Around September of 2007, insertcredit’s Brandon Sheffield arranged a meeting of the abstract shoot ‘em up minds in Tokyo, to talk about everything from bullet patterns to the Japanese “doujin” game scene. The transcript of that discussion went live today on Gamasutra (link), and it’s a fun one! It’s cool to hear, for example, Jon Mak ask Kenta Cho how he feels about random behavior in games. More of this, please!
Nepia World’s Wire Robo came out in 2002 but it’s a premise that’s as ancient as time immemorial: a giant mecha with a grappling hook head is controlled by a sleeping little girl and must save the universe. Being flung into the far reaches of space, your mech can’t move about directly – instead you have to use your head (heh) to grapple asteroids and enemies, using your angular momentum to propel you through the void (“Z” key).
The goal of each stage is to destroy the… I don’t know what you’d call them, space platforms? The platforms are immobile, but are surrounded by orbiting satellites which will fire on you if you get close. And if you grapple the platform itself, it can unleash more powerful attacks. To destroy them, use the arrow keys to change your direction – this will shoot a green blast from your hands that will zero in on your target.
Jets n’ Guns Gold is today’s Game Giveaway of the Day. This irreverent Euroshmup usually sells for $30 and is probably the best game you’ll ever get from GGOTD, so grab it now!
Once again, make sure you actually install the game before the giveaway runs out.
Posted by Jordan Magnuson
Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:06:00 GMT
Triumph War 2099 is up there with Gladiator as one of the best cooperative multiplayer on one keyboard games ever made. You and up to three other players take control of 1-4 commandos with legions of troops at your disposal, and one goal in mind: retrieve the Plasma Cannon Energy Crystal from the clutches of an infestation of alien bugs! Easier said than done.
Basically what we have here is a top-down shoot-’em-up/strategy hybrid with a fantastic cooperative element. Pick up a machine gun, flame thrower, plasma cannon and a few grenades, call in some air support, let your troops know what you want from them, and head into the swarm guns blazing with your friends at your sides.
Sounds epic? It is. Do yourself a favor, and download this free gem now from Home of the Underdogs (sadly-or fortunately-one of the few sites still hosting the game).
Edit:
This game is only good when played multiplayer. I should have mentioned that before.
Also, if you’d like to check out another game in this vein, take a look at Planet Wars: http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?21000000036522. Poor graphics, and full of bugs, the game can, nonetheless, be more fun than Triumph at times. Again, only multiplayer.
Joyous day! Everyday Shooter has finally made its way to the PC, via Steam. I’ll be honest, I had only gotten a taste of this game before, on the IGF show floor in 2007. It was fun then, but I gotta say, it really deserves to be played in one’s own room, with headphones on. Challenging and beautiful – one of few games where graphics, sound, and gameplay are completely harmonious with one another.
Try it! It’s definitely worth the $8.99 you’ll be paying for it (discounted from $9.99 for this week).
I worried that we might not be seeing any more of nenad’s excellent looking shooter Ablation X, but thankfully that’s not the case. Fantastic! A couple of days ago he updated his blog at 16×16.org with some information about its progress, as well as this video:
He’s teamed up with a musician called Aesqe, who also posted a bit about the game on his blog here. As well as recording the video above, Aesqe has added a soundtrack to the original trailer, which you can check out after the jump…
...comes a whole new experience that is guaranteed to change the face of electronic entertainment forever. During a private unveiling of the game in San Francisco this past weekend, reknowned movie critic Roger Ebert purportedly took his hands off the keyboard after just 10 seconds of play and said+, quietly and to no one in particular:
I’ve heard many arguments for why games are art. This is best one. I am convinced. My hat is off to you, Romeopie.
He then proceeded to cry real tears of joy which, he claimed, “had not touched my cheeks in over 75 years. Since the Great War.” It is not understood exactly which war to which Mr. Ebert was referring, or how he could have cried before he was born, in 1942. However, those in attendance were compelled to believe that he was being genuine with his emotions.
Dear cactus has released another shoot ‘em up. Ad Nauseum 2 (direct download) features seizurific special effects, some slightly obscene artwork, and a soundtrack that I’m pretty sure is meant to induce bowel movements. It’s also very easy to die. You have been duly warned.
For those new to cactus, you may want to try out Cactus Arcade (direct download), a collection of 17 of his games, including a handy interface for playing them.
(Thanks a lot for the tip, Bas! And to the various peeps that brought Cactus Arcade to my attention.)
These are two acid techno music games by Hideki Kubo, which can be found on his Download page. In the first, vs Music, the main mode is Shooting[Play]. It pits the player against a single boss ship that has 3 lives, and the boss’s fire patterns are sequenced to the music. Movement of the ship is slower than I normally like, but the slowness also makes dodging that much more precise. Use C for continuous fire, X to clear the screen of shots with a bomb, and SPACE to get past the intro screen and to start a play mode.
Action Jockey, the second game, is a 2D, fixed screen jump-and-shmp. The available enemies and bosses are changed by adjusting mixer settings during the Acid Machine Phase. Of the 3 bosses, I’ve only been able to beat the Pong Paddle bosses so far, and it seems the game simply loops until you run out of hearts. You can fire with C and X can be used to jump, double jump, or slide (when your crouched).
More info on the other modes of vs Music and Action Jockey’s variations can be found below in the extended.
Atomhex is a new arena shoot ‘em up from Mark Incitti, the developer of Grid Wars. While Grid Wars was an obvious Geometry Wars clone (and has subsequently been pulled from Mark’s site), Atomhex adds quite a few unique ideas to this full genre.
The game mechanics involve Atoms and Hexes. The player can collect hexes to change the color of their shot, and to release multipliers. Atoms can combine with Hexes to “energize their shields” and protect them (only shots of the same color will release the Hex). Combined Atoms/Hexes will also spawn enemies – the more Atoms attached to a Hex, the more deadly the enemies.
Finally, when six atoms combine with a hex, it becomes an Atomhex that sucks you into the “Subatomic World,” a new battleground where you must fight off a number of nasty Quarks. Quarks are nasty buggers that require a hit from every colored shot to be destroyed. (Better pray for a rainbow shot upgrade.)
It can all be kind of overwhelming at first, but you get the hang of it quick… and once you do, the variety of strategies that emerge, and the strange, cyclic “evolution” of the playfield really pull you in. Plus, multipliers of 10,000!
The trial version gives you the full game for 3 days. After that, you can buy the game on a sliding scale of $5 to $20.
