This week, I wanted to feature a couple of games that actually introduced me to the indie gaming community in the first place. One of them came from a bizarre set of TVTropes searches, and the other came from... actually, I don't remember where I found it. Rebuild introduced me to Kongregate and got me signed up for it in the first place, and Knytt showed me just how beautiful gaming simplicity can be.
If you've read my blog before, you'll know that Journey was the game that really pushed me into the indie game circle, but these two both paved the way. Before these games, I didn't really understand what browser-based games, or games created by small studios, were capable of producing.
Rebuild I got very into. I actually played it through, straight from start until finish without moving from my seat. This took about four hours, but I didn't really care. The game is a turn-based strategy that follows an "after the end" premise; the world has been overrun by zombies, and you are among the last survivors. Your goal is to dig your heels in and rebuild what's left of your city.
I'm a big fan of zombie culture, from video games to books (I've even written one myself, but that's a story for another blog). Being a fan, I know that a lot of works in the genre can blend into obscurity, since there's so much content, and some times works can rely too much on the zombie content to be really very good. Rebuild doesn't suffer from this. It's a solid strategy game, and it's very addicting.
Knytt is a beautiful little nonviolent platformer. It may have minimalist graphics and gameplay, but it's very atmospheric, relaxing and all-around lovely. Apparently Nifflas, the game's creator, has cited Fumito Ueda, the creator of ICO, as an inspiration. Because all you can do in the game is navigate the beautiful landscapes, climb, jump and locate missing UFO parts, it's easy to see why. The music is also simple and mostly atmospheric.
As this isn't the same as my typical reviews, I want to give you the opportunity to play these games for yourself without any sort of bias on my part. You'll see, I'm sure, why I love them so much.
I do have another couple of reviews lined up for this week, hopefully. I played some really neat ones over the weekend.
-K8-bit
Showing posts with label strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strategy. Show all posts
Monday, February 11, 2013
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Demons vs. Fairyland, Bleed for Speed
I received an e-mail from Kongregate with a list of games that were new this week, and thought I'd pick one at random, as I didn't have the first idea what to write about this week.
I went on Newgrounds and flipped through the "Popular" section to select a random title from there, as well. Here are the games I chose.
Demons vs. Fairyland
In this tower defense style game, you play as the antagonists: the demons. You have kidnapped the children of Fairyland, and Fairyland's residents are trying to come back to collect them. As the demons, you spend the entirety of the game defending the children and keeping the citizens of Fairyland from taking them back.
The game has a number of options available to you. Firstly, you are able to customise difficulty and earn bonus experience based on what you change and to what degree. You can also earn points, which can be used to improve your roster and upgrade.
You get three different monsters to choose from, and you can upgrade those the higher the level you play. Each monster has two different "ultimate forms" to choose from. Archers rely on speed, Puddle of the Monster has powerful magic at its disposal, and Haunted Houses contain skeletons for physical, ground-based damage.
The game spans 12 levels and you can replay them until you're satisfied with your result. The aim is to finish each level with 1 or more of the fairy children still behind. The best case scenario is that you have all five and none of them have even been touched by Fairyland's denizens. If you are able to get through a level without any of the children being touched, you earn three stars.
Another option you have, when dealing with the fairy kingdom, is to use spells to get them out of your way. If you happen to notice that some of your monsters didn't do a very good job at keeping one of the bigger creatures away, you can pause the game and send a Chain Lighting spell after them. You can set up totems for your monsters to steal gold or mana as well, which will help you expand or upgrade your monsters.
Stylistically, it's a very fun game, with cell-shaded backgrounds and quirky pixel characters. The music isn't too distracting, which is a good thing. One of the things I liked about it was the fact that you knew if you didn't have the right setup within the first couple of waves, and you have the option to restart.
I didn't play around with the difficulty customisation too much, but I recommend giving it a shot if you're looking for a challenging tower defense. I didn't have too much trouble playing it through on normal setting, but there was just enough of a challenge to keep it interesting.
Bleed for Speed
This is a bizarre and somewhat eerie avoid-style HTML5 game, in which you play a white blood cell navigating an apparently endless series of blood vessels. The aim is simple: you navigate the blood vessels, avoiding the nasty clots at all costs, and allow your white blood cells to multiply while letting as few die as possible.
The graphics are stylish but a little unnerving. The sight of a dead white blood cell is as off-putting as you'd expect.
The higher your white blood cell count, the faster you go. The game's camera zooms out, as well, allowing you a broader view of the obstacles in your path. You can control where the white blood cells go by sending out a pulse, i.e., clicking directly beside the cell. The cells get happier the faster you go, which is also a little creepy.
