Tekkyuuman

By: Terry

On: December 29th, 2007

You’ve probably already seen this on Tim’s new indie games blog, but it’s so wonderful that it really deserves another mention. Tekkyuuman (freeware.remakes.org mirror) is a new game by quirky Japanese developer Ikiki. And it’s one of his best yet.

As usual, you play as an armed naked guy, though this time your weapon is a little unusual – a mace on an elastic chain. There are twelve single screen levels to progress, with bosses every third level. That’s basically it – what really makes it, though, is just how well designed those levels are, and how how much character each of those bosses have. It’s addictive as hell, and quite hard! (If you’re stuck, I’ve got a full video playthrough up on YouTube which might help.)

I was under the impression that Ikiki had given up on game design (earlier this year Ikiki’s site went down and the frontpage was replaced with something suspisiously like a goodbye message – though babelfish insists that it’s got something to do with “Fat bowls”). Speaking as someone who only found out about Ikiki’s existance earlier this year with Xander’s Nikujin post, I really hope that this game is a sign that we can expect to see more from him. (And if so, what a magnificent comeback it is!)

5 Ikikis out of 5!

(Something I wonder about: what’s the Japanese indie gaming scene really like? Is there a Japanese TIGSource, for example? Did Japanese indies get as excited about Knytt Stories (say) as we did about Cave Story? Is there a Japanese version of Derek trawling through all of Cactus’ old games? Definitly something we need to DISCUSS.)

Posted in Action, Freeware, Highly Recommended, Platformers, Windows | Tags: Ikiki

Turniper

I used to sell games at a local shoppe… And yes, the kind always wondered why on Earth I was playing Psychonauts when there were Need for Speed Cabron and Call of Duty around. Thanks to this job, I became interested in independent gaming =]
curezen

FOR Christ SAKES PEOPLE! IT”S A GAME! JUST PLAY IT.

if you don’t like don’t play it end it at that.

also i will end this in a quote as old as time

“arguing over then internet is like the special olimpics. even if you win, you’re still retarded.”

note: i did not read the essays of notes above so I may , by posting this, be making a complete as of myself. oh well!
DaKaR

does anybody else have problems extracting or playing this? in the file, the file names are in retarded coding, so i cant play nor extract :( help plz!
Turniper

DaKaR: Names are in another coding, indeed, but my WinRar has no problems extracting it. Try to use newer version, maybe?

curezen: We’re not arguing, we’re discussing. ;)
Lim-Dul

curezen: No, you’re not making an ass of yourself. ^^

In fact I agree with you completely. I don’t like the game, so I don’t play it and don’t see any sense in rationalizing my dislike and arguing with people who might like the game. =)
Ping

Eh, Ikiki needed to return to his Nikujin difficulty curve.

Nikujin was HARD. Some might say it was impossible. But every time you died, you KNEW it was YOUR fault, and on your next life you could always figure out how to time the jumps and off of whose head to bounce. Heck, you might be able to do it on the same life, since you have a life meter. If you run out of lives, you can always come back to the last level you played and have another try at figuring it out.

In this game, dying feels almost arbitrary. Level 4, I die trying to get the button. I figure that out, and I’m repeatedly killed by a swordsman who is invincible from the front, impossible to jump over, and who never turns around. After three more lives, I figure out how to kill him, but by that time, I’m on my last life. I die once again, and all of a sudden it’s “screw you” gameover time, requiring me to repeat all of my former progress.

I thought that continues were something we figured out back in the 80’s with the NES.
Turniper

Sometimes I think Ikiki plainly forgot to implement continues. He’s a genius after all!
http://www.distractionware.com Terry

In all seriousness, this game really would have benefited from a continue system of some sort. I’m quite happy to persevere with a difficult game if it’s fun (like this is), but I don’t like having to redo sections I’ve already seen before.

So yeah, no argument there. But is it really a big deal? The game isn’t *that* hard, after all.
Turniper

Well, it is easier than Nikujin, but but is as much fun. Actually, I didn’t made it through the last two levels because of the lack of continues, but otherwise it plays smoothly.
renkin

This game is great fun. Something new and challenging on almost every level from the first boss forward. Clever use of versatile core mechanics. This is what I miss in every new action game.