Posted by Tim Mon, 15 Oct 2007 03:22:00 GMT
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 by Derek Yu Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:13:00 GMT
Ablation X – The sequel to Ablation! Quote nenad:
Brave Karma Warriors – Originally made for the B-Game Compo, this delightfully weird shooter is due this Christmas thereabouts. Cactus strong like bull!
Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer – Whoa, can you say “eye candy?” This shooter will be out for the PC and PS3 soon, I think. You can pre-order the game at Play Asia right now, though. Love the cheesy voiceovers!
But c’mon, only two umlauts in the title?
(Sources: Tim’s Blog, and The Random Gnome’s Lair)
Posted by Derek Yu Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:06:00 GMT
Redrunner is the sequel to Greenrunner, a C64 homebrew by Aleksi Eeben. Both games are based on Jeff Minter’s Gridrunner series of games (which are apparently getting an Xbox 360 update). And Blade Runner is a great dystopian science fiction movie starring Harrison Ford. Got that?
Redrunner has roots in the classic arcade game Centipede, so it shares many of the same elements, although Redrunner’s gameplay is much more free form. In this game the entire playfield is open to you, and your opponents, the “bugs,” are similarly free to roam the entire screen.
What’s neat about the game is that each of the game’s 100 (!) levels has a unique theme. One level, for example, may go in slow motion, whereas in another level an ever-expanding slime may steadily consume the screen.
Unfortunately, I found it difficult to appreciate the concept, mostly due to the fact that, because of the jittery pace of the game and your ship’s ability to fire in the four cardinal directions at once, the easiest way to beat many of the levels is by sitting still and holding down the fire button. Gameplay videos by the author himself seem to verify that this is a reasonable tactic.
I do dig the overall aesthetic, especially the voice of the announcer, who sounds like Sinistar crossed with the guy who goes “Test your might!” in the Mortal Kombat song. This game’s not for me, though.
Redrunner requires a C64 or a C64 emulator like Vice to run.
(Source: dessgeega blog)
Posted by BMcC Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:57:00 GMT
Cactus recently released a small game/tech demo on his personal forum called MSOIDS. It’s a mouse & keyboard shooter that’s apparently “inspired by Echoes.” (Which is “a bit like Asteroids,” natch.) But the coolest thing about MSOIDS, and the reason for it being made, is its visual style. It’s all vector art. Vector art with a nice layer of randomization that gives the whole thing this kinda-junky, kinda-funky handmade feel. I can dig it!
Oh, and the music is top notch. Check it out.
UPDATE: Oops, it seems cactus wasn’t ready for a public release when I posted this! But he’s already made an update, cool cat that he is.
Somebody please beat Tim’s highscore:
Direct Download
Highscore Table
Posted by Derek Yu Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:23:00 GMT
Gad, I feel like so much good stuff has passed across my proverbial desk recently. It’s hard to believe there was a time when I had to play a bunch of, well, “terrible” games to fill the site’s front page. You can, of course, relive my pain through Ye Olde TIGSource, an archive of older posts painstakingly compiled by ithamore features page.
But anyhoo, Varia is the game of the moment: a shoot ‘em up created for the SHMUP-DEV 2007 competition (you may recall Prototype 2 from a few days ago). At its core, Varia is a straightforward vertical shooter that mixes mechanics from classic games of the genre. However, it does so with great aplomb, in this author’s opinion, and consequently, it’s a fun ride.
From Gradius V, Varia has taken options, which can be “frozen” in place. A unique addition to this is the ability to absorb enemy shot types into your options. You can have a maximum of four trailing.
From the classic indie shooter Cho Ren Sha 68k, developer Kairos lifted the spinning power-up wheel, which lets you pick between firepower, options, or shield. Just like in Cho Ren Sha, savvy players can snag all three by sitting in the middle of the wheel!
The most underdeveloped aspect of the game is perhaps the chain combo system, taken from Ikaruga, although from looking at Tim W.’s massive “high score” (testicles), there might be more to it than I’m giving credit for… in any case, it just adds a little more to this great little shooter.
