Spike: A Love Story

By: Derek Yu

On: May 16th, 2011

Spike: A Love Story, by Matzerath

In Matzerath’s Spike: A Love Story, you play a spike trap who’s fallen in love with the “player” but can only express its affection by smashing him repeatedly. It’s a cute backstory that lends some humor to an entertaining game of timing and memorization.

TIGdb: Entry for Spike: A Love Story

  • Phubans

    I could be wrong, but I think this has been done before?

  • Guest

    what's your point

  • Jesse Maddox

    The only thing that really matters is has it been done better before?

  • Phubans

    Inquiry on the game that's been done? I think it was called “I am the Castle.”

  • Phubans

    Or, “You are the Castle”… Is the game I'm thinking of. I thought I saw the same idea elsewhere, too, but it might have been this game. I can't remember, which is why I was asking.

  • Guest

    So has Angry Birds (a million times over), you don't see it be any less advertised.

  • Vania

    Do you ask the same question every time a new sidescroller comes out?

  • SirNiko

    I felt like the 'love story' aspect could have been better involved. Aside from the trap emitting a heart at the start and a single situation where the hero tries to fake you out by pretending to return your affections the 'love story' could have been removed without any impact to the game. I would have liked much more if the trap spent more time trying to express its love to the increasingly exasperated hero.

    That said, I really enjoyed the variety of twists the hero employs to try and get past you. For a one button game where every stage has exactly the same goal, I was kept entertained all the way to completion. The way the trap grew progressively more gory as you succeeded was a sharp contrast to the cartoony hero. Even though the love story was a flop, everything else was spot on and perfectly sized for the length of this game.

    I wish the game was a little more clear on the criteria for failure. Even after several attempts to complete the game I was never clear on how many times I could screw up and still succeed, as it seemed to vary based on how long I survived.

    And for those in the wonder, “You are the Castle” is more of a reverse Lemmings where you manipulate a plethora of traps to kill a stream of heroes. Aside from both being obvious role-reversal games featuring Mario-style Thwomp traps the mechanics are different enough that both developers likely came up with their ideas without ever seeing the other's game.