Wizball Remake

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: November 3rd, 2007

Graham Goring, renown remaker and host of The Arsecast, has finally finished possibly the last remake of his career. A remake of the C64 game Wizball!

You can expect Graham’s usual high level of polish and even higher level of hardware accelerated effects. Seriously, this man’s love of particles borders on criminal.

The release of Wizball (alledgedly) marks the end of Graham’s remaking career, but also the beginning of his rise to indie gaming superstardom. I know he’s already got some rad projects lined up… but I’m still anxious to hear what he announces. Yay Graham!

Download the remake here.

UPDATE: A new version has been uploaded that fixes some issues with the first release.

Dark Cut²

By: Derek Yu

On: October 31st, 2007

Just what you wanted to be for Halloween: a Civil War surgeon! Dark Cut² puts you behind the forceps of a newly instated battlefield medic, with a variety of grisly and primitive tools at your disposal. Think Trauma Center circa 1863 and you have the idea.

The presentation of the game is nice, with realistic, photo-based graphics to really bring out those wounds in all their pustulent glory. Being Flash-based, it does tend to wreak havoc on your system, though, so I hope you have a decent rig.

It’s a short game, with only four surgeries available. I’d love to see this as a full-length downloadable game!

Mutant Storm Empire

By: Xander

On: October 31st, 2007

The internet sighs in blissful nostalgia today as Mutant Storm Empire hits Xbox Live Arcade! Only $10 / £6.80 / 800pts, it’s pretty much the same pricing of PomPom Games’ other two main shooter releases, the original Mutant Storm and Space Tripper on the PC, and Mutant Storm Reloaded which is also on the XBLA.

So far, it’s been a damn blast to play, and the best way to describe it is a Space Tripper/Mutant Storm Smoothie. There are 4 worlds and 4 levels in each, but each level contains a different variety of battle situation. The first level, for instance, is a progression through rooms, whereas another later on is an arena-based affair like the previous Mutant Storms. And another will encompass you in a square field as it moves horizontally across the playing field. Regardless of setting, it controls simply, with the left stick for movement and the right stick for shooting. The triggers can also be used to fire a super-charged version of the regular shot, but ammo is limited and only replenishes at the end of each level so use it wisely!

The style of the game is fantastic, and encompasses a lot of themes from PomPom’s past and other shoot ‘em ups. The second world in particular has a much more organic feel to it than the rest of the levels, and the swarms of fish-attackers especially are pretty damn swish. Nods to Space Tripper are also prevalent, including a spider boss and shielded spawn-cores. It’s basically good old-fashioned PomPom fun. It’s simple, affordable and plays wonderfully.

It’s also a lot closer to Space Tripper in terms of length, so don’t expect to pour Touhou levels of time into this one, but with 5 difficulties to plough through (Black Belt currently handing my ass to me on a silver platter), there’s certainly your money’s worth in there. If you’ve got a 360, there’s no reason not to check it out, at least for the three-level trial!

Further reading: Derek interviewed the PomPom duo a couple of years back, and it still makes for an entertaining read, in case you need a break from smashing your joypad against a difficulty spike.

(Image courtesy of Destructoid because robots are awesome…)

Synaesthete

By: Xander

On: October 25th, 2007

Synaesthete is the work of four DigiPen students (Zach Aikman, Joseph Tkach, William Towns and Andy Maneri), and to use their own words:

To use mine, it mixes elements of Robotron, Rez and any number of Bemani titles, swishes them into an isometric angle and sends the player on a psychedelic trip through an abstract existence suffused with sound. Probably not as snappy as their explanation, but hopefully it’ll give you some idea of the gameplay. In Synaesthete you play a grey protagonist who leaves for different worlds from his hub world, which for one reason or another features a fountain. Once there, you have to extinguish all enemies from the area, using your beat attacks. Instead of having a gun, ammo, or even the ability to aim, you have music. In play, three beats fall from the sky, as Low, Medium and High beats. You simply time your button presses to the music, and you attack the enemy automatically, which leaves you free to mostly concentrate on running away.

Points and combos are awarded for accuracy with timing, and whilst you can simply concentrate on a single beat-style to kill the enemy, you can try to get a little more complex and involve the other beats in your attack chain for extra points, a faster chain growth and more attacks to defeat the enemy faster. Of course if you flub it trying to show off then you can end up completely wrecking your combo forcing you to try and catch up to the peak of your musical maelstrom. It’s a risk-and-reward mechanic that really pays off, although maybe there aren’t enough risks to outweigh just mashing the beats and hoping to fire lasers across the world, but at least it doesn’t scare you off from trying to keep up with the pace.

