xWUNG

By: Tim

On: September 24th, 2007

In xWUNG, you control a ball attached to a red wire. Swing the ball around to destroy enemies. The trick to scoring is by chaining combos continuously – not an easy task, considering that you’re attempting to avoid debris from all directions. Watch out for the bosses.

Made by the author of Mondo Medicals in just under twelve hours.

direct download link
online high score table
Pendulumania

(Source: the2bears)

Plasmaworm: Now For Free

By: Derek Yu

On: September 24th, 2007

Digital Eel have made the full version of Plasmaworm, their nifty Snake clone, free for download. They’re the guys behind Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, the “lunchbreak” space exploration game, and its sequel, Weird Worlds.

They’ve been quiet for a while now. Wonder what they’re up to?

(Source: Game Set Watch)

‘Link-Dead’ Announced

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: September 22nd, 2007

Michal Marcinkowski, creator of the popular Soldat, has announced his newest project — Link-Dead.

He didn’t post any screenshots, or… well, much concrete information at all, really. But the information that was given is awesome. In the creator’s own words:

This game has been actually created in Valhalla thousands of years ago by Odin, the god of war himself. Mighty viking warriors used to train on this game before riding into battle to slay their enemies, to conquer their homeland and to make slaves of their women. This game brought the viking men pride and fame and thanks to it they reached eternal glory and now live in Valhalla. Now I’m bringing it back for you mortals to play it!

Just awesome.

(Thanks, MisterX!)

I was so tempted to end the post like that, but here’s the rest of the story (according to Michal):

General mechanics and side-view will be the same as in Soldat.
Gameplay will be very realistic, much more slow-paced than Soldat, team tactics will be key in this game. No jet boots for traveling. Players will have to use their environment and machines for movement: doors, elevators, ladders, pads, flying machines and vehicles.

Not so distant future. A war has begun, between men and machines, both in cyber-space and in the real world. The player takes part in this struggle as a soldier or hacker.

Two teams fight each other. Both are located in underground bases. The surface world will be a post-apocalyptic setting, it reminds us of Terminator: Future Shock/SkyNet.
Each map consists of the underground and the outerworld. The outerworld is where mainly robots fight. It will be possible to control robots, droids, terminators, gun turrets, drones, sentry guns etc. They will be controllable via computer terminals located in the underground bases. It will be possible to hack these terminals; hack into the enemy network, open vaults and doors, move elevators, disable sentry guns and gain command over the enemy robots!

Sounds interesting! I love the concept of a robotic war on the surface being conducted by people underground.

Jugglin’

By: Derek Yu

On: September 22nd, 2007

I really like games that have a simple theme and stick to making me feel like I’m really doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Nikujin makes me feel like a ninja, Death Worm makes me feel like a great big ol’ sandworm, Star Wars Episode VII makes me feel like a Jedi…

And Jugglin’ makes me feel like I’m jugglin’, yo! Not only that, but it lets you create your own tricks (e.g. “Holy Shit I am Good,” my amazing 13-ball trick, shown on your left!). And the loose, no-pressure structure makes the game frustration-free. Which is one aspect that is definitely not like real juggling.

I’m always surprised by how independent developers are able to get at the essence behind an idea and really distill what’s fun about it!

(Jim McGinley, the creator of Jugglin’, also entered the awesome “Mario Inna Space” into our B-Game Competition. He also happens to possess the uncommon mind which is behind the hilarious “”http://www.bigpants.ca/index.htm">Mister Happy Bigpants" comics.)

Open Liero (Beta)

By: Derek Yu

On: September 12th, 2007

Liero was created by Joosa Riekkinen in 1999 for DOS. Since then, there have been plenty of conversions and similar games made, but the original has never made the transition to Windows… UNTIL NOW. (I’ve always wanted to say that.)

Open Liero is technically not a real port of the original game, since the source code was lost many years ago. Rather, it’s a hack that allows you to play Liero in Windows (or Linux), in a window, with the sound support the original was missing. In order to run Open Liero, you must have the original Liero files in the same directory.

