Posted by BMcC
Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:14:00 GMT
What a tumultuous winter! But never mind that. I’m back, and that’s what Christmas is all about.
Here’s a little browser game called UFO Mania in which you must fly around abducting Earthlings while trying to not crash your spaceship. (I know!)
But here’s the secret reason I’m posting this: I typed this article from my Wii and I’ve got a feeling this game is gonna be extra-fun to play with the wiimote. Though… I’ve yet to test that theory.
Awright, so, my work here should accelerate from this point on. Sorry it’s been so long, guys and gals!
Good to be back home.
(Source: Game|Life)
Posted in Browser Games, Action / Arcade, Freeware | 6 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 18 Jan 2007 23:22:00 GMT
This game’s zanier than John Steinbeck. I really like the aesthetic, but there’s way too much inane dialogue and the controls aren’t so hot. And no sound? But interesting, nonetheless.
(Souce: Insert Credit)
Posted in Platformers, Browser Games | 1 comment
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 16 Jan 2007 05:31:00 GMT
Flash Element TD is one of those flash games that’s built around the idea that upgrading is a lot of fun. Drop towers and upgrade them to fend off hordes of creatures for as long as you can.
It’s actually more difficult than it looks.
Hint: press Space to toggle enemy health bars on and off.
Posted in Unique / Bizarre, Browser Games | 12 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Sat, 30 Dec 2006 16:32:00 GMT
Alright, Christmas has been over for a few days now… I guess it’s about time to start posting again!
Here are a collection of Christmas-themed games that came out this month. Because it’s never too late for Christmas, amirite? No, seriously, these are all pretty good – you should try them out.
“Merry Gear Solid: Secret Santa is a top down stealth action game in the vein of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid series.” And that’s really a pretty accurate description of the game, I’d say. Here’s a YouTube vid of the game in action. It’s by Podunkian, the guy who’s making that Cave Story “homage,” Underside.
Holiday Hills is a fun SkiFree clone by Johan Peitz. I don’t know if there’s a Yeti in this game. I hope there is (but there probably isn’t). There needs to be an option to flip the controls in this one.
Winter Bells is an Orisinal game that has you hopping on bells with a cute little bunny. It’s basically the video game equivalent of a shining snowflake being caught by the little hands of Baby Jesus… and when Baby Jesus opens his hands the snowflake is gone and there’s a miracle to take its place.
And don’t forget this one! All the levels should be unlocked by now.
Posted in Platformers, Browser Games, Action / Arcade, Freeware | Tags FreeLunchDesign, Orisinal, ThePodunkian | 13 comments
Posted by BMcC
Wed, 20 Dec 2006 10:50:00 GMT
Cult Flash hit Line Rider has been acquired by InXile Entertainment (The Bard’s Tale) to be published, with “new added features,” for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii videogame consoles, with an anticipated launch date of Spring 2007.
No, really!
Now, what does this mean for linerider.org? I don’t know. The new official Line Rider site is tagged up and down with InXile’s logo, displays their copyright on the bottom, and features an entire section dedicated to don’t screw with us legal jive. Though, in actuality, they probably don’t got the stones to shut down such a massive community. Particularly one they plan to milk dry.
I wonder just how much Mr. Cadež got for this deal. I hope InXile didn’t pull a Platypus.
Posted in Browser Games, Community, Wii, Developers, Physics | 12 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 20 Dec 2006 09:33:00 GMT
Nintendo’s advent calendar/flash game Mission in Snowdriftland is simple and fun and extremely cute. God, that snowman is just adorable, amirite?
Posted in Platformers, Browser Games | 6 comments
Posted by Albert Lai
Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:00:00 GMT
I saw a car with turn signals that blunk (or, uh, blinked) at least twice a
second. There should be a law against that kind of malarky. A law!
Anyway, I recently received an e-mail from Reid Gershbein about Koku
Drumroll, though no drums are evident. I’m watching you.
To quote him:
A number of us at work (Dreamworks Animation) are really into Advance Wars
and were frustrated by the Advance Wars by Web interface for online play.