(Basically at this point you should just start downloading it, it’s worth the size/wait, but hit the extended if you want to keep reading! It will please me…)

You progress in a fairly linear fashion, unlocking extra levels, worlds and spells as you progress. Spells are basically power-ups you can take into each world to help you complete them easier. Some help you boost your chain, others cause you to increase in size tenfold ignoring the whole Bemani style of attacking to a more traditional head-stomping approach. Whilst playing with the keyboard is perfectly viable, I would recommend using a gamepad if you have one. The reason being not only so you aren’t restricted to simply 8-directional movement, but if you’re using one with rumble/force-feedback, then it actually jolts in-time with the music, which helps you keep to the beat a little easier. It’s interesting, really, since your pad doesn’t just feel like simply an input device, but rather it pulses with the game, becoming an extension of the experience, if you’ll pardon the overly enthusiastic exaggeration.

I do still have a couple of gripes with the game. Apparently every game lately that fuses music in with action gameplay needs to punctuate all break periods with somewhat pretentious/philosophical dialogue. It fits the mood of the piece sure, but I also find it a little tough to take seriously, as if someone just decided to interrupt my combo chain with random musings on life, the universe and everything. Also, a place where I could just blast away enemies to an ever increasing beat and baddie count would be nice without all the walking between areas. But as it stands, at least, it’s already a great game and well worth checking out. The download stands at a rather weighty 80mb, but with a game so focused on music that’s well to be expected. Enjoy!

Battleships Forever

By: Xander

On: October 19th, 2007

First off apologies for my recent absence, and by recent I mean for about the last month. I’ve moved into University for my second year and things are a little crazy. The good kinda of crazy. Science of Sleep kinda crazy.

To catch up I had a quick browse of the IGF Entries this time around, and came across a game I’d forgotten about for some time. Battleships Forever! A great space-based tactical RTS which borrows aesthetic influences from the classic boss-battler Warning Forever. Created by Sean “th15” Chan, it heavily features ship-to-ship combat, where design of each craft is incredibly intricate. Much like ‘Warning’, each ship is made of of individual pieces and weapons, which can be destroyed however you wish to provide yourself the best advantage in combat.

Battle is relatively straight forward mouse control, to move you click the ships and then the area you wish to travel, however holding it in-place there allows you to change your ships facing direction as you do so. Positioning is crucial to doing well at the game as the usage of deflectors, which render certain areas of the ship invulnerable, become your biggest defensive asset as well as your most common obstacle. Used well, it can defend a single ship with ease. Used damn well, and as illustrated above you can create a fleet that causes red-shirts to wish they were back in that Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment.

(Hit the extended for less front-page hogging text!)

There’s a number of other weapons available, including the Flux Projector which is an impenetrable forcefield drawn through mouse movements, as well as a host of 17 different ships all with their own load outs, and numerous game play types to sink your teeth into (Highly recommended is the campaign, at least to get used to controlling the ships. Though if you’ve played any RTS before you should have some idea). Though it’s still technically in the Beta phase, it’s a solid enough title to warrant some decent playtime, especially given the almost endless array of tactics you can develop on the fly to try to obliterate the enemy. The only real disappointment at moment is that it’s lacking any multi-player modes, and I’m not entirely sure when or even if they’re going to be implemented. Here’s hoping…

And yes, for you Fraxy fans there’s a built-in ship-editor! I’m a little sickly currently and sadly mucus is not a creative juice, but I’m sure you guys can come up with some truly devious contraptions, right? In anycase, Enjoy!

(Image courtesy of the IGF, as it was far more awesome than the one I had prepared)

Further Gaming; A nice, though less free 3D alternative is Threadspace: Hyperbol. It’s more focused on single tank-like ships battling it out, but it does feature 16-player multiplayer, and your ships are fairly customisable as far as weapon upgrades are concerned. Worth checking out the demo at least, available at the link above!

Capstar II

By: Derek Yu

On: October 19th, 2007

Capstar II is a new browser-based game from NIGORO, the Japanese developer behind La Mulana and Rose and Camellia. In the game you control a cute lil’ space pod piloted by none other than “The Invincible Randy.” Unfortunately, your pod’s not so invincible, so as you go through each of the 16 stages, you’ll have to avoid banging into walls, or getting blown up by various traps.

The game controls much like Sub-Terrania (Sega Genesis) or Solar Jetman (NES), with the hitch being that gravity can pull on you from any of the cardinal directions. An entertaining and challenging game, as you would expect from this developer. The later levels are especially nasty.

