Warlock Bentspine

By: Derek Yu

On: August 18th, 2010

Warlock Bentspine is a new platformer from Lazrool, the creator of Poyo and Banana Nababa. As the guardian of Stinker City, you’re charged with the task of hunting down the three members of the Jihad Gang so you can reveal the location of their elusive boss. Each criminal you take down will give you a new weapon with which to fight the war on terror.

For me, the boss battles are the real star of this game. The levels, while visually very appealing, can be somewhat tedious to traverse. This is partly because the levels don’t introduce much variety from room to room and partly because the player can respawn indefinitely in the room he or she died in, removing a lot of the game’s challenge. There is a slight penalty for dying: you only respawn with half of your total health. But there was never much incentive to start a level over.

However, I really like Bentspine’s humor as well as the variety of weirdos you have to fight through in each level. And the boss battles, while not as epic as the ones in Banana Nababa, are a treat – especially the row you have with the game’s final villain. I just wish the levels were a little more interesting. Even some vertically-scrolling sections would have made a big difference, in my opinion.

The game’s soundtrack, by Phlogiston, is available from Pause Music, and features cover art by FrankieSmileShow, who also contributed character portraits to the game.

TIGdb: Entry for Warlock Bentspine
Playthrough: Ortoslon

Bonkers in the Sewers

By: fuzz

On: January 9th, 2010

This article was written at around two in the morning, hence the strange sentiments expressed within.

Bonkers in the Sewers, by Lazrael, is a game about uncertainty. This isn’t explicitly stated anywhere, as it might be were it by a more self-consciously artistic developer, but it’s integral to the design of the game. This uncertainty is presented initially in the form of various jars strewn about the levels of this platformer, which contain either demons or coins. The likelihood of there being a demon inside a jar, or even a cluster of demons, is much greater than that of there being a coin, yet the player will still smash the jar because it is only through smashing jars that coins can be obtained. This uncertainty is apparent also in the completely foreign nature of the monsters in the game, and their idiosyncratic patterns of movement. Facing enemies without any warning as to how they will act or even if they may damage Bonkers, the player must choose the action that is most likely to result in a beneficial result, which is generally quite difficult to judge. Lazrael is known for making extremely hard platformers, yet this one eases up on the difficulty in favour of a more meticulous and accessible design.

The world of Bonkers is full of strange and delightful monsters such as those in the screenshot above. Unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, apart from some superficial resemblance to enemies from retro games, the creatures living in the sewers of the game are wonderfully well-crafted and exhibit Lazrael’s unique style. The small details of the world are what really make the art stand out: the cracks in the jars, the curlicues on the noses of the flying heads, the smiling mouths of the blue demons. All of these aspects work together to form an original vision of an insane underground world.

There are a few generic sound effects, but no music, which means that most of the time your ears will be flooded with the sound of fireballs being shot into the air. Seeing as this is only an early demo, this may be changed at some point in the future, which would make it much more enjoyable to play through some of the more difficult sections. Phlogiston has volunteered to work on a couple of tracks for the game, and his work is often quite brilliant. Music is hardly necessary, though, because the player’s focus is usually not on the sound but on the action taking place.

Bonkers in the Sewers is well worth playing, even if you don’t particularly like platformers. If you’ve previously been scared off by the difficulty of Lazrael’s work, Bonkers is fairly easy and, without any clear goal as of yet, roaming around the world without engaging in fights with enemies is entirely possible. Bonkers can be downloaded from The Poppenkast. If you’re having trouble downloading the file, here is a direct link.

Banana Nababa

By: Derek Yu

On: August 12th, 2007

Lazrael has finished Banana Nababa (formerly Boss Arena), his boss battling platform game. It’s good! It’s hard, but totally doable, to defeat all of the six bosses.

Most of the bosses have simple patterns, but multiple forms. It can be grueling. This is a good chance to work out your left hand by mashing on the attack button (you know what I’m insinuating). In the game, you can switch back and forth between two weapons – an axe (like the one in Castlevania) and a spear (which flies straight forward).

And if you want to feel really bad about yourself, you can watch Mr. Peckerston beat every boss without getting hit: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (messed up sound in the Level 3 video)

Super Haunted Insomnia Tower

By: Tim

On: January 1st, 2007

I’m actually quite tempted to use it’s acronym as the post title.

In Super Haunted Insomnia Tower, a little yellow mouse like thing with blue pants is hellbent on climbing up a haunted tower. The tower isn’t only a tad haunted, it’s SUPER HAUNTED, and uh them ghosts are insomniacs thus the forcibly made title.

Anyways, our little protagonist must climb as long as he can before the inevitable death picks him off. A total of 10 different fiends that chill out in the tower all have unique powers and they aren’t too happy about that damn climber. And they’re insomniacs so they are very cranky too.

The higher you get the more frequently the ghosts appear. After a certain time there can be numerous spirits bullying you at a time. Also the more higher you get the less blocks to stand on appear. So with time the difficulty increases.

Like in Ice Climber and Kid Icarus, you can warp from the left side off the screen to the right side and vice versa. This will prove handy no doubt.

While playing you get a randomly picked tune to play in the background. There’s only two so don’t wet your pants over the amount, but rather, the quality of the tunes.

Click here for the direct download.

Poyo

By: Tim

On: July 22nd, 2006

Does look like Invader, doesn’t it? Though both are charming in their own ways.

Poyo is a platformer consisting of fifty levels, which was created by Lazrael in under one month using Game Maker. Consider this: the only actions available to the titular character are walking, jumping and warping. Yet it will still stump a few players especially in later stages.

Warping is an essential skill to master, and most of the puzzles involve pulling off a succession of moves correctly.

Cave Story. Within a Deep Forest. Eternal Daughter. Poyo comes pretty close to joining this elite circle. Perhaps the author’s next attempt?

Other works include Pozzo – Jello Crusade and Flapper.