Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:32:00 GMT
Atomhex is a new arena shoot ‘em up from Mark Incitti, the developer of Grid Wars. While Grid Wars was an obvious Geometry Wars clone (and has subsequently been pulled from Mark’s site), Atomhex adds quite a few unique ideas to this full genre.
The game mechanics involve Atoms and Hexes. The player can collect hexes to change the color of their shot, and to release multipliers. Atoms can combine with Hexes to “energize their shields” and protect them (only shots of the same color will release the Hex). Combined Atoms/Hexes will also spawn enemies – the more Atoms attached to a Hex, the more deadly the enemies.
Finally, when six atoms combine with a hex, it becomes an Atomhex that sucks you into the “Subatomic World,” a new battleground where you must fight off a number of nasty Quarks. Quarks are nasty buggers that require a hit from every colored shot to be destroyed. (Better pray for a rainbow shot upgrade.)
It can all be kind of overwhelming at first, but you get the hang of it quick… and once you do, the variety of strategies that emerge, and the strange, cyclic “evolution” of the playfield really pull you in. Plus, multipliers of 10,000!
The trial version gives you the full game for 3 days. After that, you can buy the game on a sliding scale of $5 to $20.
(Thanks, MisterX!)
Posted in Highly Recommended, Shoot-em-ups, Windows, Abstract | Tags MarkIncitti | 10 comments
Posted by BMcC
Sun, 17 Feb 2008 03:29:00 GMT
This is awesome. So awesome.
I am surrounded by awesome people.
More on this later.
Posted in Nerd Love, Abstract | 10 comments
Posted by Xander
Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:48:00 GMT
There really is no avoiding Valve/Steam these days as news comes in that Audiosurf, one of the IGF finalists for a number of categories (including the Seumas McNally Über Special Prize won by ‘The Underwater’ last year), will be released to buy on Steam this Friday, accompanied by a free demo.
For those that don’t know, Audiosurf is a kind of music-rhythm-puzzle game where you drive across a track designed by the music you choose to play. Layout, mood, and the placement of the score-arousing coloured blocks are all affected by the type of song you choose to play. Choosing your ship at the start also determines the overall difficulty of your challenge and the style of play, where some ships will initiate a typical match 3 colour system (come back! It’s not a flashy Bejeweled clone, I swear! You can’t play Reggae Remixes of IK+ in that for starters) and other ships like the Mono-types which turn the game into an insane test of reflexes as you dodge grey blocks and try to collect the colourful lumps of pointage between them.
Price will be the wonderfully squiggly number of $9.95, though as usual customers will get a pre-order discount of 10%, so check it out if you feel like taking a chance. Included in this release is also a free copy of the Orange Box soundtrack, which, given the nature of the game, is a pretty sound deal. Through the new Steamworks feature you’ll be able to gain achievements for your profile and rub your ego at the same time (but can you do it whilst patting your head?). It’s a solid package at great price, but I can’t help feeling a little shunned. We get the full game of this, but not even a taste of Noitu Love 2?
Where’s the love, Konjak? Where’s the love?!
Posted in Highly Recommended, Music, Windows, Action / Arcade, Abstract | 24 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:13:00 GMT
EDIT: Petri has informed me that he’s working on an update that addresses a lot of the issues I mention below. The update should be out shortly and I’ll make sure it gets mentioned here.
Grammar Nazi is a new “type ‘em up” from Petri Purho, the developer behind the IGF-nominated Crayon Physics Deluxe. The goal of the game is to type words to attack your opponent. Longer words do more damage, but leave you more vulnerable – while you’re typing your protective shield goes down.
I really wanted to love this game, because I’m a big fan of Petri, typing, and blowing things up… but damn, it’s too unforgiving. I can’t even beat the first guy – trying to dodge the shrapnel he drops is like trying to dodge raindrops in a storm. No matter how carefully I time my attacks, it’s impossible to fire off an “it” without taking some damage.
To make matters worse, fired letters don’t register until they’ve made contact with the enemy. Because of the enemy’s shape and movement, even a correctly typed word may show up as a typo.
And last but not least, “antidisestablishmentarianism,” which should, in theory, cause a nuclear explosion killing the first boss instantly, does nothing. It doesn’t even count as a word! Why?! /me cries
Posted in Shoot-em-ups, Windows, Freeware, Abstract | Tags PetriPurho | 9 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:32:00 GMT
Man, artificial life gets me hot. Did I just say that out loud?
