Boom! Cortex Command: Build 20

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: January 26th, 2008

I just love posting these little, horribly violent animation loops from Cortex Command.

Anyway, the 20th build has been released. Dunno why it hadn’t been posted here yet. (Maybe it had?)

Expect the usual bunch of improvements and tweaks. Download here.

Off-Road Velociraptor Safari Will Teach Raptors a Damn Lesson

By: Derek Yu

On: January 23rd, 2008

This picture is worth more words than have been spoken or will ever be spoken, in any language, by any person, in the entire lifespan of the Universe.

Raptorsafari.com. You have been warned.

Death Worm Two Player Mod

By: Derek Yu

On: January 18th, 2008

Do I need to say much about Grassman7z7’s two player mod for Death Worm to convince you that it’s awesome? Worm one is controlled with the arrow keys, and worm two with WASD. There’s also an added “sonar mode” option which allows you to detect movement above ground. The game ends when BOTH worms are killed, and the cumulative score is ranked.

One thing I wish they’d show was how much meat each worm had separately consumed, and perhaps rank those separately. It’d add some fun competition to the whole thing. But otherwise, this is great fun, even with one player controlling both worms! “NOM NOM NOM!”

EDIT: By the way, the mod is a stand-alone executable that does not require the original to play. And you still have the option to play with just a single worm (LOL).

(Source: KingAl, via The Bit Blot Forums!)

SeizureDome

By: Derek Yu

On: January 16th, 2008

Trippy visuals and a pretty ridiculously catchy tune are infused in SeizureDome, a new overhead arena shooter from indie wunderkind cactus. Use WASD and the mouse to control your character, who must avoid getting pushed into the borders by his nude opponents. Chain combos, power-ups, naked people… this game’s got it all. But it did get slightly repetitive for me after a few playthroughs!

Be sure to check out the high score list here. Who will dethrone the mysterious warrior known only as “FAGGOTBITCH?”

(Source: Tim, via IndieGames.com)

I Wanna Be the Guy!

By: Xander

On: January 13th, 2008

I Wanna Be the Guy is hard. It’s really really hard, and what’s shown in this screenshot is one of the easiest sections of the game. If anyone is curious there are 87 spikes on that one screen, and each will kill you if you even scratch it. Not even a simple death either; You will blow up in a shower of messtacular gibbination. And I love it.

IWBTG is a 2D-Platformer from hell, via Kayin Nasaki, where you play ‘The Kid’ on his Metroidvania-lite quest to become ‘The Guy’, eponymous hero of platformerdom. I say Metroidvania-lite, because unlike many exploratory platformers this lacks any kind of character upgrades, meaning you’re stuck the way you are for the entire game.

It’s actually pretty lengthy even without considering how often you’ll have to repeat screens over and over again. Save points are placed pretty generously throughout if you’re playing on ‘Medium’, but that doesn’t do much to alleviate the frustration. Everything will kill you; Spikes, Moons, Bullets, Fire (Naturally), Blanka, Celings, floors, walls, walls-with-wheels-AND-spikes, Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku (But no shoryuken? Yet..) and heat-seeking apples (Well, they’re more like giant cherries – Kayin).

It’s a game of madness, memorisation and hatred. And I love it. The deathtraps are often-times hilarious, and boss fights are the height of precision and persitence. It’s not perfect, but then it was never meant to be, and any glitches are encouraged to be exploited just for the game breaking the laws of common sense to blow your carcass across the screen in wonderous fury. I can’t guarantee you’ll enjoy it, but I can guarantee it’s something you wont be forgetting anytime soon.

There’s a few download mirrors on the site, and for the sake of saving their bandwidth it’s encouraged for you to download the demo version which is smaller (and most players won’t pass the demo area before they lose their minds probably), and saves are compatabile with both versions anyway.

PROTIP: Use ‘S’ to skip cutscenes. Provided you make it to a boss, it’ll save yourself a lot of manly tears.

Project Hotseat

By: Tim

On: December 30th, 2007

Project Hotseat is a 2-player game project by Jan Willem Nijman, with the focus on weapons. The latest demo contains 68 of them; Examples are rocket machineguns, laser cannons, invisible mines, toxic sprayers, and ducks of doom. There are 6 maps to try.
The game is made for the gameplay, so the graphics aren’t very special, and instead of a fancy menu there are shortcuts for most of the “debug” options.

Two weapons can be carried at a time, and ammo is depleted within seconds. Whenever you are weaponless you can still jump on your enemy’s head to deal some damage.

Tekkyuuman

By: Terry

On: December 29th, 2007

You’ve probably already seen this on Tim’s new indie games blog, but it’s so wonderful that it really deserves another mention. Tekkyuuman (freeware.remakes.org mirror) is a new game by quirky Japanese developer Ikiki. And it’s one of his best yet.

