Swedish Game Awards

By: Derek Yu

On: June 6th, 2007

Kianis wrote to let me know about this year’s Swedish Game Awards, a PC game competition for Swedish students. The winner of this year’s competition is a rather uninteresting block puzzle game, but definitely check out some of the other games! Kianis pointed out Streambolt Desero , which has music by none other than Joakim Sandberg, and great graphics by Gustav Kilman, who I’m a big fan of. I remember seeing this game a few years ago, I think, and I’m sad to see that it’s still not a full game (although it’s fun while it lasts!).

And definitely take a look at this trailer for Fret Nice, a sidescrolling platformer that’s played with a Guitar Hero controller! (Fret Nice won “Best Concept” in the competition.)

Links: all downloads, trailers, all entrants

(Thanks, Kianis!)

Noitu Love and the Army of Grinning Darns

By: Tim

On: May 29th, 2006

Let’s talk about love. Noitu Love, that is.

We have seen plenty of excellent platformers released in the past few months, and among many this particular gem did best to remind us how great the Rockman series were before it was turned into a collectible card battle.

Controls are stripped down to basics, featuring the standard punch and jump plus two more attack variations assigned to both the left control and shift key. Much like Capcom’s mascot, Noitu Love can utilize certain devices to change form and access special powers. The first few levels may seem repetitive but the game does get better after the second stage.

Most of the highlights occur during boss battles, where each leader has to be defeated using different strategies. The final boss encounter is simply amazing, even when compared to other platformers freeware or otherwise. A word of advice, you’ll miss out on quite a bit if the easy difficulty setting is chosen.

Do you feel the love?