Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!: Squid Harder

By: Xander

On: May 19th, 2009

Oddbob’s insane arena shooter SYNSO!:SH has been released for the public in beta form, with a more complete version being released sometime during the week with an extra world and a more thematised soundtrack. What’s here though is damn fun, and pretty simple to get to grips with. Simply plug in your controller of choice, or use the typical ‘Arrows + Z Key’ to move and fire as I’m sure you’ve done before. There’s nothing specifically different about SYNSO compared to other arena shooters, but its pretty damn enjoyable all the same. The visuals seem intent in blowing whatever grey matter you’ve been invested in saving these past years right out your ear canals, and the same goes for most everything else about the game.

You have a single life and a choice between four worlds as 1-4 Minute long survival challenges. The goal is simply to score as much as you can within the space of time without causing Squidageddon. What’s quite refreshing is the complete lack of any power ups, as your ship is outfitted with a large auto-firing cannon anyways so the instant you start playing everything becomes a fight to survive, rather than slowly warming up as you have to rebuild your arsenal each time. Also there are plenty of options available so you’re free to lower the challenge by eliminating pesky collisions or up it by including heavy motion blur and attempting to get your own upchuck out of the keyboard as you try to comprehend the smorgasbord of colour you have unleashed upon your own monitor. And once your keys have dried out and any bile has been carefully chipped off, the full release will probably be out and it’ll be time to do it all over again! Fun times!

(Source: That IndieGames site what writes about indie games.)

Video Previews in Space

By: Derek Yu

On: April 30th, 2009

First up, the fantastic-looking Gratuitous Space Battles, from Positech Games (Democracy, Kudos). Wow. Amazing. Scale.

Next is Oddbob’s SYNSO: Squid Harder, the sequel to the retina-obliterating arena shoot ’em up Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!. (Source: the2bears)

Finally, a very early preview of Bullet Candy 2. Charlie, the creator, has also released a new version of Space Phallus with two new levels. (Source: the2bears)

Get Your Twat On

By: Derek Yu

On: January 8th, 2009

You may know Robert “Oddbob” Fearon as the webmaster of the long-running classic remakes site Retro Remakes, or you may know him as that guy who you caught smelling your underwear at the local laundromat. And hopefully you know him as the creator of two great arena shooters… but if not, we aim to clear that up here and now.

War Twat, which came out ages ago (this past summer), asks the question “What if God made you a glowing white dot… and then did a lot of drugs immediately afterward?” An arena-shmup inspired by cactus and Jeff Minter, WT’s mechanics are decidedly less deep than Minter’s Space Giraffe, but the concept (namely, can you see what’s going on through all the mess?) is also more clearly demonstrated from the outset. You’ll be lucky to survive 10 seconds in this game.

It’s notable that Bob has created a separate version of the game for colorblind folks (presumably because, if you’re not colorblind when you start playing the game, you will be).

Squid Yes! Not So Octopus! is the spiritual sequel to WT, and came out last week. The game has a strong Robotron vibe, but eschews the omni-directional shooting. Instead, the titular squid fires more or less in the direction he’s facing. SYNSO mercifully defaults to a less-graphically intense mode, which is still likely to cause half of Japan’s schoolchildren to go into seizure. The two things I like most about this game are 1. the difficulty ramp, which is masterfully done, in my humble opinion, and 2. the slight resemblance some of the enemies bear to other iconic retro game characters (is that Jazz Jackrabbit on a magic carpet and a pink Ur-Quan Dreadnought shooting at me?).

There’s never been two better reasons to scream “TWAT!” while playing video games.

TIGdb: Entry for Bagfull of Wrong

The Arsecast: New Month, New Format

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: July 25th, 2007

Bob Fearon joins Dr. Goring this month for another new and exciting iteration of The Arsecast. This time around the format is something like an uncensored radio show, with Bob and Graham talking candidly about recent indie news and games.

The audio quality is kind of rough, but a great headphone experience, as Graham’s voice is panned hard left and Bob’s hard right. It gets particularly trippy when dogs start barking and papers start rustling. Turn on, tune in, geek out.

Topics covered this month: Masturbation, racism, domestic violence, and… Hoffa.

No, I’m not kidding.

Give it a listen. You’ll feel alright.

Arsecast Interview: Bob Fearon

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: June 12th, 2007

The Arsecast has posted an interview with Robert Fearon, a.k.a. Oddbob, a.k.a. the Mersey Remakes (and Retro Remakes) guy, a.k.a. the guy who recently released Beast Invaders 3. I’m talkin’ about the guy, here.

Graham describes the interview as “more like a informal chat which veers all over the place.” As if we were expecting anything else!

Listen here if ya missed the link.

Beast Invaders 3

By: Tim

On: May 12th, 2007

That’s right. Giving new meaning to retina burn.

Hold Z to shoot stuff. Press X to activate shields. Limited by the number of curries you’ve collected, shown at the top right of the screen.

By the way, anyone beaten La-Mulana and collected all the ROMs yet? Hmm, didn’t think so…