Tasty Static

By: Xander

On: August 8th, 2009

PhoenixJ’s Tasty Static is an affectionate abstract send-up of shareware classic Skyroads. The goal is to race against time and your own life bar to the end of a course of obstacles. Arrow keys control movement and speed with space being the jump button, but it does become slightly more complicated than that, with various tiles restricting certain actions. That, and there are a number of quirks to the control scheme which need to be mastered to beat the tougher levels, such as bouncing into another jump for extra height. The game is set into a series of progessively tougher challenges, each broken up into a set of three under similar themes like RED 40 or CLASSY, with approapriate aesthetic hints to each one.

As you complete levels you unlock extras such as an FPS view, a variety of skins for your ship and even lasers to fire. Not sure what the purpose of those is yet, but when faced with any decision in life generally ‘The one with more lasers’ is the best answer you can give. There’s also a level editor built into the windows version (MAC/Linux versions are also available), and new levels can be down/uploaded from/to the site made by the community, if the substantial main campaign somehow isn’t enough with you.

The difficulty can be fairly extreme, and though the process is streamlined to minimise downtime it can still be a frustrating experience like its predecessor. Then again there really is nothing like these two games, and with a great soundtrack spread with new music for every themed stage the experience is incredibly well rounded, and a freeware joy for anyone daring enough to try to master it.

Posted in Abstract, Action, Freeware, Linux, Macintosh, Windows

Manpon

omg firrrrrrrst
JW

way too harsh ): it is even more difficult then space roads, for some reason the bouncing seems more extreme and the tunnels look smaller. ): I suck at it but it looks nice
Jamal

Title is a reference to Sexy Hiking?
shinygerbil

Congrats PhoenixJ :D I remember seeing early versions of this on IRC a long long time ago!
!

crash on winxp, ati 9600: SDL Parachute deployed, segmentation fault.
sinoth

I dig it. Indie on, PhoenixJ.
Jamey

The presentation is absolutely fantastic.
Cheater

For “SDL Parachute deployed, segmentation fault.” error, try again. Happened to me the first time, not the next. Weird.
Alex

Wonderful game, thank you PhoenixJ for making it :)

At the moment I’m also working my way through the original SkyRoads on Dosbox, so it’s nice to be able to give one of them a rest when the pressure adds up, and try my strengths against the other.

My compliments on the graphics too, very fun.
HikariExpress

The difficulty is downright insane and the controls (specially the jumping) are much more unforgiving than Skyroads’, but the awesome presentation more than makes up for that, so I’m not complaining. Actually, it’s the very thing that compels you to try again and again.

And let me tell you, playing this thing at 1080p on a 42″ plasma was quite an experience. It’s the kind of game that makes me wish I had one of those 3D glasses.

Great job, PhoenixJ! =)
Kyle

I love this game. I didn’t find the difficulty that bad; the levels are short and there is that instant restart.

It is gorgeous.
Tuck

yeah, sexy look but controls are unresponsive as hell. is it worth it, just for the looks? no. it’s like having a girlfriend who’s really hot but can’t tie her shoelaces without falling on her face. you get tired of it very quickly.
Jason

This is great, although it’s a bit annoying that you have to press a direction before you jump. It’s also just another example of the virtues of instant restart :P
Anon

A fabulous little gem of freeware. Difficulty is almost negligible since it’s so quick to try again – I’ve had up to 30 deaths on some levels, and while frustrating to explode at the same point over and over, once you get a good feel for the controls (and specifically, the lack of air control) it’s heaps of fun.
http://jamesgecko.com James

The controls are actually quite responsive; they’re just a bit more difficult to get used to than other games.
Alex

30 deaths? I’ve had up to 400 trying to beat some levels of the Source..