The only problem I experienced was that the music would skip and the game would chug a little the more white cells were added to the mix. This is likely, however, HTML5 platform over the game.
The game lasts as long as you make it, and keeps track of your high score. Mine was a meager 4295, and I think the most white cells I was able to keep alive at any point were about 9. I recommend giving it a try if you're looking for something weird and different, and if you like to challenge yourself by beating your own high score.
I had a couple of other games I'd like to review, but I'll save those for another time. Next week I'm going to talk about two of my all-time favourite indie games, and may do another post after that.
Sorry for the late update this week! Our ISP was acting up yesterday and wouldn't let me complete my posts. We're back to our regularly scheduled program, now.
-K8-bit
I went on Newgrounds and flipped through the "Popular" section to select a random title from there, as well. Here are the games I chose.
Demons vs. Fairyland
In this tower defense style game, you play as the antagonists: the demons. You have kidnapped the children of Fairyland, and Fairyland's residents are trying to come back to collect them. As the demons, you spend the entirety of the game defending the children and keeping the citizens of Fairyland from taking them back.
The game has a number of options available to you. Firstly, you are able to customise difficulty and earn bonus experience based on what you change and to what degree. You can also earn points, which can be used to improve your roster and upgrade.
 |
| This was what my set up looked like. |
You get three different monsters to choose from, and you can upgrade those the higher the level you play. Each monster has two different "ultimate forms" to choose from. Archers rely on speed, Puddle of the Monster has powerful magic at its disposal, and Haunted Houses contain skeletons for physical, ground-based damage.
The game spans 12 levels and you can replay them until you're satisfied with your result. The aim is to finish each level with 1 or more of the fairy children still behind. The best case scenario is that you have all five and none of them have even been touched by Fairyland's denizens. If you are able to get through a level without any of the children being touched, you earn three stars.
Another option you have, when dealing with the fairy kingdom, is to use spells to get them out of your way. If you happen to notice that some of your monsters didn't do a very good job at keeping one of the bigger creatures away, you can pause the game and send a Chain Lighting spell after them. You can set up totems for your monsters to steal gold or mana as well, which will help you expand or upgrade your monsters.
 |
| One of the earlier levels. |
I didn't play around with the difficulty customisation too much, but I recommend giving it a shot if you're looking for a challenging tower defense. I didn't have too much trouble playing it through on normal setting, but there was just enough of a challenge to keep it interesting.
Bleed for Speed
This is a bizarre and somewhat eerie avoid-style HTML5 game, in which you play a white blood cell navigating an apparently endless series of blood vessels. The aim is simple: you navigate the blood vessels, avoiding the nasty clots at all costs, and allow your white blood cells to multiply while letting as few die as possible.
The graphics are stylish but a little unnerving. The sight of a dead white blood cell is as off-putting as you'd expect.
 |
| A pair of dead white blood cells in the lower left corner, in case you didn't feel like sleeping tonight. |
 |
| Happy little white blood cells! |
The game lasts as long as you make it, and keeps track of your high score. Mine was a meager 4295, and I think the most white cells I was able to keep alive at any point were about 9. I recommend giving it a try if you're looking for something weird and different, and if you like to challenge yourself by beating your own high score.
I had a couple of other games I'd like to review, but I'll save those for another time. Next week I'm going to talk about two of my all-time favourite indie games, and may do another post after that.
Sorry for the late update this week! Our ISP was acting up yesterday and wouldn't let me complete my posts. We're back to our regularly scheduled program, now.
-K8-bit
Monday, January 28, 2013
Plague Inc. and The Mirror Lied
Today I'm going to be reviewing two vastly different games. One is for iOS/Android, and the other is for the PC.
Plague Inc.
If you have a smartphone, chances are you've at least heard of this strategy game. It's a title released by Ndemic Creations, which only has one person--impressive, to say the least! The game has you beginning a plague that is meant to wipe out the entirety of civilisation as we know it. You can choose how your plague behaves by spending DNA points, currency you earn by infecting countries, on various attributes. You decide how your plague is spread, its symptoms, and how it reacts to medication and lab research.
To say the game is a little morbid would be an understatement, but to say it's a little addictive would be the same. B13 and I have been having a blast with this game. It requires careful planning on the gamer's part, especially in the later stages, and though it can get frustrating at times, wiping out the entirety of the population is scarily satisfying, when you're able to do it.
Plague Inc. has three difficulty modes: casual, normal and brutal, and 7 different plague types, ranging from a simple bacteria all the way to a bio-weapon, and you can unlock different genes to customise your plague with. For a $1 app store game, it is extremely versatile and great for any type of player.
