For the next week, in celebration of love and all that good stuff, six of the most critically-acclaimed independent game developers in recent memory have packaged their games together for the shockingly low price of $20. You know, because they love you… or something… who cares, cheap indie games! Two of these six titles each retail for $20 on their own, so it’s really a stellar deal to score them all together. Check out the promo trailer below:
Just In Time For Valentines’ Day, The Indie Game <3 Bundle
Saturday, February 13th, 2010Indie Game Spotlight: Robot Unicorn Attack
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Adult Swim’s latest game, Robot Unicorn Attack, comes to us courtesy of Spiritonin Media, last seen with his (it’s really just one dude) Konami-beat-em-up-inspired Guardians of Altarris and Adult Swim’s Death Vegas. Robot Unicorn Attack does away with the grim & grit violence of his past games, however, in favor of rainbows, fairies, and Erasure’s hit song “Always.” All of your secret grade school Lisa Frank fantasies play out in side-scrolling arcade fashion, complete with vicious explosions when you inevitably fail.
OMFG, Is Mega Man 2.5D Actually Happening?
Friday, February 5th, 2010
It’s been eight months since we last talked about Peter Sjöstrand’s Mega Man 2.5D project. The first tantalizing video he released of 2D Mega Man sprites breaking the third dimension was quickly written off as a piece of concept animation worth little more than a loving smile. The second video, showing off how two-player co-op play might work (hint: it’s Mega Man, so it’s still brutally challenging) and filled our hearts with hope and our dreams with E-tanks. The overwhelming reaction throughout the internet was “somebody find this guy a programmer so he can make this game for real.”
A third video was released yesterday, this time labelled as a teaser, providing little new footage, but the suggestion that the project will be completed this year… as a playable game?
Screen Test: NBA Jam
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
In the early to mid-90s, NBA Jam was the universe-shaking pioneer in crossover entertainment. Over-the-top in its action and deceptively simple in its controls, the game turned non-gamers into competitive gaming addicts and sports noobs into foam finger-waving superfans. Midway’s revolutionary basketball arcade was a phenomenon rivaled only by the developer’s other rabid hit, Mortal Kombat. The base gameplay already allowed Patrick Ewing to set hoops on fire, but NBA Jam‘s popularity exploded when easter eggs allowed players to unlock President Bill Clinton, Big Head Mode, and anti-gravity (editorial note: anti-gravity may not have existed, but that game made anything seem possible).
NBA Jam allowed sports games to be extreme and unrealistic, eventually inspiring Electronic Arts’ EA Sports BIG line of arcade titles, including the Street series of NBA, NFL and FIFA, Def Jam Vendetta, and – my favorite – SSX. Midway has recently fallen apart, selling off the few remaining franchises deemed bankable, and it only seems appropriate that NBA Jam wound up at EA Sports. A brand-new NBA Jam is set to hit the Wii this year, and on last week’s GameTrailers TV EA unveiled the first official screenshots of the game-in-progress.
Indie Game Spotlight: Beulah & the Hundred Birds
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Sometimes, all you need to draw you into a game is a title that tugs your emotional strings. Let’s presume a game came along wherein the title suggested the involvement of a large number of beautiful creatures, colorful and liberating, along with a protagonist who shares their name with one of your favorite bands. Pretty engaging already, right? Enter Jake Elliott’s Beulah & the Hundred Birds, a quick and simple browser exploration platformer where you, as the adorable little girl we can only assume is named Beulah, fly around on a giant Twitter mascot to find, surprisingly enough, one-hundred colorful and lively smaller birds, occasionally dismounting to jump through caves to find keys that unlock new portions of the world.
Today in What the WHAT?: Gaga Polaroids and 8-Bit Toyotas
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Singer and fashion tornado Lady Gaga has been named as a creative director for Polaroid. Her words from the Polaroid press release:
“I am so proud to announce my new partnership with Polaroid as the creative director and inventor of specialty projects”, said Lady Gaga. “The Haus of Gaga has been developing prototypes in the vein of fashion/technology/photography innovation–blending the iconic history of Polaroid and instant film with the digital era–and we are excited to collaborate on these ventures with the Polaroid brand. Lifestyle, music, art, fashion: I am so excited to extend myself behind the scenes as a designer, and to as my father puts it–finally, have a real job.”
This is the sort of crazy news that comes out of the Consumer Electronics Show. Oh yeah, that and Toyota’s new concept car marketed at… um… chip musicians?
A Brief Conversation Regarding Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Nick: I’ve developed the hugest crush on Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes. Curse you, CAPY, for making a boring-ass universe fun and interesting!
Me: For real! I can’t stop playing this thing. Is it just me, or are druids WAY more useful than dragons? I call shenanigans.
Nick: Man, once it sank in that you’re lining up bears to turn them into walls, I pretty much assumed any logic was out the window.
Sanskrit’s Top 15 Videogames of 2009
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
15. Professor Layton & the Diabolical Box (Level 5 – DS)
Luke and the Professor’s first adventure was a charming escape that delighted and challenged, always leaving the intellectual gamer craving more of its logic puzzles. This year’s sequel brought more of the same, as well as a variety of new mini-games and an even more enthralling story (with a far superior conclusion). More of the same is great when the original is so fantastic, but Diabolical Box just wasn’t unique enough to top the rest of my picks this year.
And They Called It Rocktober – Thoughts on Brütal Legend
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
One week ago today, a video game called Brütal Legend was released in video game and electronic stores around the country. Six days ago, one week minus one day, for the first time in my life I sat down and played one video game for seven hours straight, from popping in the disc and enjoying the opening cinema straight on through the end credits. With the exception of short independent computer games, I don’t think I’d ever “completed” a game in one sitting before. It speaks a great deal about the compelling story and presentation of Brütal Legend, though, that I did not want to put the controller down or stray away from the main story for seven straight hours. The script is superbly written, some of the most human and pleasant material I’ve ever experienced since the first time I watched Casablanca when I was thirteen years old. I also played the game on the “Gentle” difficulty setting because I quickly realized I was having more fun enjoying the story than struggling as demons killed me, so that probably shortened the play length as well.
Trailer Review: Fig. 8
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009I love Intuition Games. They’re one of the more interesting, envelope-pushing indie browser game developers out there right now. Check out this quick write-up I did of their game Effing Hail back in April. Shortly after that, they released Gray, a simple little riot simulator that won my heart.
Over the past week I’ve watched the trailer for their upcoming project Fig. 8 easily a dozen times. I’m transfixed. It’s beautiful in its simplicity. Control a bicycle as it glides top-down through black-and-white technical graphics and their accompanying calligraphy. It’s so much exactly my aesthetic, I’d almost swear it were part of skip’s BitGenerations/Art Style series for Nintendo.
Check out the trailer and see for yourself:
Seems as though the bicycle’s front tire leaves a trail of red ink while the rear tire leaves blue. When the two lines match up to form violet, your points are multiplied, and the multiplier increases the longer and farther you travel with that violet line. I’m guessing points are scored for how long your line is, so making lots of loops in open areas nets more points than just drawing a straight line through it.
This is sure to be a game that speaks directly to the engineers and graphic designers of the world, but I hope everyone else finds it rad too. I’ll be keeping an eye out for its release, which is sure to be any day now.