Remember on-the-rails light gun shooters like Virtua Cop and The House of the Dead? Good ol’ rail shooters from times past where all you had to think of was point and shoot. Or like umm… let’s say Time Crisis, where you actually had a time limit. Yes those were fun days. I don’t know if they’re popular nowadays, as I haven’t been in an arcade in years, but it would seem that type of game would be well suited to a mouse. Let’s changes gears for a second now, have you ever wanted to blast some toons, no I didn’t say “blast some tunes”, I mean you could do that if you want, but that’s not what I mean. I mean blast some toons as in CARtoons. Well I don’t mean an emphasis on car, as this has nothing to do with cars. I mean animated cartoon characters. Have you wanted to shoot them? Sure we all have. Well what does today’s flash game have in common with shooting cartoon characters and Time Crisis? Well actually nothing other than the name. Oh yeah it’s a “rail” shooter as well except using the mouse.
Toon Crisis by Killer Viral has you roaming the streets of some unnamed city and shooting cartoons. Sound fun eh? You start with the main menu and select Play Game (simple, no?) . It starts by showing video walking through a city, with your “hand” or pointer umm pointed. When it gets to a part you can shoot at, you hit your left mouse button, and it will “shoot” your from your finger. Just simply clear all the cartoon baddies as they come at you. You can turn cutscenes off if you want. Which means it will go straight to the shooting areas. You can also “duck” if you need to. There are little demon cats, and flying bat things, and worms with eyes that shoot fireballs, and other interesting cartoon-type characters. You get powerups when little boxes drop and you shoot them to reveal the hidden goodies inside, sort of like a piñata, but umm, shaped like a box, and you, umm, get only one item. You start with the “index” finger gun, and then the “devil horns” which is essentially the pinky and index finger. That’s about it for game play.
The interface is fairly simple. Mouse control, left to shoot. “C” for cutscenes. “Space” for duck. “A” for all sounds. “M” for music. There’s a score during the shooting parts in the upper right corner, and health in the form of hearts in the lower right corner. The lower left corner shows what music is playing. As a quick tip, if an enemy is shooting from their eye, make sure to shoot their eye first. There’s not really much else to say about this game. It’s fun and addictive, and cute, and neat, oh yeah and also funny, and charming, and pleasant, but also challenging, and engaging, and… well I ran out of words but that’s really the gist of it.
The graphics themselves are composed of video of walking through the city streets. The hand image which sort of floats while “walking” and you can move it when in shooting mode. Then the cartoon characters itself. They’re not necesserily expertly drawn or animated, but they serve their purpose. The sound is sort of loud and obnoxious, but what do we care? :-) The music is by “Gypsy Punk” band Gogol Bordello, it’s strange and loud and as obnoxious as the sound, but it’s fun. Okay so well that’s about it.
Final Analysis: A fun addictive game based on “rail shooters”. You should give it a try, cuz it’s free.
Name: Toon Crisis
Developer: Killer Viral
Price: Free is in beer
Where you can play it: Right HERE.
Tags: addicting, Browser based (flash/java), Casual, free, Freeware, fun, game, games, independent, Indie, Killer Viral, point'n'click, review, reviews, Shooter
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