The game also features an eerie, haunting soundtrack, and a stylish interface. It's surprising, to say the least, that all of this was done by one person. There are also a couple of humorous Easter eggs that you can find if you have the right combination of symptoms.
The Mirror Lied
This little oddity (or "experimental pretention", as the game's creator likes to call it) was created by Freebird Games--the same lovely folks who made the masterpiece To the Moon. It's what I would call a post-modern fairy tale, in that nothing is as it seems and anything you take away from it will be your own to decide. It's created, again, with the RPGMaker engine, thus it is a top-down view, and shares stylistic similarities with To the Moon. Nothing is directly told to you, and the interpretation is up to you.
You play as a young girl named Leah. One day, a bird flies over the roof of your house. The game begins from there.
You can interact with just about anything in the game and collect items as you explore. The game only takes place in the house, and it would seem that time passes every time you execute an action that's integral to the plot. Keep an eye on the various pictures throughout the game.
I won't go on much further about the game itself. It's very short, lasting no more than forty-five minutes if you really stretch it out. It features beautiful, catchy music that seems to sum up the game as a whole: a childlike music box theme with a dark undertone. It's a bit confusing on the surface, but the game will give you everything you need to succeed. Take a half hour and a cup of tea and give it a play to see what I mean.
Before I go, I'd like to give a little shout out to Daniel Albu, the creator of Square Madness. He has a new game out for Androids called MemAudio. Unfortunately I only have an iPhone, and the same goes for B13, so neither of us are able to play it. If you can, though, you definitely should, and please let me know how it is!
I've been playing through Ni No Kuni in my spare time lately, so I haven't been playing as many indie games as I'd like, hence I'm reviewing an iOS game and a short one this week. If you have any other little games you'd like me to try out in the next few weeks, as usual, send me a comment or a message. I'd love to play them!
-K8-bit
Plague Inc.
If you have a smartphone, chances are you've at least heard of this strategy game. It's a title released by Ndemic Creations, which only has one person--impressive, to say the least! The game has you beginning a plague that is meant to wipe out the entirety of civilisation as we know it. You can choose how your plague behaves by spending DNA points, currency you earn by infecting countries, on various attributes. You decide how your plague is spread, its symptoms, and how it reacts to medication and lab research.
To say the game is a little morbid would be an understatement, but to say it's a little addictive would be the same. B13 and I have been having a blast with this game. It requires careful planning on the gamer's part, especially in the later stages, and though it can get frustrating at times, wiping out the entirety of the population is scarily satisfying, when you're able to do it.
Plague Inc. has three difficulty modes: casual, normal and brutal, and 7 different plague types, ranging from a simple bacteria all the way to a bio-weapon, and you can unlock different genes to customise your plague with. For a $1 app store game, it is extremely versatile and great for any type of player.
The game also features an eerie, haunting soundtrack, and a stylish interface. It's surprising, to say the least, that all of this was done by one person. There are also a couple of humorous Easter eggs that you can find if you have the right combination of symptoms.
The Mirror Lied
This little oddity (or "experimental pretention", as the game's creator likes to call it) was created by Freebird Games--the same lovely folks who made the masterpiece To the Moon. It's what I would call a post-modern fairy tale, in that nothing is as it seems and anything you take away from it will be your own to decide. It's created, again, with the RPGMaker engine, thus it is a top-down view, and shares stylistic similarities with To the Moon. Nothing is directly told to you, and the interpretation is up to you.You play as a young girl named Leah. One day, a bird flies over the roof of your house. The game begins from there.
You can interact with just about anything in the game and collect items as you explore. The game only takes place in the house, and it would seem that time passes every time you execute an action that's integral to the plot. Keep an eye on the various pictures throughout the game.
I won't go on much further about the game itself. It's very short, lasting no more than forty-five minutes if you really stretch it out. It features beautiful, catchy music that seems to sum up the game as a whole: a childlike music box theme with a dark undertone. It's a bit confusing on the surface, but the game will give you everything you need to succeed. Take a half hour and a cup of tea and give it a play to see what I mean.
Before I go, I'd like to give a little shout out to Daniel Albu, the creator of Square Madness. He has a new game out for Androids called MemAudio. Unfortunately I only have an iPhone, and the same goes for B13, so neither of us are able to play it. If you can, though, you definitely should, and please let me know how it is!
I've been playing through Ni No Kuni in my spare time lately, so I haven't been playing as many indie games as I'd like, hence I'm reviewing an iOS game and a short one this week. If you have any other little games you'd like me to try out in the next few weeks, as usual, send me a comment or a message. I'd love to play them!
-K8-bit
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