The Graveyard

By: Derek Yu

On: March 30th, 2008

The Graveyard is a new game by Tale of Tales, creators of The Path, which was nominated for an IGF award this year (for visuals). In it, you play an old woman on a walk through the titular cemetary. Her destination is a small bench at the foot of a mausoleum inside.

Tale of Tales’ Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn are well-regarded for their unique approach to games. In the Graveyard, they ask us to contemplate the various themes at play while we move through the cemetery. It’s a worthwhile experiment and an interesting narrative, made all the better by the lush black and white visuals. There are little details in there that are really wonderful.

But unfortunately, I think the forced linearity and lack of direct control holds the experience back significantly. This is a case where, in my opinion, a little more “gaminess” would have actually let me appreciate The Graveyard better for what it is supposed to be (“interactive poetry,” or what have you). As it is, I feel that a movie might have conveyed the experience better, almost. Almost.

The full version of the game is $5 and adds the possibility that the old woman will die. It’s a minute change. But I was happy to pay it to support the developers. I think it’s pretty cool what they’re trying to do (even though I feel they haven’t gotten it quite right yet).

Revenge of the Sunfish

By: Derek Yu

On: March 28th, 2008

I love the idea that there are these rogue game developers out there, working silently in their homes after dark, and using The Games Factory/MMF to make crude, bizarre, amazing B-Games just because they get a kick out of it. I also love that, thanks to the internet, I can find out about these games and then expose you to them (against your will)!

JinxTengu’s Revenge of the Sunfish (20 Mb, direct download) is a frightening, psychedelic experience that assaults your sense of good taste with its “terrible” graphics, grating sounds, jarring transitions, and lack of consistent game rules. Gross-out humor and ultraviolence abound, albeit in a cartoonish form. But the game is also strangely playable, which is, I believe, the hallmark of great B-Games (like Sexy Hiking, for example).

JinxTengu (real name: Jacob Buczynski) has a whole page of out-of-this-world games waiting for you to explore. The games are all quite varied. So if you find Revenge of the Sunfish too unintelligible, maybe try Seismic Death… a simple top-down shooter that lets you dig through walls.

Be sure to pick up cncs32.dll and put it in your “Windows/System32” folder if you’re having trouble running the games.

(Thanks a bunch, wourme!)

“Blueberry Garden” Sneak Peek Trailer Looks Sweet

By: ARelativelyHotGirl

On: March 6th, 2008

Blueberry Garden creator Erik Svedäng mentioned this new trailer on the forums. It looks and sounds beautiful. However, the gameplay remains a mystery so far…

Karoshi

By: Derek Yu

On: March 4th, 2008

Karoshi, which means “”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kar%C5%8Dshi">death from overwork" in Japanese, poses an interesting challenge to the player: kill yourself! It’s a gimmick that’s actually carried quite well across the 25 levels of this unique puzzle platformer. The game often messes with your expectations to genuinely hilarious effect – I love that you can pick up a gun, but can’t use it to off yourself directly. I don’t know why, but I love that.

Despite the lack of polish in the game’s overall presentation, Karoshi is, in my opinion, much more entertaining and clever than Adult Swim’s Kill Yourself in 5 Minutes.

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

Gravitation

By: Derek Yu

On: March 1st, 2008

Jason Rohrer, the creator of the moving and bittersweet Passage, has released a new game, called Gravitation. The basic theme behind Gravitation is “mania, melancholia, and the creative process.” To say any more, of course, could potentially ruin the experience, but I can recommend it highly.

(Thanks, Phil Fish!)

Final Fantasy VII NES Pirate Cart

By: Derek Yu

On: February 26th, 2008

Created by a shady Chinese tech company in the year 20XX, this unlicensed demake of Final Fantasy VII was actually released as a cartridge at some point (when, though?)! A play-by-play copy of the Playstation original in terms of plot, FF7 NES is apparently NOT a hack of another FF game, and is, on a technical level, somewhat of a marvel. Chinese hackers are amazing, aren’t they?

Head over here for a full write-up of the game, including nearly 150 screenshots.

And I’m guessing some of you are probably interested in playing the ROM. Well, follow the “Baidu” link in the article and you’ll get to it eventually, although apparently only “an extremely hacked-up version of VirtuaNESex supports the game through an ugly bank-switching mapper driver.” You have been warned.

Alternatively, you can just watch this YouTube video that shows some (pretty boring) gameplay from the demake.

(Source: Luke Plunkett, via Kotaku)

Shit Game

By: Terry

On: February 13th, 2008

“”http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=1085.0">Shit Game" is a short new game from Mark Johns, the creator of the excellent Space Barnacle, the even excellenter Standard Bits, and the frankly amazing looking Rotrix. I don’t think there’s any way I could improve on the perfect simplicity of his announcement, so I’ll just repeat it:

SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME

SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME SHIT GAME

Download here. Happy Valentine’s day, TIGSource!

Asshole Mario and Quantum Physics

By: Derek Yu

On: February 6th, 2008

This is so unbelievably geeky and amazing. A Japanese guy creates an insanely difficult Super Mario World hack called “Kaizu Mario” and records his friend playing it. Eventually the video ends up on YouTube, under the mistranslated title “Asshole Mario,” and becomes a cult hit. Inspired by the hack, an intrepid fan in turn hacks the Super Nintendo emulator SNES9x so that he can superimpose all of his 134 attempts to beat the first stage onto a single recording (seen above), and then uses the recording to explain theories behind quantum physics.

I love it.

The hacked emulator and quantum physics are here, and the Kaizu Mario patch is here (IPS patcher required).

(Source: haze, via selectbutton)

Coil

By: Derek Yu

On: February 1st, 2008

A bizarre game that definitely shows off Edmund’s talents as an artist and game designer. He and programmer Florian are in top form with this lovely little piece. I’m inclined to think you’ll agree (provided you don’t get stuck too early on).

The game is controlled with the mouse only.

Legacy of Flan 4: Flan Rising

By: Derek Yu

On: February 1st, 2008

Apparently 3 Flan games came out without my even knowing… ah well. The fourth installment of this series, by the developer of The Desolate Room, is one heck of a strange RPG. The star here is the unique leveling system, which lets you upgrade your party of four flans by collecting random drops during the battle. How often the drops appear and how good they are is determined entirely by your party’s “Loot Drop” stat, which is higher when you fight more difficult monsters (especially Boss Monsters), but can also be raised manually during battle by certain Flans. Each type of Flan has its strengths and weaknesses, of course, and finding the right combination is crucial.

The biggest problem with the game is that it can get repetitive pretty quickly. Traveling in the overworld is mostly uninteresting, and completing the various quests involves traveling back and forth and getting lost. The story is also mostly non-sequitur, and fairly “fluffy” compared to The Desolate Room. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since I appreciate the humor, but it’s not quite enough to compel me just yet.

Granted, I’m currently trapped in “Dead Flan’s Pit,” so perhaps it gets more exciting further on out. Anyone want to help me out? I’ve started a page on IndieFAQs for it, already. Get me out of here!