Gene Pool is a cute little a-life sim in which “swimbots” compete for mates and food. Each swimbot is made of small segments, which are used to propel it across the primordial soup. Swimbots which are more “attractive” (determined by a number of factors, including segment color), can swim faster, or develop independent video games get to propagate their genes over their uglier, slower neighbors.
Not really a game per se, but it’s fun. You can pick up swimbots and help/hurt them. Gene Pool also has a number of parameters you can set to change the way your swimbots evolve, such as attractiveness.
The developer, J.J. Ventrella, has some other interesting math and science experiments on his website. I particularly enjoyed Branchy Branch.
Pictured at left: two swimmers ‘bout to bump uglies (or, in this case, little pink arrows).
(Source: Alehkhs, via Puppy Buckets)
Posted in Windows, Sim, Freeware, Abstract | Tags JJVentrella | 16 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:36:00 GMT
Cursor*10 is an amazing little doujin flash game that asks “Cooperate by oneself?!” You have 10 little cursors and you have to make it up to the 16th floor. I’ve made it to the top and my high score is 183. I think that’s pretty good (i.e. I know you can beat me)!
By the creators of the Xananeko games.
(Thanks, arrowhen! Via Sensible Erection [NSFW].)
Posted in Unique / Bizarre, Highly Recommended, Browser Games, Casual, Abstract, Doujin | Tags Nekogames | 16 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 05 Dec 2007 01:29:00 GMT
Superb little abstract game, from the creator of the Punishment series. Very economical in its design. The inherent frustration is balanced by instantaneous reloading after death.
Watch the trailer in the extended for an idea of the game mechanics involved.
Note: the game automatically saves at the end of each of the 8 “gates.”
(Thanks, Eden!)
Read more...
Posted in Highly Recommended, Videos, Windows, Action / Arcade, Freeware, Abstract | Tags messhof | 41 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:36:00 GMT
ShellBlast, the sequel to Ac!dbomb, is today’s Game Giveaway of the Day! To call this puzzle game an advanced version of Minesweeper seems like a disservice, but then again, it doesn’t seem entirely inaccurate. It’s fun, in any case, and my only real complaint with the game thus far is that completing missions feels anticlimactic. But hey, I guess that’s kind of the nature of bomb diffusal, right?
The full version of ShellBlast is ordinarily a measly $5, so if you really enjoy the game, you should shell out some cash for it (wink)!
Note: so in order to qualify for the giveaway, you must actually install the game before the time ends. Simply downloading the installer is not enough.
(Thanks, frodo091!)
Posted in Puzzle, Videos, Windows, Abstract | Tags MrChubigans | 10 comments
Posted by Xander
Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:30:00 GMT
First off apologies for my recent absence, and by recent I mean for about the last month. I’ve moved into University for my second year and things are a little crazy. The good kinda of crazy. Science of Sleep kinda crazy.
To catch up I had a quick browse of the IGF Entries this time around, and came across a game I’d forgotten about for some time. Battleships Forever! A great space-based tactical RTS which borrows aesthetic influences from the classic boss-battler Warning Forever. Created by Sean “th15” Chan, it heavily features ship-to-ship combat, where design of each craft is incredibly intricate. Much like ‘Warning’, each ship is made of of individual pieces and weapons, which can be destroyed however you wish to provide yourself the best advantage in combat.
Battle is relatively straight forward mouse control, to move you click the ships and then the area you wish to travel, however holding it in-place there allows you to change your ships facing direction as you do so. Positioning is crucial to doing well at the game as the usage of deflectors, which render certain areas of the ship invulnerable, become your biggest defensive asset as well as your most common obstacle. Used well, it can defend a single ship with ease. Used damn well, and as illustrated above you can create a fleet that causes red-shirts to wish they were back in that Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment.
(Hit the extended for less front-page hogging text!)
Read more...
Posted in Windows, Action / Arcade, Abstract, IGF / GDC | Tags SeanChan | 16 comments
Posted by BMcC
Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:32:00 GMT
Jon Mak’s award-winning “game album” Everyday Shooter has just been released on Playstation Network today, in full HD, at the low, low price of $9.99 USD. If you have a PS3, buy it immediately, I say! If you don’t, convince a friend to—Go in on it with them if you have to. (That’s what I’m going to do.)
Congrats, Jon! Can’t wait for the PC version.
Derek’s Update: Check out this Playstation “Personality Profile” on Jon where he admits that he recently bought five pounds of hash (browns)! Thanks, Petri!
Posted in Unique / Bizarre, Highly Recommended, Shoot-em-ups, PS3, Abstract | Tags JonathanMak | 26 comments