Open Liero is still in development, so it’s not fully featured, although it is fully playable. Most but not all of the existing total conversions are supported already.

Good news for Liero fans! (Thanks, basara!)

Super Human Cannonball

By: Derek Yu

On: September 6th, 2007

Some games you play, and you’re like “hey, this is pretty great!” But you’re also like “argh, it could be so much cooler!” Super Human Cannonball is one of those games, damn it.

Being shot from a cannon in order to complete a variety of tasks (popping balloons, going through hoops, bouncing off of trampolines, etc.) and attempting to land safely is great! Missing your targets and splattering against the side of a building in an explosion of cute blood particles is even greater. But ARGH, I’d give anything to see some more variety, and more options. And this game is begging for a level editor.

The other thing I’d like to see is a crowd! I love the little cannonball character. It’d be great to see other little people, watching from the rooftops… and running in panic when your gory little bits and bobs come raining down on them. Maybe in one level a visiting dignitary is catching your act, and you can splatter him for some extra points. You see what I mean? The potential is endless for this game.

And yes, it’s an old game. Old enough that the online scoreboards don’t work, so don’t even try!

Furry 2

By: Shabadage

On: September 2nd, 2007

Dustin Gunn recently posted this trailer for the upcoming game Furry 2, a sequel to Furry which was made a number of years back by Hamish McLeod (now of Moonpod fame). If you’re a fan of old school DOS style action platformers, giant green enemies wielding chainsaws, or Tequila; you should give this trailer a watch. No word on a release date yet, but we’ll keep you informed once we get one.

Hikkoshi (Lonely House-Moving)

By: Derek Yu

On: August 29th, 2007

Hikkoshi is the latest flash game from NIGORO, a cute story about a boy running after the girl he loves. Moles, birds, and luggage are all that stands between them!

The controls and game mechanics are very simple. Use the arrow keys and spacebar to move and jump. Collect food to replenish your life. You get points by jumping over things or more if you jump on top of them (only some things can be jumped on).

It’s hard to distinguish food and hurtful objects at first – just know that there are only four types of food: the white and black rice balls, the blue and white cans of what looks like Pocari Sweat, and the corn and lemons that the farmer will toss you.

It’s fun! Can you beat my level 3 score of 757521?

(Source: dessgeega, from The Gamer’s Quarter forums)

Space Giraffe! (and the new if somewhat late editor…)

By: Xander

On: August 28th, 2007

Space Giraffe is the new XBLA title from Jeff Minter’s Llamasoft. Jeff Minter for those who might not know is the legendary (infamous?) mind behind the instantly recognisable and always awesome ‘Tempest 2000’. I always preferred ‘Llamatron’ more myself, but mostly because I was pretty young at the time and I couldn’t think of any better reason to blow the crap out of anything than to save beasties. Recently (read: 6 days ago) Space Giraffe hit XBLA at the very modest price of 400 MS Points, which I think is around $5/ï¿¡3.40 (for those who dislike mentally detaching themselves from the reality of what they’re actually spending). Critically, it’s been met with a pretty mixed response, with an 8/10 from the highly regarded ‘Edge’ Magazine and a 2/10 from the US OXM.

Review scores that far apart don’t only happen in Game Tunnel Monthly Round-ups, aparently. Luckily here at TIGSource we don’t rely on ratings systems or averages, mostly because it’s been a while since we studied maths, we’re a little rusty and we sold our textbooks with the answers filled in long ago to save up for impending lawsuits. So, I wont bore the crap out of you with that kind of thing (ignoring the fact that I did just that 15 seconds ago), and instead I’ll just tell you what it’s like and whether it’s something you should try to check out yourself.

