Psychosomnium

By: Derek Yu

On: January 10th, 2008

Our dear cactus has a new game out, called Psychosomnium. This “minor platform experiment” is about dreams, and requires more brain than brawn to get through its short, but intriguing, story. Fans of cactus (and experimental games in general) will probably enjoy it. I did!

Protoganda

By: Tim

On: October 25th, 2007

Guess what – I don’t play the games I write about either. There isn’t a need to play anything by cactus to know that they’re gold.

Anyway, new game released. Go grab it!

direct download link
shield hiscore table
absorb hiscore table

Shoot ‘Em Ups: Video Preview Trifecta

By: Derek Yu

On: October 8th, 2007

Ablation X – The sequel to Ablation! Quote nenad:

Brave Karma Warriors – Originally made for the B-Game Compo, this delightfully weird shooter is due this Christmas thereabouts. Cactus strong like bull!

Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer – Whoa, can you say “eye candy?” This shooter will be out for the PC and PS3 soon, I think. You can pre-order the game at Play Asia right now, though. Love the cheesy voiceovers!

But c’mon, only two umlauts in the title?

(Sources: Tim’s Blog, and The Random Gnome’s Lair)

MSOIDS!

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: October 4th, 2007

Cactus recently released a small game/tech demo on his personal forum called MSOIDS. It’s a mouse & keyboard shooter that’s apparently “inspired by Echoes.” (Which is “a bit like Asteroids,” natch.) But the coolest thing about MSOIDS, and the reason for it being made, is its visual style. It’s all vector art. Vector art with a nice layer of randomization that gives the whole thing this kinda-junky, kinda-funky handmade feel. I can dig it!

Oh, and the music is top notch. Check it out.

UPDATE: Oops, it seems cactus wasn’t ready for a public release when I posted this! But he’s already made an update, cool cat that he is.

Somebody please beat Tim’s highscore:
Direct Download
Highscore Table

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)

Burn the Trash

By: Derek Yu

On: July 27th, 2007

Our friend cactus has released what appears to be some kind of “glitchcore shmup” that he lovingly dubbed “The Ugliest Game Ever.” It’s called Burn the Trash (direct download) and it does look rather like an ugly wool sweater knitted by your grandma, but it plays a lot better! Score!

In the game you can “burn trash (enemies)” or “burn bullets” and switch between two ships that each specialize in one of those things. Overheating can occur if you burn too long, depending on which ship you’re using. It’s a neat mechanic, and the “ugly” graphics and electronic music complement the gameplay quite nicely.

That is, if you don’t have epilepsy. Seriously, if you have epilepsy, for the LOVE OF KENTA CHO DON’T PLAY THIS GAME.

(Source: Indygamer)

Gameplay video in the extended.

Fractal Fighter

By: Derek Yu

On: June 18th, 2007

Crazy cactus has put together (in 24 hours, I might add) a great “boss rush” shoot ‘em up called Fractal Fighter. In this one you’ve got to clip off the tips of each boss while you slowly make your way in to the core. Each “generation” of the boss has it’s own attack pattern.

I really frickin’ love this game, especially the way the two different weapons (gun and laser) can be used in different situations. cactus, you are the man of the hour.

(Source: the2bears)

Update (from cactus):

In other news: I’ve updated the game. New things: Random Mode, Lives, Targetting + lots of misc stuff that you might not notice.

The targetting works like this: press C and three crosshairs will appear. One at the position of the enemy closest to your x-coordinate, one at the x-coordinate of that enemy and the y-coordinate of yourself, and a third at your x-coordinate and the closest enemy’s y-coordinate. When you align with the aim a small beep will play to confirm that you’re locked on. Press C again fast to dispatch six missiles that will move towards the spot where you locked on to target. Targetting also makes it easier to find “hidden parts” and to locate nearest destroyable entity. Hint: Targetting is best used against the bigger cannons.

Clean Asia

By: Tim

On: January 31st, 2007

Operation: Clean Up Asia

Illegal Communication

By: Tim

On: July 19th, 2006

Certain indie game developers enjoy a challenge, for example limiting themselves in terms of development time (e.g. LudumDare) or working with a single theme (Monthly AGS Contest). They are then often critized for attempting incomplete, unplayable or buggy entries.

So it’s not surprising that games like Invisible Vision or Illegal Communication will be ignored by most. And only because they don’t look appealing at all from the screenshots. Style don’t get you points like they used to, back when the early video game consoles were popular.

This particular experiment from cactus is a love hate relationship, as evident from the following forum topic. I assume that most people will not enjoy playing it as well, which is a shame since the reward will only be revealed near the end. No instructions were provided, leaving you to discover or solve puzzles by trial and error.

Try it for yourself. If you dislike it, then there are always other quality indie games. Though there’s not many like Illegal Communication, that’s for sure. Except for CyberSpace Assault, perhaps.

Proceed with a clean mouse. What else can I say, a brilliant but misunderstood game.