Calling Obake (meaning) a mixture of Super Mario Bros. and Kirby wouldn’t be too misleading. In this platformer you play a ghost who can hop on your enemies’ heads and then (by pressing down) possess them. Other than being cute as hell, there is a lot of diversity in the enemies (moreso than Kirby I would say), and the levels are designed thoughtfully around this idea, with lots of secret passages that can only be accessed with certain skills.
Some of the enemies are just awesome, like the giant pig in a runner’s outfit that charges through blocks, or the monkey who can turn into a lightning bolt. Anything that moves is fair game to our little hero. (Seriously, the pig cracks me up so much. He’s so buff!)
Unfortunately, the game won’t run unless you turn on Japanese language support or you have a pretty old patch. I only managed to find one site that had a patched version of the game. The link is here. But the game still crashes for me on exit, even with the patch.
Tim found this little gem. It’s an entry for the 3Punge (Three Minute Game Contest), where, I assume you create a game that lasts for three minutes. What caught my attention were the graphics, which frightened the hell out of me. I like that.
Under Ground the Bowling (direct link) is a bowling game where the bowling balls are people and the pins are other people waiting for the bus (who all kind of look like James Brown). It’s really pretty hilarious and has very little to do with bowling other than the score keeping. I love the main character and how crazy he looks, especially after you get a strike.
This is not a well-made game, but it is a bizarre game! Use the arrow keys to move and “z” to slap. A couple dialog boxes will pop up when you start the game. I don’t know what the first one is, but the second one asks you if you want to play fullscreen or not. Be ready to turn down your sound if you’re not into hearing men grunting over and over again at a rapid rate.
Uchuforce 2 is an easy, rather repetitive shooter that you collecting letters to spell out “UCHUFORCE” to upgrade your ship (and gain extra lives). You will collect “UCHUFORCE” so much that eventually you will just start peppering everything you say with the word “UCHUFORCE.”
Control with the mouse. Left-click to fire a powerful laser. UCHUFORCE.
One of Ikiki’s earliest… and probably most offensive games, Niwatori has you clubbing cats that are trying to steal your chickens. But I think it’s what happens after you lose that is likely to provoke some outrage:
What can I say about Rose and Camellia other than that it’s a girl-slapping game from the creators of La Mulana!
The plot, according to the text below the game, is that the player girl is a commoner who marries into a noble family. One day after the marriage, her new husband breathes his last—but the pampered harpies running the House refuse to give this low-blood the honor that is her due. There is only one way to resolve the matter! (selectbutton.net)
I love how insanely creepy and awesome your opponents get as you get further. The general theme / atmosphere of this one is spot on.
Aggressive Sokoban (direct download) takes Sokoban and puts it on its side, turning the slow-paced original game into a manic platformer where deft maneuvering and precision box throwing is the key. The player is presented with 14 rooms split into two worlds (6 in easy, 8 in hard) and the is charged with completing them as quickly as possible. A special mode lets you try out each level before you attempt a time attack on an entire world.
It’s incredibly fun and the cute graphics and music tie the entire package together! Go for the “A” ranking!
In this Ikiki game, you play a sniper looking through his sniper scope! Use your mouse to aim and press the mouse button to blast the little naked guys (it’s sad, they look so happy) as they bounce over from the right side of the screen. They bounce higher and move faster as you go along. After a few dozen of them pass, the game ends and you get scored. My best so far is 53, which is pretty pathetic.
I don’t know what I’m going to do after I review every Ikiki game out there. I might just bundle every one of his games up into a single zip and set up a bunch of mirrors. It’ll probably be like 30 megs. Which I think is the size of a butt cheek texture in Gears of War.
It’s really interesting to see how Ikiki’s games influence one another. Teppodon is basically an upgrade to Teppoman, with some bits from Bimboman thrown in for good measure (like the mounted turrets and having to use explosions to propel yourself). The graphics are much more advanced than Teppoman and the controls are a bit more complex. Now, instead of only having one weapon at a time, you can switch between a knife and two guns of your choosing. Honestly, I have to say that I kind of prefer the simplicity of Teppoman – it’s a bit irritating to have to switch weapons all the time. It’s still pretty good, though, and I liked the boss fight at the end.
One of these days, it’d be fun to piece together a timeline for these games and examine how they influenced one another. Why? ‘Cause it’d be fun, that’s why! In the meantime, you’ll have to settle for this pictorial evolution of the Teppodon, from the primitive Bimboman.