And yes, yes it is…

The gameplay is really very different to Tempest, where whilst the essence is similar, the execution is refined. The main innovation is the Power Zone, which is basically an area of the playing field which constantly decreases unless you increase its size by attacking the enemies. By extending the Power Zone you increase your own powers – for instance, enemy bullets travel slower, you have additional firepower which can be directed unlike the main cannon and you earn the previously mentioned ability to ram into the enemies into the abyss for bonus points and multipliers, or just to get revenge on the sneaky ‘><’ shapes that have dragged you away time and time again taking your highscore with it.

Space Giraffe is… sort of like Tempest. Saying that has probably doomed me to be eaten by Jeff’s trained attack sheep (Fluffy: will devour writers for daily petting, grass… and great justice!) but it’s easy to mix the two up. The basis of the game is Tempest after all: your movement is restricted to the line of a strange shape as you blast away oncoming enemies. You can jump to avoid enemy attacks. You have a Super Zapper you can use once a level as a screen clearing attack. But it’s not that it doesn’t share similarities with Tempest, it’s that Space Giraffe is Space Giraffe. Your Super Zapper doesn’t scream ‘Eat Electric Death!’ You can only jump a finite amount of times using pick-ups called ‘Jump Pods’, and while you can shoot the enemies coming towards them, the only way I know of to increase your multiplier exponentially is to ram the enemies off the face of the level. Seriously. The first level is a GIANT outline of J Allard’s face (google for many a meme). Where Tempest left you in the dark recesses of space, Space Giraffe shoves you battling into a Windows Media Player Visualizer inhabited by the specters of Microsoft Executives. In a good way…

Speaking of which, compared to the relatively simple scoring system of Geometry Wars and T2K, Space Giraffe really does leave you to try and work a whole lot out for yourself. There are many different techniques beyond rushing the enemy to boost your score, and the best ways to find them are through experimentation. It encourages this kind of play with the very forgiving inclusion of being able to restart the highest level you reached, as well as being able to earn back the score you did have by successfully finishing the level. It’s by no means a way to cheat the leaderboards, because once you’ve reached the final level you can’t improve on the score anymore without playing through previous levels and improving on your last attempts, and I think that’s a relatively bold and rewarding choice. It still lets gamers go after the highest scores they can get, but it eliminates some of the grind of having to go through earlier levels you’ve mastered twenty times over, you can simply skip the easier ones that you’re proud of and pour your time into boosting scores on higher levels.

Well sorry for how long this turned out to be, feel free to kick my ass about that in the comments below! Feedback would be very handy, seeing as this is my first post and all. Later posts will be much smaller for the most part, but if anyone has any thoughts on this kind of post for XBLA style (parting with your hard-ended money/ill-gotten booty) releases, please do post away. Anyways, in the end what my argument all boils down to today is this: this is not Tempest, it’s Space Giraffe. And it’s all the better for it!

Black Shades

By: Derek Yu

On: August 28th, 2007

Wolfire Software’s Black Shades puts you in the role of a psychic bodyguard. Yeah, I know, that’s already pretty damn awesome, right? Well, the game itself does a good job of living up to its description, although it was made for a short deadline and it shows. It’s a full meal, just don’t expect a lot of gravy. The scoring system, for example, is pretty much vestigial, and level transitions are non-existent. And when the game ends, it just ends!

In each of Black Shades’ levels, a VIP dressed in white wanders around a randomized city. Also in the city are civilians and assassins, who are indistinguishable except for their weapons and movement patterns. Using your psychic powers (either “psychic aiming,” which slows down time, or “soul release” which lets you leave your body and scout out the area), weapons (a different one in each level), and physical moves you must protect the VIP from the assassins.

The game does a great job of making you feel like a psychic bodyguard with very basic graphics and simple game mechanics, and that’s really something. It’s so satisfying when you catch an assassin rushing in with a knife, only to plug him with your gun… or when you spy a sniper across the street, and knock over the VIP as a bullet whizzes over his head.

This game is made by the creator of Lugaru.

(Source: Soldat Movies)