TAGAP

Posted by Derek Yu Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:09:00 GMT

TAGAP

It took me a while to try this one out, mainly because of my prejudice against cartoon animals with guns in games. But TAGAP, or “The Apocalyptic Game About Penguins,” is one balls nasty, hard-boiled “little” action game! The first thing you notice is how nice the graphics are. This thing has special effects up the wazoo, and it looks superb. But it’s the frenetic pace of the action that is the game’s true strength. Waves of enemies, a steady supply of new weapons and upgrades, pills to amp up your terror alert level… TAGAP loads up on over-the-top features in a genre where it really makes sense to do so.

The character moves a bit slowly, which I found to be a hindrance at first, but I quickly began to appreciate how intimate and deliberate it felt, I guess? Also, the levels themselves (ten, and pretty massive at that) are extremely varied, with lots of little details, so it’s nice to get to weave slowly through them. Plus, it’s kinda badass!

The only kicker is that it’s a slightly heftly download at 100 Mb. But considering what the game’s got going for it, I definitely think it’s worth it. Plus, you know, broadband and all that!

(Source: Soldat Movies)

Posted in , , ,  | 13 comments

Comments

  1. Neon said about 2 hours later:

    Everything here looks top notch, save one thing, originality. There are more then enough sidescroll shooters out there.

    What ever, i’ll give it a DL.

  2. Derek said about 2 hours later:

    That’s true, but this one is done pretty darn well, I gotsta say.

  3. Isador21 said about 3 hours later:

    Sure seems awesome, I need to try it. Damn you TIGsource for making me download something new everyday XD

  4. !CE-9 said about 7 hours later:

    I don’t know about you people, but I’ve always wanted a penguin. who cares if it walks slowly – it’s a penguin!

    this stuff is the niftiest Abuse clone to have come around (I prefer this one to Hurrican, even), shame it’s one of those games that doesn’t support a pen/tablet properly.

    I guess I go back to Pluto Strikes Back.=)

  5. Dominic White said about 9 hours later:

    !CE-9 picked up on this - TAGAP is an Abuse clone. They’ve got the style right down - even (practically) copied the switch and turret graphics.

    This is a good thing, as Abuse was awesome and needed more clones.

    It’s really polished and professional - worthy of being sold for money, although I’m glad it’s free. I’ve been playing it a ton, along with Hurrican.

    And as Derek pointed out - the movement speed feels slow, but you quickly realise that the entire game is carefully balanced and built around that pacing. Plus, I actually think it’s an improvement over the hyper-twitchy movement and combat of Abuse, which often deteriorated into wildly flailing around, shooting lasers everywhere.

  6. gnome said about 9 hours later:

    Excellent game. Besides, I’m not sure an original concept is always more enjoyable than a truly polished yet less inovative one.

  7. Melly said about 18 hours later:

    Gaming needs both: The highly innovative but still not that polished kind, and the ‘been there done that’ but highly polished kind. However, it also needs balance. And that’s what’s lacking somewhat lately around the industry.

  8. Cas said about 21 hours later:

    This game is pretty fucking cool. Once again my lowly efforts at writing games for a living are mocked by people doing it for free.

    I’ll get me coat.

  9. Cycle said about 23 hours later:

    This game looks and sounds great, but the game design is far too loose and messy for my tastes. Feels like most of the effort went into the production values with the game design coming in second.

  10. ZeHa said 1 day later:

    I found it pretty boring. I downloaded 90 MByte and then I got to play some slowly moving penguin…

    Of course it looks polished and all, but really, it’s sooo boring and so slow in my opinion. The jumping is the worst thing, it’s actually worse than in MegaMan. You jump totally high, but in the horizontal direction you barely move along.

    The FAQ says “you can never play too much DOOM”, and that’s correct. I think I’ll do that now :D

  11. oNyx said 1 day later:

    The game crashes pretty quickly on 2k. Accordingly to the authors it’s not compatible with 2k.

    The magic of C/C++ eh?

  12. PHeMoX said 4 days later:

    Cool, it looks a bit like Facewound from Garry (the guy from the Half-life 2 Garry’s Mod ). Definitely going to download this one!

  13. francesco said 5 days later:

    è uno dei giochi più belli che io abbia mai provato.Non solo la grafica è bellissima come del resto la giocabilità,ma è soprattutto gratis!!!

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