So, I wrote a browser-based TBS game similar to Advance Wars but [with a]
new game engine and artwork.
Koku Drumroll runs within a browser and is refreshingly smooth that indeed
moves away from the ‘click – refresh – load – load – click – refresh’ school of AWBW.
There is no refreshing involved when playing a game, whether when moving units
or switching turns.
But I’m not here to prattle on about the efficiency of Koku Drumroll, I’m here
to tell the people reading this post—that haven’t stopped reading at browser-based
TBS—that Koku Drumroll is fun. It’s a simplified version of most TBS’s,
with a low amount of information and calculation needed to play.
Each turn a player holds a set amount of energy (gained only from what appear
to be mushrooms) which they use to produce units from generators. Energy isn’t
stored turn to turn, however, preventing a player from hoarding energy.
Attack and defense isn’t handled in terms of HP – instead attack increases
the percentage chance a unit will destroy another, and defense does the opposite.
In addition, placing units within one space (including diagonals) serves to
‘reinforce’ the units by adding their attack and defense. Correct placement
of units and knowing where the weak spots in an opponent’s mob is essential
in winning a game.
What else is there to say? I definitely recommend Koku Drumroll for TBS enthusiasts
out there!
Posted in Multiplayer, Browser Games, Strategy | 6 comments
Posted by ithamore
Mon, 11 Dec 2006 04:29:00 GMT
Now that the 10th competition of
Now that the 10th iteration of the 3 Minute Game Contest
(a.k.a. 3 Punge) has been declared
complete, its results have finally been given an
official page
(roughly translated from Japanese to English by
Google’s Language Tools). Each
game is suppose to be based on a 3 minute theme, but longer mini-games have also been
accepted. The winner is suppose to be "3 hours" worth of play and, from what I
read, pretty funny, but it was created with RPG Maker. I usually don’t bother with
any of the games requiring RPGM’s RTPs.
As for the non-RPGM games,
Crostar released another cute platformer, Sky-Whirling Geo, which didn’t
fare as well as his entry for the
previous contest, Supakingurato. I prefer the gameplay of Supakingurato, and
it’s more forgiving than its successor.
Granspope Frial is TERU-soach’s best effort in
most ways. The graphics have a clean,
interesting style, and the design’s concept has some good potential. You race as a bird
against the clock by pressing a single key (‘Z’ or ‘Space’) to fly through a course covered with
acceleration bars, which boosts you at the angle at which you touch them as long
as your momentum is increasing. The problem is that the timing is quite tricky
and that there is little room for error when it comes to hitting the 90˚
direction switching boosters. Course 0 took about 10 tries before I got the hang
of it and unlocked the next. 
Although it might have been because I’m a bit
rhythmical challenged, it took me much longer to get past Course 1. I tried 20
or 30 times at first and several times more since September, but it wasn’t until
yesterday that I was able to shave off those last 10 seconds I needed loose in
order
to progress. Course 2 was a good change of pace with new layout elements, but Course 3
is currently frustrating me. Still, I want to get into that sweet spot of the
game’s flow, which makes Granspope Frial so mumy favorite of the entries for the 10th
contest. But it’s not recommended for those low in patience.
Probably the easiest entry to get into, however, is
Y. ABE’s Whirlwind. Its
semi-auto-lock aim and invincibility probably made it seem too easy to most
voters and earned it a shared rank of 11th place. As a 360˚
turret-like mini-STG, however, it’s rather decent.
Back in October, Tim posted Sky-Whirling Geo, Whirlwind, and a couple more 3
Punge games at Independent Gaming. You can head over
there
to get more details on them and his opinion.
Recently, the number of decent games submitted to 3 Punge has been improving.
There still haven’t been any gems to match the sparkle and shine of
Omega’s
Every Extend and
Dan! Da! Dan!
from the 2nd and 5th contests, and there still are several disappointing
submissions. However, one of the best things about the site is
it also serves as a portal to other games made by its contestants.
