first glance.
The title of the game refers to the motif of square elements that comprise everything, including numbers for the odd high score screen. you control a tiny green square and are swarmed by larger pink ones in a variety of patterns. The two attacks granted to you are a steady laser and glowing orb. The first attack, activated by the z key, is controlled in the manner of a turret, with the orbiting blue square acting as the pivot. The second attack, on the x key, seems unpredictable and useless at first but with a little practice can be controlled fully (but is still useless). It’s basically fired by a sling motion – that is, hold x, move in the direction you want to fire and then let go of x.
Dear readers, though this article focuses primarily on the 3rd instalment to Wadjet Eye Games’ “Blackwell” series, The Blackwell Convergence, we are subsequently also to publish a second, combined number on the 1st and 2nd episode. Please bear with me as we progress, in reverse order, to achieve some degree of relevancy.
Both parts will also touch upon topics beyond the make-up of a “review”; whether we should chalk them up to “analysis” or “discussion” remains open for interpretation. Should you agree or disagree, let us know what you think in the comment section! Finally, if you are yet to familiarize yourself with this ongoing series of adventures, I do hope you should come back to check out part 1/2. The easiest way to find out when is to either subscribe to our Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/slowdownvg) or to our RSS feed (http://www.slowdownvg.com/feed/)!
Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, of Chzo Mythos fame (although admittedly now far better known for his ramblicious Zero Punctuation series that Nabeel somehow never fails to tweet for you guys), has decided to release, for free, each and every special donation version of his games. Quoth Yahtzee, “I have simply attained so much money from donations that I no longer have any earthly wants.”
The entire Chzo Mythos is thus available: 5 Days, 7 Days, the parser-based Trilby’s Notes and 6 Days, in this order; also free for the taking is the special edition of the nihilistic, Flashback-influenced platformer 1213 (the game that laid the groundwork for the addictive Art of Theft). All of the aforementioned games are highly recommended and I would advise everyone to take a look at these pre-fame Yahtzee gems. If you never did play these well-esteemed AGS games before, the definitive versions are now out there for the taking!
Personally, as fun as Zero Punctuation is, I’d still take the games over Zero Punc any day if it came down to deciding between the two: Let us plebeians do the talking and the real designers do the walking, eh? In the same post, Croshaw also briefly mentions that he’s working “…on a couple of ideas [for new games]. It’s just that all of my free time is gradually melting away. They’re interesting ideas, though.”