As usual, you play as an armed naked guy, though this time your weapon is a little unusual – a mace on an elastic chain. There are twelve single screen levels to progress, with bosses every third level. That’s basically it – what really makes it, though, is just how well designed those levels are, and how how much character each of those bosses have. It’s addictive as hell, and quite hard! (If you’re stuck, I’ve got a full video playthrough up on YouTube which might help.)

I was under the impression that Ikiki had given up on game design (earlier this year Ikiki’s site went down and the frontpage was replaced with something suspisiously like a goodbye message – though babelfish insists that it’s got something to do with “Fat bowls”). Speaking as someone who only found out about Ikiki’s existance earlier this year with Xander’s Nikujin post, I really hope that this game is a sign that we can expect to see more from him. (And if so, what a magnificent comeback it is!)

5 Ikikis out of 5!

(Something I wonder about: what’s the Japanese indie gaming scene really like? Is there a Japanese TIGSource, for example? Did Japanese indies get as excited about Knytt Stories (say) as we did about Cave Story? Is there a Japanese version of Derek trawling through all of Cactus’ old games? Definitly something we need to DISCUSS.)

Winter’s Heart

By: Derek Yu

On: December 21st, 2007

Winter’s Heart is a new game from darthlupi, the developer behind Mage Craft, Legend of Shadow, and other prominent Game Maker games. In this game, made for YoYo Games’s wintry game contest, you play a spellcaster who must save the world from freezing over. It’s a simple story that mostly serves the gameplay, but hey, it works!

The game’s mechanics are simple, but quite interesting. To get to the next level, you have to open the portal. To open the portal, you have to defeat all the enemies in the level, by first bashing them with a snowball and then bashing them with your club. Along the way, you will have opportunities to extend your freezing bar (which acts as both a health/magic bar), and gain new spells that let you do a variety of things, like summon snowballs from the sky.

As you progress further, the scarcity of snow patches (on which snowballs can be rolled), and the appearance of new monsters and “monster portals” that must be closed off, make life much more difficult for our intrepid hero. I swear, I curse out every single one of those “ghosts” that can walk through the walls! But the unique game design works so well that you can’t help but keep playing (and dying)! I definitely recommend it.

Unfortunately, the game is hosted on YoYo Games, which is such a piece of crap that I refuse to link them. (More like “NoMo Games,” amirite?) In the meantime, just download it here (4 Mb), from TIGSource.

(Source: Paul Eres, via Indygamer)

TIG Duels: a Game for Extraordinary Gentlemen

By: Derek Yu

On: December 19th, 2007

TIG Duels is a game of urbane combat for gentlepeople of all ages! Grab a friend, duke, baron, baroness, earl, or marquis, and put your favorite TIGForums members in a civilized duel to find out who’s blood is the bluest.

Features:

– A damn fine game you can play with someone at the same keyboard (or mouse)!

– One-switch game mechanics (attacking/parrying controlled by a single button)

– 36 TIGForums members rendered in loving detail

– Advanced monocle physics engine made with steampunk technology

Between this and their extensive monocle-creation guide, the fellows at Oxeye Studios have proven themselves to be distinguished scholars of the highest calibre! Check out their latest game, Harvest: Massive Encounter, which is currently in open beta. It looks pretty great, natch.

(And join the bloody forums, already, will you?)

Atomic Cannon

By: Derek Yu

On: December 16th, 2007

Man, I am a huge fan of Wendell Hicken’s classic tank game, Scorched Earth (which you can download here). I’m waiting for a true remake/sequel of this game that isn’t in 3d (nothing against 3d, mind, you, it’s just not the same). Something akin to what Pac-Man Championship Edition did for Pac-Man.

In the meantime, Atomic Cannon will satisfy. It’s definitely missing some of the spirit that made the original game so great, but injects some of its own. I miss my Funky Bombs, MIRVs, and Mag Shields, but the ability to build sandbags, drop automated sentries, and use any of the other new weapons definitely makes up for it. The added customization, various game modes (including network play), and much-improved controls (mouse and/or keyboard) are welcome sights, as well.

The graphics are kind of a hit-or-miss for me. It’s a mish-mash of realistic textures that are obviously lacking the kind of thought put into, say, Cortex Command‘s terrain design. On the other hand, I really like the smoke trails, visual distortion, and other special effects that they used – stuff that wasn’t possible when Scorch came out.

As you can see, I’m of two minds about this game… mostly because I have this idea about what the perfect Scorch sequel would be (I’m sure that’s familiar to a lot of you), and this isn’t it. But the bottom line is that this version is pretty darn fun… fun enough that I might just treat myself to the full game ($20)!

(Source: PCGamer.com)