(Thanks, Melly!)
Posted by Derek Yu Mon, 01 Oct 2007 06:00:00 GMT
Prototype 2 is a gorgeous shoot ‘em up that takes its inspiration from Irem’s famous R-Type series of games. The game was created for the SHMUP-DEV 2007 competition, where the theme was “Options.” And yes, the pre-game options in P2 certainly are various, with the player being able to change the flavor of his or her ship, pods, and power-ups.
And like R-Type, Prototype 2’s most interesting mechanic is the Force Pod, which is a detachable “option” that can be used to clear out hard-to-reach spots. In P2, the Force Pod can also be detonated at any time to clear out the screen. Skill with this thing is crucial if you want to survive in this game, which is punishing even at the easiest difficulty (it is for me, anyway).
Conclusion: the great presentation, numerous options, and overall polish make this a pretty awesome package. GET IT.
(Source: the one, the only, the Tim)
Posted by BMcC Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:42:00 GMT
Fall 2007, baby! That’s pretty soon.
Posted by Derek Yu Fri, 07 Sep 2007 06:13:00 GMT
Polybius is an urban legend – a mythical arcade game that supposedly appeared briefly in Portland, Oregon in 1981. According to the legend, the game was developed by a pseudo-company called Sinneslöschen (German for “sense-delete”), which was actually a front for the United States government. It’s said that men in black suits would come to collect “marketing data” while people played the game!
Players of Polybius purportedly experienced a variety of negative effects as a result of interacting with the game, including amnesia, insomnia, nightmares, and night terrors. Some went so nuts that they killed themselves… OOOooohhhhhh, scary!
Well, whether Polybius existed or not, it’s still pretty neat that some intrepid indie developers have created a fake version of it for the PC, based on internet descriptions of how the game played. And what is it like? Well, it’s basically a slow raping of your rods and cones disguised as a shoot ‘em up. Which isn’t really a condemnation of the game, since I find it to be fairly entertaining and plenty intriguing. Just don’t show this to any Japanese schoolchildren…
The gameplay involves rotating around a hexagonal base and shooting shapes that are launched from the base. On each of the outside “arms” is a circle with a number in it. In order to destroy the base and move on to the next level, you must reduce that number to zero by shooting certain special shapes that have numbers beside them… I dunno, read the readme for a full explanation!
This game really did kind of screw up my vision after a few playthroughs, so I would strongly suggest playing in moderation. Drugs may enhance your experience, or they may just cause you to freak out. Play at your own risk.
(Source: selectbutton.net)
Posted by Xander Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:15:00 GMT
Space Giraffe is the new XBLA title from Jeff Minter’s Llamasoft. Jeff Minter for those who might not know is the legendary (infamous?) mind behind the instantly recognisable and always awesome ‘Tempest 2000’. I always preferred ‘Llamatron’ more myself, but mostly because I was pretty young at the time and I couldn’t think of any better reason to blow the crap out of anything than to save beasties. Recently (read: 6 days ago) Space Giraffe hit XBLA at the very modest price of 400 MS Points, which I think is around $5/￡3.40 (for those who dislike mentally detaching themselves from the reality of what they’re actually spending). Critically, it’s been met with a pretty mixed response, with an 8/10 from the highly regarded ‘Edge’ Magazine and a 2/10 from the US OXM.
Review scores that far apart don’t only happen in Game Tunnel Monthly Round-ups, aparently. Luckily here at TIGSource we don’t rely on ratings systems or averages, mostly because it’s been a while since we studied maths, we’re a little rusty and we sold our textbooks with the answers filled in long ago to save up for impending lawsuits. So, I wont bore the crap out of you with that kind of thing (ignoring the fact that I did just that 15 seconds ago), and instead I’ll just tell you what it’s like and whether it’s something you should try to check out yourself.
And yes, yes it is…
Read more...