Comes with online time rankings and 5 difficulty levels.

(Source: Tim)

Mad Energy

By: Derek Yu

On: October 17th, 2007

Here’s a rather obscure find! Look at the website, for Kenta’s sake. (Thanks a bunch, ags!)

Mad Energy is a top-down action game where the object is to get to the exit of each level (a glowing blue circle). This is made difficult by the usual complement of nasties, which include soldiers, automated turrets, and an assortment of weird beasties. The game is controlled entirely with the mouse (right-click to move).

Thankfully, you’ve got some mad energy on hand (although I like to think of it as that thing from the movie Krull). When you shoot it, it ricochets off walls, killing anything in its path. Left-click once to fire it, click again to stop it, and click once more to have it come back to you. You can collect power-ups to speed it up, or to give you “BOM,” which makes your mad energy explode when you stop it. BOMs can be carried from level to level.

Unfortunately, the energy is tied to your lifebar, so you can die if you have it out too long. On the flipside, taking damage from enemies means it becomes more dangerous to “shoot your mad energy,” as the kids say.

Short, but sweet. Mad sweet.

Cave Story R.I.P. Off

By: Derek Yu

On: October 8th, 2007

American developer Voxel brings Cave Story to life in this balls-to-the-wall action-packed extravaganza of extremity and violence! You are Billy Bob “Quote” Johnson, the amnesiac space marine, imprisoned within BALROG-1 for disobeying your superiors. And now you’re the only thing standing between humanity and the terrible Mimiga Virus that has transformed your platoon into an army of bloodthirsty rabbit cyborgs!

Features:

– Hyper-realistic, cutting-edge 3D graphics. You’ll definitely be able to tell what these characters are supposed to be!

– Hardboiled story told lovingly through 200+ hours of dialogue. Featuring the voices of Catherine Zeta Jones as Lieutenant Fenix “Curly” Brace, and Samuel L. Jackson as “Meat Train” Sakamoto.

– Over 50 totally hardcore weapons, from King’s Vibro-Blade to the Nemesis Multi-Bazooka!

– Go online with your friends or play Deathmatch at home! Our unprecedented “BALL0S AI” crafts personalized insults by scanning your e-mails!

– State-of-the-art physics engine will molest your CPUs and PPUs as it accurately calculates the physics of EVERYTHING. Sweat has never been more realistically flicked off individual strands of hair!

– Soundtrack by Linkin Park.

Viva Caligula

By: Derek Yu

On: October 2nd, 2007

Adult Swim’s latest Flash joint, Viva Caligula, puts you in the leathery shoes of everyone’s favorite crazy Roman Emperor. Charged with the task of killing all of Rome’s citizens, you’ll run amok through the streets, gardens, and catacombs of “The Eternal City,” smiting everyone who crosses your path. Along the way you’ll collect 26 different weapons with which to massacre your opponents.

The fun of this game really comes from the variety of the weapons that are available to you. You’ll get to wield everything from knives and axes and crossbows, to more exotic treats, like beehives and necromancy! And entering Rampage Mode increases the destructive power of your arms. This is achieved by killing, collecting trophies, or – no joke – screaming into a microphone.

Once you’ve collected all 26 weapons, you’ll be invited to the Palace for some good ol’ fashioned hedonism. But given the number of weapons and the size of Rome, this could take you a while.

Conclusion: fun time-waster, great artwork (natch). Would make an awesome cartoon!

Goldeneye 2D

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: September 25th, 2007

Here’s something pretty cool. You know how big game companies are always taking classic games and remaking them to next-gen spec (with sometimes dubious results)? Well… what if, instead, they took a time machine back to the Good Ol’ Days and remade popular game concepts from now? That’s right, folks — I’m talkin’ about demakes!*

Goldeneye 2D is just that. A demake of the N64 classic FPS Goldeneye 64, made like a tie-in game for original Game Boy. Now, the gameplay isn’t quite the gadgets and espionage of the original (it’s more of a run-n-gun now), but that’s part of the fun, I think! Remakes today often aren’t 100% true to their sources, so why should demakes be? I’d really love to see several developers demake the same game to wildly different ends…

This all inspired the current Mockup Frenzy at Pixelation, as well. Check it out!+

Goldeneye 2D:
Direct download
Forum topic
Developer’s site

*Credit goes to Phil Fish for coining this term.
+QuickSilva’s Cave Story entry was a fun surprise!