The newcomer who took 3rd place,
nemu90kWw, has created several
Flash games. The best is a remake of Flixx,
FliFlixx, which originally appeared on the wonderful
PC98. He also made a
Parodius inspired STG and a cat bouncing game, but you can read about those and
his 3 Punge entry in
Tim’s posts. Then there’s
Disorder Island: a simple platformer during stage 1 and 2, but stage 3 is
infuriating. (Controls: hold ‘Shift’ to run with the arrows, up jumps, down
crouches or drops through the platform, ‘Z’ swings the sword, and ‘X’ throws a
bomb once you’ve defeated enough enemies.)
Y. ABE, for whom the 10th contest was also a first, has 2 other STGs on his
site. Electrical
Bird, which Tim
found disappointing,
offers more play and challenge than Whirlwind, so
I prefer it. But I also have a soft spot for graphics and music that have a
computerized or electronic aesthetic,
which makes me a bit biased. The new 1.0 version is even better than 0.9 was.
Scene1 hasn’t changed much and Scene3 has been tweaked, but Scene2 has had 4
elevator columns added to it, which can raise both the player and the enemies.
And the best change is the lightening attack has been replaced with jets of plasma
that shoot out like wings. It works very well with the new energy chain scoring
system.
On the other hand,
Marsenary (direct download) is different from his other 2 games. The environment is a 3D sim, and it
has arena play (which has been abandoned), a story/mission mode, an online high score mode for each area, and ship
customization. Even with all that, though, I found it less enjoyable than Electrical Bird.
Last week, the deadline for the 11th 3 Minute Game Contest was
announced for December 24. A prize won’t be awarded to a winner outside of Japan, but that
doesn’t exclude any of us from entering for bragging rights. Just be sure to follow the rules
as well as you can to keep your entry from being disqualified. As for myself, I’m looking forward to more
3 Punge gaming in January.
Posted in Platformers, Remakes, Browser Games, Shoot-em-ups, Competitions | 7 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 08 Dec 2006 07:06:00 GMT
I feel like a crack dealer mentioning this game.
It gets a bit brilliant when your castle’s fallen (fucking trebuchets) and you’re running around on the ground as a little guy. And dragons.
Posted in Browser Games, Casual, Action / Arcade | 9 comments
Posted by Albert Lai
Thu, 07 Dec 2006 14:36:00 GMT
It is so amazing how car manufacturers don’t seem to be able to synchronize
left and right turn signals. Is it that hard? Is on for one second and off for
one second too difficult? There’s always a moment when it seems that your
lights and the ones of the car in front of you are in sync, but it really isn’t
and there’s a split second when your brain tries to process that it’s
not in sync and things just go downhill from there.
But wait, there’s actually a reason for this post. I would be
regaling you with my marvelous finds of a quality RPG, but the only one I turned
up so far was Grave Spirit,
which is surprisingly mediocre and, actually, rather boring.
Instead, I shall tell you about Master of Defense, which is basically a prettier
version of the plethora of Warcraft 3 maps which involve building towers to
take out monsters that are so hell-bent on reaching the castle that they can’t
be bothered to demolish the very towers that are ripping them and their friends
apart. What can you say?
Master of Defense is a fairly
well-thought out tower defense game, involving nice graphics, a fairly addictive
way to manage and upgrade towers, and a difficulty curve that is just a bit
on the lenient side. But, on the other hand, Master of Defense is not shareware
– it costs, as we say here on the internet, 19.84 US DOLLARS!
Which is rather hard to justify, given that all it adds is three levels, one
more tower, survival mode, and online scoring.
Well, whatever causes you to
give up the fruits of your hard-earned labor for a product that may be inferior,
I suppose.
On the other hand, you could play what amounts to the same game, just with
prettier graphics and less special abilities with Tower
Defense, the free Flash alternative to Master of Defense that is, arguably,
just as good. In my defense though, I didn’t get it from Digg. I just
got it from a website that got it from Digg.
SUMMARY: Albert Lai cannot find quality games that are out of alpha. He also
cannot beat SCWU
to save his life.
Posted in Browser Games, Casual | 5 comments
