Station 37

By: Lorne Whiting

On: July 26th, 2011

Starting at the Toronto Game Jam, Station 37 was recently released after two months of further development. The game, developed by FrankieSmileShow and The Monster King, with music by Chef Boyardee, plays like a love-letter to Super Nintendo games complete with panning cutscenes and stage intros. You play a firefighter, and must go around burning buildings rescuing civilians and axing obstacles. While the later levels throw some interesting mechanics in to the mix, the introductory level sadly drags on a little too long without introducing anything new.
I would say it’s worth playing for the less formulaic late-game, and Frankie’s art is pretty striking, but it certainly requires a bit of patience.

Posted in Action, Freeware, Platformers, Windows

Guest

I’m having some trouble with the third building. I purchased the battering ram upgrade, but the steel door in the second floor is still taking too long, and the creeping fire always ends up killing me because I don’t have enough extinguisher fuel.
Also, to anyone getting bored in the first building, don’t worry, once you start getting some upgrades, the game really picks up the pace.
Tanner

Just wait till you get to the fifth. 30 civilians!? And I have HOW long until the building collapses!?!?

It’s worth it, though. It’s so damn satisfying to escape just as the building crashes to the ground with that last civilian over your shoulder.
Seth Huber

In that third building, you can go back to where the chief is and get an extinguisher refill powerup. It actually spawns AFTER you see the event in the room with the steel door so it’s easy to miss.
Brandon Harrall

I feel like I might be crazy, is no one else fighting aliens?
Roman_the_evil

I keep getting aliens crash in the first level which effectively ends the game =/
Is there any way to avoid that?
Patter

Is there some trolling going on or wtf? :S
Guest

This is a tiny masterpiece!Reminds me of the movie “From Dusk till Dawn” (Robert Rodríguez, 1996)Beautiful idea, plus flawless, careful, tasty, true-to-the-concept implementation.
The mechanisms are very nice, to top. Brandom H, Roman, can you delete-reedit your comments? Horrible spoilers.Congrats to Lorne for his review, for reasons that will be evident *after* playing the game.
Genis

hehe I like it, but it’s hard. I need better weapons vs aliens than just the fireaxe =X
The Monster King

To say that I developped this is a bit unfair to Frankie, I only worked the first 3 days of it for a jam, he did everything past that. He turned a reasonably cool game into a polished masterpiece. Props to FrankieSmileShow. He’s a great game man. He’s game.
Ezuku

Sounds like you’re stuck because you’re doing it in the wrong order. Go back to square one and think logically :)
Zixinus

I was actually hoping that the game would continue as a regular fire-fighting game. No chance of that sadly…
Anonymous

Wow, finally, a game where you don’t kill anyone, just run around as a firefighter and save people! I wish there were more games like that, but aside from the not-so-good Emergency series, nothing comes to mind.
http://twitter.com/CutieCharem Charem Charmeleon

There seem to be a lot of evil people commenting, yes. xP

Better than people giving spoilers though. :P
http://twitter.com/CutieCharem Charem Charmeleon

I kind of agree, though I have to admit the shock of what happened was entertaining. XD

If you want to fight some actual fires, you might be interested in these games: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/firemen/firemen.htm They’re a bit of a strange breed, but quite fun.
http://twitter.com/CutieCharem Charem Charmeleon

I don’t suppose the project will ever be expanded? It’s quite an amazing game, but at the same time, well, I want more. XP
Grummler

I could need some help. I am stuck in the …. first level. After hours i made it to the “final” boss, but all i have is a shitty axe.

Why do i face aliens in the first place, btw? Rescuing people and fighting the fire wasnt easy…
Honest Guy

I like this game a lot, it’s like minecraft only with fire!
jay

great game! especially liked the upgrades in the later levels!
The Monster King

no I don’t think either of us will touch it again
me because I was obviously kind of not gonna touch it again and I don’t really feel like it
Frankie because it was great that he finished this but he has like 20 other things he has to finish that he’s been delaying for like 20 years so if he tries to add something else inbetween im gonna kick him
Il Tuta

Oh please give me a hint… any time I approach a specific civilian, it’s the inferno!
Spank-O

Jebus, when I went to DL the game I kept getting pop up adds to buy new homes and real estate … thats a bit ominous!!
Dean “Max” Gregor

Pretty nice game here… that last challenge was akin to the Sunday Special run from The Art of Theft, though the end result for Station 37 was better-

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Spank-O

i cant even get past the first level … the game just ends. is there a time limits???
Ninja Dodo

I really liked this at first was a little disappointed when the aliens invaded… It sort of tarnished the purity of the idea, like the zombies in RDR.
Ninja Dodo

* but was…